School Council Meeting Minutes October 17, 2024
Attendance: Cheryl Kalev, Jackie Heide, Shelby Shortneck,Allison Casey, Brittany Sands, Taylor Liivam, Kayleigh Rempel, Miranda Cameron, Dawn Sinclair, Adrielle Chenard, Nancy Lublinkhof, Jodeen Swan.
Call to order time: 6:33 pm
Previous Meeting Minutes
Trustee Report- Unfortunately Penni was not able to make the meeting but she did send an email with her report. Jackie read the report as follows:
Breton School Modernization
The Breton School Modernization, which is currently in the design phase, was approved under Alberta Education’sSchool Construction Accelerator Program, for construction funding. We expect that construction on the modernization will begin during the 2024-2025 school year. Once completed, this modernized school will be home to both our Breton Elementary students and our Breton High School students, so a new name to encompass both needs to be chosen. A committee was formed to recommend new names to the Board, and they chose Breton Keystone School as the new name for the modernized K-12 school.
Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity and Racial Justice
The Board heard a proposal from the Associate Superintendent, Business and Finance and the Director of Indigenous Education on an equity, diversity, inclusivity and racial justice program in the division. The Board approved the use of reserve dollars to help fund a program delivered by Dr. Shariff over a three year period. This program will align with Policy 22 - Hate Speech, Symbols & Discrimination, which provides the framework for action. Currently, working with Dr. Shariff would be based on a three year timeline. The Board discussed the proposed timeline, who would take leadership of this initiative, and the way the project will be rolled out to all staff.
(Cheryl has not yet been informed of this but the Board meeting was just on Tuesday of this week so that is probably why she has not yet.)
Accountability Reports
The Board heard highlights of the Wellness Accountability Report from the Director of Wellness. Trustees had the opportunity to ask questions regarding staff wellness, government grants, Family Wellness Worker caseloads, connection coach funding, AHS supports and funding to name a few. The trustees will continue to advocate for appropriate funding to allow schools to meet their mental health goals and maintain their successful programs.
The Deputy Superintendent presented the Personnel Accountability Report, and shared key highlights including; the number of new teacher contracts issued, teacher retirement, teacher recruitment, staff transfers, support staff numbers, collective agreements and awards.
Superintendent’s Report
Principal Report:
Provincial Assurance Measure survey
We only had 7 parents complete the government survey last school year. Only our grade 4 classes were asked to complete this survey.
An area in which we take great pride and attention is creating a safe and caring learning environment!
We will continue to encourage parents to complete assurance surveys so we can support and lead parent involvement.
The school has noticed the at-risk numbers vastly changed when the EA numbers were cut.
2023-2024 Annual Education Results Report Summary
Goal Summary: Trying to organize our classrooms to have small class instruction times to reach the multi-grade levels of all our students within one class room.
Provincial Assessments
Our grade 6 students last year only completed the Social Studies PAT due to the curriculum change. The results from these are not yet in but should be within the next week or so. Please keep in mind that the Provincial Testing measures are a quick snapshot of student learning and achievement-one test on one day so the results need to be interpreted with that in mind.
In September the teachers completed the following assessments on our students:
Letter Name-Sound (LeNS)
Students in Grades 1 and 2 complete the assessment in September, January and May.
Kindergarten will complete the assessment in January.
This assessment could also be used with students in higher grades that are identified as experiencing challenges when reading.
The LeNS is designed to ensure that a child has the foundational phonics skills that are needed to develop into an independent reader.
Castles and Coltheart (CC3) (Grades 2-3)
Grades 2 and 3 students complete this assessment in September, January and May.
Grade 1 students will complete this assessment in January and May.
The CC3 assessment tests the key processes in single word reading, which are phonological decoding and whole word recognition.
The assessment is designed to help identify the nature of a child’s reading difficulties and can provide direction for next steps in reading.
Alberta Education Numeracy Screener (Grades 1-3)
Grades 1-3 complete this assessment in September, January and May.
Kindergarten students will complete the assessment in January.
This screener assesses a broad range of number skills in students from early verbal counting to arithmetic fluency. Rather than focusing on curriculum specific skills, the numeracy screener is targeting general number sense development and can be used to address early gaps in number knowledge.
Reviewing these assessments we are concerned that some students, still in grade 3, are struggling and that is why we need to continue to focus on individualized instruction to meet the needs of all our students. This year a weekly strategy meeting has been incorporated into the timetable so teachers can collaborate and learn from each other about how to best address the diverse learning needs of our students. These are multi-grade meetings to help give our staff tips and tricks on what works for some students and what doesn't! Staff will be using professional learning days to work in grade level and division level teams to ensure students transitioning from one grade to the next have a solid foundation thereby ensuring continued student engagement and success.
Charlotte Small Elementary School
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Grade Level Achievement Results
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Students at/above Grade Level %
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2021/ 2022
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2023/ 2024
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Students at/above Grade Level %
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2021/ 2022
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2023/ 2024
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Students at/above Grade Level %
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2021/ 2022
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2023/ 2024
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Grade 1 Math
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88.6%/86.2%
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92.9%/ 73.5%
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Grade 3 Math
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73.8%/80.0%
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90.0%/82.8%
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Grade 5 Math
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75.0%/68.2%
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78.0%/70.0%
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Grade 1 Reading
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70.5%/62.1%
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64.3%/73.5%
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Grade 3 Reading
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66.7%/72.0%
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87.5%/75.9%
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Grade 5 Reading
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53.1%/72.7%
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58.5%/20.0%
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Grade 1 Writing
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70.5%/69.0%
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82.1%/82.4%
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Grade 3 Writing
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69.0%/68.0%
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77.5%/75.9%
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Grade 5 Writing
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40.6%/72.7%
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51.2%/40.0%
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Grade 2 Math
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87.0%/79.2%
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80.0%/80.6%
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Grade 4 Math
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79.2%/79.5%
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59.3%/73.6%
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Grade 6 Math
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70.0%/78.8%
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62.5%/70.7%
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Grade 2 Reading
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69.6%/58.3%
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73.3%/80.6%
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Grade 4 Reading
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79.2%/61.5%
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33.3%/62.3%
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Grade 6 Reading
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62.5%/57.6%
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50.0%/65.9%
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Grade 2 Writing
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60.9%/54.2%
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73.3%/80.6%
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Grade 4 Writing
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66.7%/53.8%
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55.6%/64.2%
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Grade 6 Writing
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57.5%/66.7%
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58.3%/58.5%
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ECS Math
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67.7%/60.6%
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82.1%/82.8%
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ECS Reading
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58.1%/60.6%
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82.1%/ 69.0%
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ECS Writing
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61.3%/48.5%
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82.1%/69.0%
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Projected Budget for our 2024-2025 school year
Staffing (Money in=Money Out)
Teacher Full Time Equivalent=13.141 +0.5 (hot spot funding)
Support Staff FTE=7.548 EA, Admin Assistants, Learning Commons (+Jordan’s Principle EA’s)
Substitute Allocation: $46 0000 (Teachers, EA’s, LCF and Admin Assistants)
Our school budget is given to us from division based on the amount of students enrolled.
We have 29 ECS Students and 204 Students in grades 1-6 for an incoming of $ 36,000
Our Projected Expenses are $35,885 with the following as our breakdown;
$ 85.00
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CTS Supplies
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$ 200.00
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Maintenance & Repair
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$ 500.00
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Library Books
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$ 100.00
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Awards
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$ 500.00
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P.D. Travel
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$ 100.00
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Dues And Fees
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$ 500.00
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Testing
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$ 100.00
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Postage
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$ 400.00
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Comm., Print, Advertisement
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$ 1,500.00
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Computer Software
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$ 400.00
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Reference Materials/Books $
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$ 1,000.00
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Media Materials
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$ 4,500.00
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Copier Rental / Lease Contract
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$ 1,000.00
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Prof & Tech Services
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$ 25,000.00
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General Supplies (Instructional Materials, paper,art,science,books,classroom supplies, phys ed equipment,playground equipment, office supplies, etc
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Requests for parent council funding for “extras” that Charlotte Students participate in as optional activities that are not funded by government allocation: Swimming
Last year’s swimming total cost= $14 000 This year’s estimate (+4%)=$14 560
Last year parents were asked to pay $20/student with the increased estimate we are suggesting we charge parents=$25/student which would be $5725 for grades 1-6 and $495 for ECS if all students paid. Out of the school generated funds the school would pay $5/student for ECS and $10/student for grades 1-6 which would be $2455.
$14560-$5725-$495-$2455=$5885
We are asking that parent council could give swim subsidization of up to $7000 to cover unanticipated costs due to increased bus costs and students not being able to pay
SPED bussing 2023 2024-extra costs of 1836.39 for swimming and year end field trips
Teacher Report- Jackie gave the report as follows. Mr Whitecotton would like to let you know our Boys Basketball team is undefeated! Aleata Mason will join our meetings going forth as a teacher representative. We had one EA go on Mat Leave and then one left to her community she currently lives in. We have hired two EA’s to fill those positions. One is from a play based program so has a different background to offer. All the teachers are still talking about how their start of the year was great and how they are very thankful to the Parent Council for all the support they have given thus far.
Chair Report- Shelby stated that the next Umbrella meeting will be held on November 12, 2024 at West Central High School at 5pm if anyone would like to go. Please let Shelby know and she will add your names to the list.
Old Business: No old business to discuss.
New Business:
- Budget---Add to Parent Council Agenda-Request for Swimming Subsidization
The bus company First Choice was asked if they would be able to accommodate our Two SPED children that would need to go swimming together at the same time as the other children in their class which would be about 40 other passengers (staff/students) but they said that unfortunately at this time it is not something they could do.
- Bullying- A parent had asked what our policy is in regards to bullying. The official policy is in our parent handbook but what we really need is for parents to bring it forth to us staff in a timely manner.The school has cameras all around for safety purposes and Cheryl can look at them to potentially find the incident in question. Unfortunately we cannot always find them as there are areas without cameras (bathrooms, etc.) We do check in with the children daily as well if we are aware some sort of altercations have been going on.. Sometimes people assume nothing has happened to the children involved in certain situations but then again nothing is broadcasted to all the parents when something does happen.The older kids also have access to email their teachers as well if it is not something they want to talk about in person.
- Playground- It was discussed at the last meeting about potentially getting rid of the wood chips in the playground for a more accessible option. Jackie got the quote for this and it would be about $130,000+ to do so!
Three accessible equipment pieces were also discussed and the quote for those came in at $96,723 for the pieces as well as the rubber matting that would be required.
We can look into getting some funding from businesses as well as some potential grants.Taylor will look into some grants from the library side as she does have access to some resources that others might not. We can also put a facebook post on the Parents Page asking if any parents would like to help form a committee to look into the funding. Jackie would be more than happy to be a part of the committee as well.
Upcoming Meeting Dates- November 14, January 16, March 13, May 8
All to start @ 6:30 pm
Adjournment Time: 7:35pm