Bernice Macnaughton High School PSSC

MINUTES

Bernice MacNaughton High School PSSC

September 11, 2017, 7:00 p.m.

In Attendance

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

Members:

Kim Mowat, Wendy Bokhorst-Heng, Dale Hughes, Erin Kelly, Pam LeBlanc, Lisa Buckley, Carlos Lavin, Lynn Murphy-Kaulbeck, Luigi Beltempo, Susan Drummond, Martin Daigle

Public:

Caroline Gingles, Eric Gingles

Absent:Dan Ross

Electing the PSSC for the 2017/2018 school year

Kim reminded members of the mandate of the PSSC. A discussion followed about the make up of the PSSC, especially regarding Friends of the Highlander. If the Friends of the Highlander is considered a formal group, one additional member could be part of the PSSC who would represent that group (thus bringing the number of members allowed to 13). Mr. Daigle will look into the status of the Friends of the Highlander and report back to us.

Kim confirmed that the Student Rep is allowed to vote, but is not allowed to vote/participate during the Principal’s Review.

Nine of our members will be returning as they still have 1-2 years remaining in their mandate.

Dale Hughes’ 3-year mandate finishes at the end of September 2017; she indicated that she would like to re-join the PSSC for another 3-year mandate. Erin Kelly, a new parent to BMHS, also indicted she would be interested in joining the PSSC. Both joining would bring the committee to 13 members, including the teacher and student representative. On the basis of two reasons, it was determined that both could join and thus no vote would be required:

• Because there are at least 3 PSSC members who are also on the Friends of the Highlander’s committee, one could use the 13th spot that is for ‘home and school’. Mr. Daigle is to confirm if the Friends of the Highlander would count as ‘home and school’
• The relevant wording in the PSSC Mandate indicates: “the PSSC comprises of 6-12 members, excluding the teacher and student representatives.”

As such, it was agreed that no vote was necessary, and both Dale Hughes and Erin Kelly could be accepted in the PSSC membership.

Lynn Murphy-Kaulbeck moved that we accept both Dale Hughes and Erin Kelly as members of the PSSC.This was seconded by Dale Hughes.

Approval of Agenda

Dale Hughes requested that we add to the agenda discussion about whether or not to update the PSSC website. Discussion occurred immediately. Mr. Daigle confirmed that the PSSC has two locations on the school website. Kim Mowat motioned that the redundant location be deleted; this was seconded by Dale Hughes. Mr. Daigle noted that the link could be removed – he will speak to the tech teachers to arrange for this to be done; however, Anna Kelly who is the administrator of the PSSC site would need to actually delete the site.

Lynn Murphy-Kaulbeck proposes that “post-secondary preparedness” be added to the “other” section of the agenda.

Lisa Buckley motions to pass the agenda; this was seconded by Susan Drummond.

Approval of last year’s minutes

There was no quorum at our April 10 meeting, and so there were no formal minutes to pass. However, it was noted that the ‘date of the next meeting’ needed to be changed to May 15. This was corrected.

Old Business

1. Possibility of increasing electives for grade 11 and 12 EFI students

Kim Mowatintroduced the suggestion to increase the number of electives for EFI students. Too many students fall short of EFI certification when they graduate, falling short by just one to two courses. Without relevant French electives, which would enable them to remain in EFI, they are forced to drop out of EFI if they want to take their Sciences in English.

Lisa Buckley motions that the desire of the PSSC is that the school increases the number of relevant EFI electives. This is seconded by Carlos Lavin.

Lynn Murphy-Kaulbeck raised the question of: What electives are currently being offered? What are the needs?

The concern of available teachers to teach EFI also was raised. With Grade 1 entrance into EFI, there are even fewer FI teachers available.

Mr. Daigle informed members of current electives, and discussed some of the scheduling challenges and provincial policies that guide the provision of electives. For example, the province has to approve what is offered in French. Some courses can be offered as ‘local options’; however, the province is currently trying to limit the number of local options offered in schools. Gr 11 and 12 electives include FILA, modern history, world issues, family relations, biology 11 and 12 in French. 8 are offered; five need to be taken to graduate and get certificate. Four new courses are being offered at the province level. Mr. Daigle will provide this information at our next meeting.

Kim Mowatsuggestedthat more needs to be done to promote the status of EFI

-include a list of those who graduate with an EFI certificate in the graduation program

-inform students of the benefits of the EFI certificate, such as special scholarships

There was some discussion about:

-conducting a survey of grade 10 and 11 students, inquiring what electives they would find relevant, and inquiring why they drop out of EFI

-inquiry into why the success rate for EFI is so low

-quality EFI minutes, not quantity (e.g. focus more on conversational French)

In summary, two main questions for Mr. Daigle to follow up on:

1. Obtain the list of courses that have been approved by the province for EFI
2. Conduct a survey, inquiring into why students leave EFI and what electives they would find most relevant

We will continue to discuss this at the next meeting.

1. Wellness survey

The wellness survey is done every year. Every student completes it in November and the results are available in January. Mr. Daigle will provide the PSSC with the survey results once they are available.

The Survey is used to formulate the School Improvement Plan (SIP) and the Positive Learning Environment Plan (PLEP).

It was agreed that the PSSC will wait for the new survey results, rather than using last year’s results to make suggestions to the school.

New Business

PSSC members will prepare 1-2 goals for the committee to work on this year. These will be discussed and prioritized at the next meeting.

Principal’s Report

Mr. Daigle informed PSSC members of two new initiatives that have started this year:

1. Tier 2 Interventions

While the Tier 1 interventions started last year continue, the school has now also implemented Tier 2 Intervention. An Advisory Course is offered to all Grade 9 students during the first period. The focus of the first period is in general, getting accustomed to High School life (how to study, how to show respect, how to collaborate, etc). This will be followed by successive periods of 5-6 weeks Interventions, forming groups based on bench mark tests and former records. This will allow for deeper learning in key areas, and to fill in any gaps in their learning. There will also be a period in the middle when issues such as sex, health, drugs and so forth will be address and guest speakers brought in.

Tier 2 at the grade 10 level has three English teachers all teaching at the same time, with the teachers having a common prep time (This happens in Math as well). The three teachers work as a PLC and pool their strengths together, creating a stronger sharing environment and enhancing teacher practice. The plan is to also involve the resource teacher to support students who have particular learning needs.

Data will be collected to inform future intervention planning.

The long term plan is to bring this Intervention into Grades 11 and 12 as well.

The question was asked whether or not the new grading system at the elementary level provided enough information to guide this intervention. Mr Daigle confirmed that the assessments and specific strands of needed intervention were very clear with this system.

1. Integrated Service Delivery (ISD)

New policies have made it possible to implement ISD. Students are referred to ISD by teachers. The resource team (ESS) formulate a plan for students, and brings in the relevant ISD players. The ISD is a group of practitioners such as clinical psychologists, nurses, addiction specialists, etc. They have offices on the school premises where they can meet with students. Turn around time in helping students is much faster, specialists come in once a week, and the team has weekly meetings.

Teacher’s Report

Mr. Lusk will be the teacher representative again this year.

Student’s Report

No student has been appointed to the PSSC yet.

Other

1. Post Secondary Preparedness

Lynn raised for discussion the issue of post-secondary preparedness – supporting students as they transition to post-secondary education. After some discussion about what is currently being done, and about the kinds of support needed, it was agreed that

a)Mr. Daigle will discuss with Guidance what is currently being done and what the needs are

b)This could be developed into a PSSC goal for the year

c)This could be part of the SIP

d)This will be discussed further in future meetings.

1. Future meetings:
2. Meetings will be held from 7:00-8:30pm
3. Dates are:

October 2

November 6

December 4

January 15

Feb 5

Mar 19

Apr 16

May 14

Gathering in June

Meeting was adjourned at 8:47pm.

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