Parent Advisory Council
Extraordinary Executive Meeting
Date: Tuesday April 13th 2010
Time: 6:00pm
Location: Mt. Pleasant Elementary School staff room
In attendance:
Voting Members (9): Jane Cobbler (Co-Chair), Abdul Ahad (Co-Chair), Lisa Marsh (Secretary), Colleen Browning (Fundraising Coordinator), Jackie Ingram (Co-Fundraising Coordinator), Kristina Whelton-Davis (Member-at-Large), Mary Frances Hill (Member-at-Large), Ken Wong (Member-at-Large) and Winston Whitlock (Member-at-Large).
Non-Voting Members/Staff (2): Steve Agabob (Principal), Julia Clark (Project Teacher)
Regrets (1): Ganga Jolicoeur (Treasurer)
The meeting was called to order at 6:15pm by Jane Cobbler.
Members of the Mount Pleasant Elementary School PAC felt strongly they needed to hold a extraordinary meeting to discuss the impact the Vancouver Board of Education’s proposed budget will have on our school.
Prior to starting the meeting, Ms. Marsh indicated that several parents had voiced concerns over the last couple of days that they were not receiving enough information from the PAC regarding the proposed budget, PAC meetings, etc. It was decided that Ms. Marsh would email notices and updates to parents on the general PAC email list when she felt it was appropriate to do so.
Vancouver Board of Education Proposed Budget
Vancouver Board of Education Proposed Budget
Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting
Those present felt strongly the PAC should present a brief for the Board of Education’s Committee-of-the-Whole meeting being held at Mount Pleasant School on Tuesday April 20th, 2010. The following criteria were discussed:
• Each presentation is 5 minutes
• Submissions must be submitted in advance of the meeting (2 business days)
• Attendees will receive copies of all submissions
Parents were advised the Inner City Advisory Council had concerns about what should be cut should the proposed budget be passed. It was agreed that inner city residents are the most at risk.
Budget Summary
Mr. Agabob went through the budget highlighting some of the proposed cuts that would have the most impact/significance on our school. Areas highlighted included the following sections:
7.0 District Administration
8.0 Transportation
10.0 School Closures
• There are no proposed school closures for the 2010-11 school year. Parents were advised the closing a school the size of Mount Pleasant Elementary School would only constitute a savings of $400 000 yearly.
• Mount Pleasant neighbourhood is projecting an increase in our demographic by
20151.0 Instructional Staffing – Teachers
• Jr. Kindergarten is very powerful in inner city schools. The proposed budget suggests eliminating all Jr. Kindergarten within the Vancouver School District.
1.11 Non-Enrolling teachers
• A reduction of 43 positions is proposed
• Includes teacher-librarians, resource teachers, learning assistance/skills development teachers and secondary counsellors.
2.03 Inner City Schools Program
• This affects positions such as our Neighbourhood worker, Renee Davies.
Reductions would be made to staffing positions in schools where there are more
than 1 FTE Inner City School SSA staff.
5.03 Elementary Administration
• The board proposed an attrition system. When a Principal leaves (a school with
less than 200 students) he/she will be replaced with a 0.8 Vice Principal. Vice
Principals are generally at schools in the shorter term.
• There was
discussion and speculation about which schools we would be annexed with. There
was considerable concern that Mount Pleasant would be annexed with a school who
was on the “cusp” of loosing their inner city status or a school that did not
have inner city status. In the event either of those scenarios become a reality,
there is a high probability that Mount Pleasant School will loose it’s inner
city status.
There was discussion and speculation about what would happen if we were able to increase our enrolment prior to school opening in September. Parents were advised that to date, enrolment numbers have been submitted by all schools.
Parents were reminded the class sizes were mandated.
There are 12 inner city schools in the Vancouver School District.
The question was posed: “what is the protocol if you go over enrolment?”
Mr. Agabob highlighted several annexed schools who offer district learning programs. Such programs are not an option for Mt Pleasant School due to our open concept layout.
There was discussion surrounding inviting more outside agencies into our school to assist in various capacities. Julia and Steve have garnered many extra curricular after school programs bearing in mind the following points:
• Programs are generally offered after school and are aimed at keeping childrenThe PAC identified several action items
safe between 3pm – 5pm
• We can not offer programs that take jobs away from union members
• Consistency – we need to be able to offer programs on long-term, recurring bases.
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 8:40pm.• Ms. Marsh will distribute a summary from the BCSPE Budget meeting held at the
Vancouver Board of Education on April 12th, 2010
• Ms. Browning will contact Don Davies about the best way to contact our MLA
• It was agreed that although we will support and participate in the Shaughnessy postcard campaign, we need to develop our own letter that takes into consideration how deep and hurtful the proposed cuts will be on inner city schools, home to children who are at risk.
• 5 schools are in the same position as Mt Pleasant. Parents agreed that we should offer the use of our letter to these five schools. Ms. Cobbler offered to look into the best way to do this.
• Ms. Hill suggested individuals write letters to the editor and that we submit our letter to our MLA to the Vancouver Sun Report Card Blog.
• It was agreed Ms. Marsh and Ms. Hill would draft the letter to the MLA and the submission for the Board Meeting on Tuesday April 20th. It was agreed that both would be circulated to the entire PAC for approval prior to their being submitted.
• Ms. Marsh would circulate reminders for the PAC meeting and Budget meeting on April 20th.
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