Strategic Planning 2010 Meeting Staff EAST 4:00 P.M. April 20 GFSS Library Staff present: 22 All Trustees present Michael Strukoff set the context for the discussion. Informal, no protocol. Honest feedback to help us finalize the plan. Explained forums in the fall, developed questions, jump‐offs for conversations. Promised to create a draft document and publish. Round two forums delayed. After March 15 budget announcement, budget fears not realized, deficit smaller. Could then proceed with Round 2 forums. District has a District Development Team (explained membership). The District Development Team worked on document will review again. Version here today shows changing. Student Achievement Priorities – only concern was around Point 6 – Grade 7 students in secondary schools • Grade 6/7 students in secondary. Not a priority in first round, why is it a priority now? MS – wording not clear, always questioned. Explanation followed. 3/4 yr olds coming, space created. Grade 7 Perley kids comes with teacher and uses empty space to teach with their own Perley teacher. Have lunch at GFSS, gives kids a sense of secondary climate. Assimilation, de‐sensitizing. How would this work? Rossland Sec has 7 to 12 and successful. We will change wording. • Downtime for students moving across the street. We don’t have that at the Lake, we are sensitive to that. Wastes a lot of learning time. MS – if not working it could be abandoned and another class could try. What advantage is there to this? MS – intent is that instead of people responding from their gut that it is a bad idea to have 7s in the sec. Is it truly bad? • Would there be a possibility that they could take advantage of shops? That is the only place I see it being an advantage is the practical arts. MS – if the timetable has room. • Not a money saving thing right now? MS‐no • Maybe it should be moved from the priority section. Possible Strategic Actions •
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#3 my perspective is that integrating tech will have an effect. If the projector is on, the energy in the room changes. That is their world. That is what they deal with all the time. Making sure there is a place to do their on line courses. Not always a place to do it. WE need to make sure there are facilities for that. MS – on line courses – are we going to ignore our customers or are we going to step up to the challenge and offer courses, etc. How do we offer courses to a few kids? Would mean changes to practices, how teachers would conduct lessons. We don’t have technology answers. Other Districts (examples given) are doing it. Elluminate between Keremeos and Osoyoos sec schools #3, what does it mean? MS – explained L Schnellert, D. Cooper sessions. Start working further on that with teachers for student success and achievement. How will District provide support for point iii under #5? MS – we will support integration of technology in classrooms. If there are demands for the use of it then the District will endeavour to support it and accommodate it. We don’t want to put equipment in classrooms if teachers are not interested. When it has been brought forward people don’t attend. We don’t want to do it that way. Expertise will not always come from outside the District. Would the District consider re‐distributing the use of current pro‐d time for students are interested in using technology in the classroom? Michael explained August Days and non instructional days and how many days were District. Do you think you are getting your money’s worth for August Days? Michael explained set up for August Days, one day BCTF sponsored, the other day going to Trail. JH explained how we have reduced costs for August Days for the past three years. Down approx 65% and lessened by one day. School Growth Plan Day. Is that going to affect spring break days? #3 q.a. and dif inst. Is there a common assessment practice or support teachers both and those sessions will be voluntary # 5 under priorities what does that mean? courses leading to dogwood, a value statement, elective continues to be a challenge for us. #2 it says graduate with career life plan. We don’t offer drafting. Kids need to upgrade. Is the district willing to fund small number courses to generate interest. If we got 8 kids interested. •
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That’s the dilema at both sec schools, kids select electives but not enough for course to go forward, Is it reasonable to make it mandatory? Only mandatory are the ones the Ministry makes mandatory. Some of our kids are going to do amazing things at university and some are going to do amazing things with other work. VG would Moodle work? Drafing is one I’m not sure of. I don’t have enough info to answer. #1 under priorities. How do we support teachers in light of TA reductions. How do these reductions meet this goal? We need to wait for the budge and see the staffing levels. Yes there will be changes, but let’s wait. This document is based around that we are facing declining enroll and funding. What does the district envision the support for the future. There will be TAs in all schools. When spending surplus, we don’t have that. Baseline may be on the high side. Baseline of the future is more realistic. Generous before, now coming back to realistic. Manage it together. Responsibility the educational staff. Professionals are responsible for success. Support will be there, we just have to make an adjustment Facilities Still talking about options, have been discussed, not in any order of priority. • I like option #2 is very creative if it is an option. Great idea to put forward. • I find it very hard to look at options without $$ attached. How much would they save? • Distance ed. If there was a room would there not be a teacher to offer support. It might encourage students to pursue these courses. • Yes if you are taking an online SD 51 course. If you are taking an online course from another District where is the initiative for the district to support that? • Appendix gives financial information. There are general numbers in there. • Lot more flexibility re our own property. Selling property was explained and how that worked. Full day k and ¾ coming in, schools might not be large enough. The Mof E has put a freeze on selling buildings. Cannot solve financial problems by selling because you might need the room. If we move the Board Office we could only lease it. Explained moving MCFD moving in and covers their own renovation costs. Moving the Bd Office would be a District expense. • There would be a lot of concern over who is on school grounds. •
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There were concerns when Glanville Ctr. Started, concerns have evaporated, we are getting positive comments. I sat on the PAC, well thought out. The plan just didn’t happen. Went well. If the Ministry were to come in. My only concern is that at the Lake we have lost it and can’t get it back. Board Office could leave. MR explained that Sstart is a District program and we have to put them in there. For the last 4 years, we have a separate room and no music room. We have asked for the space back. If that space is gone and we say we need it, who ultimately makes the decision that the school gets the space back. MR those are District programs so it makes the conversation more difficult. Is it a done deal that we are getting 3 and 4 year olds? No, MS explained that they would see how FDK works and then have another look at 3 and 4 year olds. Not a done deal by any means. They have made moves, don’t sell buildings. Sacrifice our 6/7 for 3 and 4 year olds. TR ‐ they are serious So they get to be 1, they get to be 2 and then they go to school Under utilization of space One way of utilizing unused is to bring in 7s I think it is a good idea Have we actually looked at what it would be like to bring 7s in? Would they have separate classrooms? School within a school. Or put them into timetable like grade 8s. Mini jr school. Did not proceed past discussion points. Parents and staff had concerns. Meeting with students, they were not all receptive of this either. Let’s consider a little tiny step. Let students and school experience. How many students at WDC? Can that facility be moved? MR – those kids have not been successful in regular school. I am not comfortable, accepted or welcome there. If eel WDC gives me a chance. Research supports that. K. deWynter class is similar. WDC is servicing kg to grade 12 plus adults who did not graduate. They are coming back to finish an adult dogwood. Farily high success rate there. VG – we get full funding for those students. Beaverdell not mentioned. Is this document assuming Bdell is going to be closed. No Facility use plan. #1 and #2. What role are these playing in the future of Beaverdell. •
We are following the policy. That conversation will be covered on April 27. Beaverdell is part of the District, like all the other schools. Not be treated any different right now. Separate process. Capital Planning of Facilities MS explained seismic upgrades etc. Ceiling on renovations. You have to make a case for a school that will exceed 1.5 million. CLES will be below that. It will be a District problems. Refocus C.P. 10 – 15 years out. GFSS – replacing. Concept of Neighbourhood of Learning explained. Replacing school and placing near Rec facilities. Land swap discussed. Placement of schools near Rec, sewer planning, water planning etc. focus energies and $$ as we develop our case. Are we prepared to move the concept of placing two sec schools forward? • Could we build a conference centre in with the high school. Great idea. • Land swap with City, they take over the former GFSS for community centre. New high school by arena, pool, etc. • I would like a job versus a new building. I would rather work in an old bulding full time than have my hours cut in a new building • TR – any new school would not be funded by us. • Go for it then. • Could that help Beaverdell? • Those conversations will happen on the 27th • Self protection stance, who will be involved in planning the layout. shops built with the intention of removing them in five years at KSS. • Community network – is there a plan to involve more partners , big industries or private companies? • MS CRTC, other government agencies would be eligible to participate. Not have to compete in bidding process. Technology in Education No comments Human Resources Any comments? •
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With elimination of D of I would some of those responsibilities fall of ST and Sup. No the Board will have to enter into a conversation as to how they will allocate responsibility. • Michael explained why some wording eliminated. DDT had concerns with wording. Wanted to prevent people from jumping to conversations. • What would happen to District Vice Principal? • Nothing, would have to be looked at at that time. • Sharing specialists between schools? Does that mean a common timetable? Ms explained difficulty attracting specialists to small schools. A fair bit of support from parents on that. Accountability • Stretch the $ ‐ could you be more specific? • Community network, partnering with Village of Midway and City of Greenwood • Records, approached by Greenwood for storage space. Digitizing expensive, share with municipalities. We are looking at efficiencies, bulk purchases, etc. • Align some financial resources. • Seems to me we are going to spend money on tech and support people. • Explained amalgamation of schools in SD 13, big decision. Think about that. • Everyone is scared, no one wants to give up. We have got to save money. There is no money being saved. Not unless we do something drastic and make a lot of people sad or mad. What is going to be done to save big $ and keep people happy. • Is it true districts were funded on # of schools • Funding has changed. • Explained how putting MES and GES together used to be a fear and now that we would like to do it we can’t due to funding. • Good luck • We have had suggestions but the Board is saying schools are valuable to communities. What are the ramifications? Cannot close JAH & DAP, no building big enough for all students. Conversations need to continue. Strategic Planning 2010 Meeting Public EAST 6:30 P.M. April 20 GFSS Library Public present: 24 All Trustees present Welcome, background, and introductions made. Michael Strukoff explained this was an informal session. Set context as to how we got to this point and why Round Two was postponed until the budget announcement on March 15. The budget news was better than expected so a draft document was finalized for Round Two. The District Development Team membership was explained and the fact that they had made changes to the document. This document is a draft and is still being worked on. Student Achievement • Kris Sabourin asked that point 6 be clarified. Grade 6/7 students in secondary. Not a priority in first round, why is it a priority now? Michael Strukoff ‐ wording not clear, always questioned. Explanation followed. 3/4 yr olds coming, space created. The grade 7 Perley kids come with teacher and uses empty space to be with their own Perley teacher. Have lunch at GFSS, gives kids a sense of the secondary climate. Assimilation, de‐sensitizing. How would this work? Rossland Sec has 7 to 12 and successful. We will change wording. • Tourism and immigration – that is a big difference • Would it just be Perley? • Michael Strukoff ‐ I just used that school as an example because it is close to GFSS. Explained how it would work with other schools. • Is this on a trial basis? • Yes that is all it would be. • Would that be the deciding factor as to whether it would happen or not? • Michael Strukoff ‐ explained how the BCSS & GFSS student feedback was not unlike the feedback from the parents. Consultations proved it could be done with very little cost. • How much is District paying towards the Community Network? • 1.1 million for the first stage. $600,000 through grants. Local capital – $250,000, city matched with $250,000. City owns their own poles, no negotiating with others. They are providing poles and we are providing the space for the network room at WDC. • $250,000 would only benefit city limits? • No, most benefits would fall to schools in City limits. The benefits for the rest of the District is the central network room, leveraging expenses and sharing with City of Grand Forks and maybe Midway and Greenwood. Phone systems, fire walls, replacements. 245 phones need replacing. Nortel/Meridian system is at end of life. • After school board has spent 250,000. I live in Area D, how will this affect me? •
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We are not providing service. We don’t compete against Telus or Shaw. Only provide to schools and government agencies. Article in Globe and Mail regarding the challenges rural areas are facing. Unless providers put the wire in for us, what is this going to achieve? More explanation. The dilemma is the actual wiring. This is the first process. How much will be spent on this network? At this time we are just looking at the 1.1 million. What does this have to do with benefiting our kids in school on a day to day basis? Your kids and the kids of the future have Internet, telephone service, computers, these are ongoing rolling expenses. We have to figure out how to provide how to replace and keep these working. How do we keep our costs down? Does that cost include the purchase and upgrading of WDC? No. We were paying rent at 131 Central. Same amount going into a lease to purchase. After 16 years we will own building. We have the option to purchase out. Vicki Gee – instead of replacing aging computers, we can by Thin Clients, no working parts, programs are served from the server, reduce I.T. time. I.T. department more efficient. We have teachers asking for stuff. We are struggling to make all this work. This is a way of pulling things together. If the kids are online doing work, how is that going to affect the budge they are on now where they are charged for paper? Community Network will not solve that problem. Please email your project to your teacher. Do they have access all the time to use the computer all the time at this school? We have heard they didn’t have access all day they need to come in before school or at lunch. Why are we renting to lease WDC? Fourth time this question has come up in four forums. Maxine Ruzicka – some of you may be aware that this has been a hot topic. Some individuals have confronted WDC students and the students have very clearly told them that GFSS is not a place they can attend. They don’t want to set foot in the school. These kids need a place to belong. They can move on with their education while some of them are going through incredible challenges in their life. They need a separate space. GFSS does have a safety net for students (ACI or DLC). These kids go beyond that. The Ministry recognizes alternate schools. One of the parts of the discussion I have heard, people know the cost to operate Beaverdell, what does it cost to operate WDC? Enrolment levels have changed; we have not run those numbers. The Board has a mandate to improve graduation and literacy rates of not only school age but adults. Adults can attend. That is another way for the District to meet their mandate of meeting the needs of all community members. The Boundary Learning Centre had lower enrolment and we had to close it. At one time we had 4 alternate schools, with declining enrolment and declining resources we have amalgamated the schools How many students are in WDC? •
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25 – 40 Could Perley and Hutton hideaway not be used? Those buildings were designed as day cares. Design is not right. Explained how the buildings are being fully utilized at the present time. Action on Student Achievement • No comments. Michael Strukoff pointed out the implementation of the internal virtual school. Course taught at one school, kids in other high school could participate. Course with low enrolment is feasible when done this way. • Would the second group not be supervised? • You would have to be the type of student • Vicki Gee explained Moodle. Variety of different courses taken by different students, one teacher supervising. Works well for all students. New Denver very tiny so this program works for them. BCSS and GFSS have that issue and it could work for them. • That would be within our school board? • Yes we are hoping to get access so that student can take courses. Michael Strukoff explained that 24 students taking courses with other Districts. What can we do to meet the needs of our students and keep the money here? Teresa Rezansoff explained frustration of students not being able to take courses they need to take. Would like to have a teacher but if that is not possible would you be willing to take the course on line. Facilities • Michael Strukoff outlined the issue of aging buildings and excess capacity, and the Glanville Centre. Other challenges are declining enrolment, 3 and 4 year olds potentially attending school and what that would mean? Ministry regulations governing School Districts selling property have changed and there is a freeze on selling buildings. Full Day kindergarten causing issues of space. Option we have talked about. #5 low priority. Would like feedback on points 1 to 4. Vicki Gee referred to the Appendix. • Where would the cost saving be in busing grades six and seven to town? • That would be in the case of having 3 and 4 year olds in school. Five years from now • Would you be having grades 6 and 7 bused to town prior to that? • No. Explanation re shops, auditorium not being used fully. One way would be to bring grades 6 and 7 into schools to use these facilities. Concerns from parents. • What are the reasons for making Hutton primary and Perley intermediate? Are 3 and 4 year olds attending school approved? • Not finalized yet, they have just set the stage. Just like full‐day kindergarten. Now they are setting the stage for 3 and 4 year olds. They are looking for services and want the School District to be part of the solution. • Question regarding the capacity of 60% at CLES • Capacity at CLES explained. Teresa Rezansoff explained the issue of 3 and 4 year olds being mandatory or not. • Is there a proposed time line for grades 6 and 7 to be bused to Grand Forks? •
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This is a five year plan. As numbers decrease (for example, 105 graduating 65 coming in) capacity changes. Is their a will? Will parents’ opinions matter when the decision is made to bus grade 7s to GFSS? That is why we are here Concerns re having 3 kids in 3 schools. Parking will be insane, Christmas concerts, parent/teacher interviews at three different schools etc. How do Principals feel about grade 7s in GFSS? Kevin Argue responded that it changes from September to Christmas and then from January to March. Some are ready, some are not. Ebbs and flows with groups. Works in Rossland because community wanted to save that high school. By having more students it will help course options and teachers having to teach out of their specialty areas. As numbers decline teachers may have to teach outside of their course areas. There may be financial reasons but there are also educational reasons. The four‐day school week process went off pretty smoothly and there were concerns about that. Split classes – son already has friends in grade 8. I grew up in Germany, kindergarten at age 3, off to elementary at age 6/7, kind of a choice, age 10 or 11, split up into three schools depending on your strength. I don’t understand a lot of the issues, this is how it is. It was fine; I attended a school of 1500 students. Should not be an issue if you want to keep the courses. If you want really good teachers in subjects that is what you have to do. Cathy Riddle ‐ in the West we already have parents with children in three schools. Schools work it out. PACs have joined. They work together. Questions as to length of day in Germany, response given. Capital Planning of Facilities Michael Strukoff explained seismic upgrades etc. There is a ceiling on renovations. You have to make a case for a school that will exceed 1.5 million. CLES will be below that. It will be a District problem. Refocus Capital Plan 10 – 15 years out. GFSS – replacing. Concept of Neighbourhood of Learning explained. Replacing school and placing near recreation facilities. Land swap discussed. Placement of schools near recreation facilities, sewer planning, water planning etc. Focus energies and dollars as we develop our case. What would we do with GFSS building? Maybe community centre, maybe Perley and Hutton could merge into GFSS space. No population growth, just switch in demographics. Is there an appetite for the Board to pursue building new schools? Ideas tossed out as to what could be done. • Is it a need or is it a want issue? • GFSS is 61 years old. Costing money, aging systems. Added on to. It is a wood structure. Auditorium is a challenge; it is an important asset to the community. We would like to spend less money running the school. A new school would not cost as much to run. • Do we want it for Hutton or Perley if it costs so much? •
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We make a deal with the City and they can look after it. Vicki Gee ‐ public library could be in a new school as an example. Kris Sabourin ‐ when we build, the level of green standards would be state of the art. The school would be a multipurpose facility. If it doesn’t cost you money and it is a good thing to do why would you not do it? Bob Chapman – don’t forget Christina Lake Elementary School, it has some needs. Some money needs to be put into it. Don’t lose sight of that. Would CLES be Capital? Yes – Annual Facilities Grant. CLES would need retrofit. Would that be the plan in the near future? We have to accumulate that kind of money but when the government said no to Annual Facilities Grant it will take a while to get there. In six years we haven’t built up enough money to do that? We have built up some but not enough. Vicki Gee explained how funding works. The pot of money that would pay for Christina Lake Elementary School upgrade, is that the same pot the Community Network money came out of? Part of the same pot. Technology in Education Any comments? • Vicki Gee ‐ teachers in this District are trying to use technology, post lessons on website. Some teachers are using SmartBoards to help them deliver lessons. They are quite excited about it. We don’t have enough money to do that for every one. • They are not being utilized in every school. In Hutton we used computers quite a bit. Varies from school to school so might not be a good idea to put technology in every school. • Doug Lacey – The computer lab is full 85% of the time. Open to classes all day long. • Not cost efficient to put technology in all schools if teachers are not using it. • Addressed in student achievement section. We are trying to change that. • When you are designing all these network are you designing for now or five years from now? • Not only for students, also teachers and creating capacities for other partners. Explanation from Daniel Drexler how it would work. 144 strands, etc. Will be fine for 25 – 50 years. Thin Clients concept explained. Michael Strukoff explained partnerships. • Is Christina Lake involved in this Community Network? • Big beneficiaries are within City limits. Christina Lake backups, phone, library system. • Do you have any projected savings to the School District with this venture? • 48% savings, initial investment and replacement cycle goes down. • Do you save on software licenses? • You bet. • You save tons on licenses Human Resources The editing to the document is a result of District Development Team. The language is confusing. Explanation as to how work would be divided up when the time comes • The Strategic Plan seems to have identified the need to cut administration. In light of everything, why wait for people to retire? • It is pure and simple – severance costs would be more than natural attrition. • You are feeling like the retirement is going to happen pretty soon? • When you factor in severance costs, we do not have that pot of money. • That is a statutory cost? • Yes • Vicki Gee ‐ this job is a full suite of work and we will be hard pressed to find someone to do this work. Kind of like cutting off an arm to save the body. • Principals could do the Board Office jobs and teachers could teach and not the Principals. • Vicki Gee ‐ we are too spread out to have someone from the West doing their part. There is a lot of travel. It is not an easy answer. • Teresa Rezansoff explained how to re‐align the work that needs to be done amongst a small work force. Take time to make adjustments and not rush into it. • Michael Strukoff explained Ab Ed budget, Community Links, Special Education, obligations to the Ministry, etc. We have to do things to meet the criteria to get the money. Grant applications and accountability. • Vicki Gee ‐ administrative costs to comparable Districts over past 10 years have all gone up by the same percent. All the work the Ministry requires Districts to do. • We have computers we have networks to work this work and we have a lot of Administrators. How computers are going to create efficiencies but not with administration. A secretary got cut back because of efficiencies of computers. Why can’t this be done with administration? • Vicki Gee explained working with people not data. What are we doing that is not necessary? Are School Growth Plans and the District Accountability Contract necessary? What can we do here? • What about kids whose classes are full and no T.A. or special needs kids that we don’t have the funding for. • Special Needs are covered due to the work of the Director of Instruction and School Psychologist. Shrinking Districts have buses running at partial capacity. Everything is not proportional. We are down 15% in administration since 2005. You have to make decisions when appropriate. Accountability Any thoughts? Other comments? It’s all about the kids. I hope the children are being the ones looked after. Kids are going through this with us and they don’t really have a say. We don’t want our kids to suffer through this. Vicki Gee ‐ This District has always put a lot into supporting the classroom and Special Education. This District is 9th in the province in the amount of money we spend in Special Education. We have people who are so committed. We spend more than we are funded on Special Education. 2.4, 2.5 million. This District has made a decision to put money into L.A. and Special Education. This is a conscious decision to help kids. Achievement and graduation levels are good. Where do we place in province? Michael explained that despite low per capita income we are above the provincial average in most areas. Our class sizes are always on an average below the provincial average. Education is changing and we will be doing our students a disservice if we don’t move forward. Listening to other communities, it has been really nice to be involved. I feel that you guys are really taking the time to listen to us and I really appreciate it.