Minutes

Kennebecasis Valley High School PSSC Meeting

Monday, February 4, 2008


In attendance:

Nancy Littlewood (Chairperson),  

Carole MacFarquhar,                                                  Patty Munkittrick                               

Francine Valiquette,                                                   Allison Park (Student Representative)

Robert Munro (Principal),                                          Mary Alice Glasgow (recording Secretary)

Craig Logan (Vice-chairperson),                                Dan Trecartin

Derek Mullin                                                              Nancy Jones

Bob Crowley


Regrets: Dan LeBlanc, Kelly Wear, Sonja MacAskill, Christine Hoyt, Mary Stilwell


1.         Meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m.

 

2.         Approval of agenda

 

The minutes from November 26, 2007 were unanimously approved.

 

3.         No correspondence.


4.         Speaker Series – on track for dates of March 18th, March 25th, April 1st and April 8th. Topics: Stress and Anxiety; Communicating with Teens, Sexual Health & Dating & Relationships; and the school has asked for a session on Internet Safety. The location will be in the library (optional plans to move to the staff room if a small number or move to the cafeteria if a large number.) Mr. Munro will send out voicemail notices in advance. Mr. Munro will book the library.


5.         Grad Photography – Mr. Munro indicated that martin Flewelling will be providing a presentation. 2-3 PSSC members are required to attend the presentations and then to make recommendations back to the PSSC. Francine, Bob and Craig formed the sub-committee. A date of April 29th was selected. The sub-committee will get together earlier to discuss parameters.


6.         Parking Lot Safety – discussed. Noted that there are too many ways for the students to exit. Nancy wrote letters to the District to request improvements and to Rothesay Regional Police to monitor the parking lot for safety. MAG is to work with Mary Stilwell to run the planned contest.


7.         Teacher Appreciation – is next week. Derek Mullin indicated that Nick Papadopoulas volunteered to cook the teachers breakfast one day during the week. The committee decided that it would be his choice of day. 4-5 helpers are needed – Derrick, Dan, Bob and Craig volunteered. Students will help with serving and setup and cleanup – coordinated thru Allison. Derrick will send an email to confirm the date. Mr. Munro is to check with the cafeteria as to what they have and what can be used for the teacher breakfast. Assume breakfast will occur Tues/wed. or Thurs. am.


a.   An idea to provide thanks to the bus drivers was discussed. Nancy volunteered to purchase and provide Tim Horton’s gift coupons.

b.   Other ideas discussed – treats each day. We decided that we could not organize for each day at this late date. But plan to provide baked goods/fruit tray treats one day, the breakfast one day and a treat on Friday. Nancy Littlewood will coordinate Monday treats. MAG will coordinate chocolate treats for Friday.

c.   A suggestion was made to get Nick a gift card to thank him for making breakfast. All agreed.

d.   At the March meeting, we will decide if we can organize for a couple of occurrences of teacher treats to occur within monthly timeframes.


Motion: Moved that the PSSC provide a $400 for Teacher Appreciation this year

Moved: Craig

Seconded: Bob

Unanimously approved.

 

8.         Perception Survey – Mr. Munro reviewed this study. Of Note – 9% of students smoke. This is just a maintenance issue and if anything is to be done, they would be done to insure that this number does not increase. Lynn Ann Duffley will do an annual Wellness profile.

PSSC members felt that the summary sheets should be made available to parents. Mr. Munro agreed to put these on the KVHS web site. Mental fitness is also to be put on the web site.

Mr. Munro and 2 others conducted an internal review already. There will be an External review in March (March 11th). Then an independent will write a report which compares the two reviews. It was noted that KVHS is trending above District average and that we are moving in a positive direction.


9.         Exit Survey – was reviewed. It was noted that results are in line with the District. It was noted that 70% of KVHS students attend secondary school. 50% of KVHS students attend University. 25% of those who go to UNBSJ dropout to do something else. This is likely due to students changing their minds about what they want to do and this is a lower cost option – to try local University. NBCC is not the first option for students from the Valley.


10.       SIP Update – actions being taken by this PSSC that factor into the SIP are the planned Speaker series and the implementation of EDLine. Mr. Munro indicated that the SIP plan for KVHS is on track.


Mr. Munroe noted that in the past, the Dristict has been highly focused on reading skills with Provincial Assessment results now being good. The recent Gr. 3- 5 Writing Assessments have provided dismal results. This, writing is a focal area for improvement.

 

The PISA International survey was reviewed. NB was evaluated against many other countries. A conclusion indicated that resources need to be added at the elementary level in order to create the biggest impact. It is hoped that this will happen.

 

Mr. Munro noted that it will be interesting to see the Gr. 9 English assessment results next year.

 

Of note – there is a literacy mentor at the school.

 

Other possible areas of PSSC involvement with the SIP were discussed – Literacy, Safety, Student Issues, etc.

 

11.       School Review – will be held March 11th in the library at 7 pm. Paul Reilly, a retired principal will ask general questions. A report will get produced.

 

12.       PSSC Budget - the total for April 1, 2007 - March 31, 2008 is $3,034. We have spent about $34 on the health fair and $1600 on the phone and auto-dialer so far this year. The committee agreed to spend the remaining $1400 on the following:

·   $400 Teacher Appreciation

·   $300 Speakers Series ($100 gifts; $200 supplies)

·   $100 Parking lot contest

·   $100 To provide Kraft dinner to the Kennebecasis Baptist Church

·   $400 for Airliners – Mr. Munro will order.

All funds have to be spent by the end of February, 2008.

Motion: Moved that the PSSC approve the updated budget

Moved: Dan

Seconded: Carol

Unanimously approved.

 

 

18.       Reports:


Student Report (Allison Park) – 2nd Semester has started. The Riverboat tournament was a great event. BYOB(anana) for grads was a lot of fun. Musical auditions are being held from today until Wednesday for the production of “Children of Eden” in April, the week of the 16th.

 

Principal’ Report (Bob Munroe) – CBC Radio is setting up their morning show at KVHS on Feb. 6th. This has never been done before and it will likely be a good experience.

-    Hurricane, a fighter from the States, wrongfully accused of murder, will come and speak with students in April. He was incarcerated for 23 years. He will be a motivational speaker.

-    Technology Update – every class has an LCD with Infocus in a few days. 15 Smartboards have been installed. 19 Airliners have been installed ( a screen-to-LCD projection). These all can help improve student learning.

-    $80-90K has been spent. 11 more Smartboards are needed.

-    Edline – the Staff has been notified. By Sept., it is expected that EDline will be available. It is planned that $2-3 will be added to the student fee to pay for EDline (PSSC supports this). At the end of the month, there will be an info. Session for teachers. PSSC members are welcome to attend. A suggestion was made to bring in teachers from Rothesay who can add testimonial for EDline.

-    Rev. Long is very ill with a brain tumor. There has not been KD for awhile. Carole will find a card to send on behalf of parents.

-    Mr. Munro talked about the Student registration process and student ranking. Gr. 12 ranking is very important The top 25 kids are eligible for many scholarships. Most scholarships are based on the ranking done from semester 1. .3 of 1% is added during ranking for each AP course taken. The Gov. General award is given to the Gr. 12 student who had the highest marks during GR. 11 and 12.

 

Chairperson’s Report (Nancy Littlewood) – Nancy raised an issue of concern. There is a meet the teacher in Sept. but there is not a 2nd semester Meet the teacher. Mr. Munro indicated that there was no sense of support from the teachers for something like this. They did this in the past with very poor attendance. A suggestion was made to put teach background on EDline. Mr. Munro indicated that all parents are welcome to contact teachers at any time. A suggestion was made that it might be possible to meet all teachers at the beginning of the year if parents knew all of them. Mr. Munro indicated that the student schedule which is made available at the beginning of the year, contains both semester’s teachers.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 9:15 pm.


Next meeting: March 17, 7 pm.