Minutes of Regular School Board Meeting May 17, 2005 7:00 PM Location: District Office, Gander Present: Mr. Bill Sceviour (Chair) Mr. Charlie McCormack Mr. Terry Brown Ms. Claudine Wells Mr. Scott Pritchett Ms. Bonnie Lane-McCarthy Mr. Gerald Hounsell Ms. Marina Hewlett Mr. Randy Edison Mr. Shawn Brace Ms. Linda Cutler Mr. Clar Brown Ms. Carolyn Andrews Regrets: Ms. Lisa Wheeler Mr. Randell Mercer, Director 1. Approval of Agenda Motion: to approve the agenda as circulated with the following addition: Update on Director. (C. Brown/Hounsell). Carried. The Director has been off work due to back problems. Charlie will communicate with the schools tomorrow, Wednesday, May 18, 2005 that Randell will be off work for the next while. Motion: to go into a closed session. (T. Brown/Andrews). Carried. After the Board came out of the closed session, Mr. Sceviour announced that Mr. Charlie McCormack would assume the role of Acting Director until the Director returned to work. 2. Minutes of Meetings 2.1 Regular Meeting – April 19, 2005 Motion: to accept the minutes of the April 19, 2005 Meeting as circulated. (Cutler/Andrews). Carried Mr. Clar Brown questioned the capital request for an elevator lift for Baie Verte High. Initially it was $50,000, but this amount would not cover the necessary renovations. Mr. Brown questioned if it were possible to move the elevator lift from Baie Verte Middle to Baie Verte High. Shawn Brace will investigate this possibility. 3. Business Arising 3.1 Triton Meetings Mr. Edison, Mr. T. Brown, Mr. Sceviour, Mr. McCormack and Ms. Hewlett attended meetings in the Triton area. There was an issue re the present bussing in the area. This issue is presently being investigated. The meetings were well attended and the people of the area had opportunity to share their concerns. 3.2 Carmanville/Eastport Construction The two schools under construction will not be ready in September. It is anticipated that the school in Eastport will not be ready until January 2006. The Anglican Minister has been contacted in Eastport and they are willing to have the school housed in their building until the new school is ready for occupancy. The contract for the Carmanville School Complex was awarded about two weeks ago. There is some concern about when this school will be available for occupancy. It was hoped the school would be ready by January 2006 but the contractor is raising concern about this date. Parents have been notified that the date of opening for this school will not be September. There is a commitment from the Deputy Minister for extra teaching staff for Gill Memorial because the students from the Ladle Cove area will have to attend Gill Memorial for the 2005-2006 school year because the school in Carmanville is behind schedule. 3.3 Reaction to 5-year Restructuring Plan Mr. McCormack reviewed the reaction to the Restructuring Plan. Bishop’s Falls There is a parent group formed in Bishop’s Falls. This group is well organized and will be protesting in front of the Regional Office in Grand Falls-Windsor each Friday at 1:00 PM. There was a meeting in Bishop’s Falls last week. Mr. McCormack spoke with Jody Fancy about this meeting and expressed to her the concern of the conduct of some people there. There will be a public meeting in Bishop’s Falls. The tentative date for this meeting is May 25 or 26. This will be an important meeting for the town. The mayor has communicated his concerns to Mr. Mercer. At this meeting it will be important to communicate what the system will look like if the K-12 students remain in Bishop’s Falls. Ms. Andrews had a call from parents who supported the restructuring. These parents are questioning when they will get an opportunity to express their views. Mr. T. Brown was requested to go to the demonstration at the Regional Office on May 6, 2005. He went and spoke to the group. At this demonstration he was presented with a petition. Mr. Brown presented the petition to Mr. Sceviour. There was a letter received today from the parent group. This letter was circulated. Charlottetown There has been a petition presented against the closure of the school in Charlottetown. Mr. McCormack attended a meeting in Charlottetown. Some parents were in favor of the restructuring. The concern presented was having only one teacher in the building with the children and if there should be an emergency what would happen. This concern has been expressed by other schools with only one teacher in the building as well. Greenspond Mr. McCormack attended a meeting in Greenspond. There was a concern about closing down the school completely. Mr. McCormack reassured the people of Greenspond that for the next 5 years they have a school. Bullying on the school bus was a concern expressed to him. He spoke to Mr. Don Sturge, Principal of Lester Pearson Memorial High, and he has agreed to attend a public meeting in Greenspond to address the bullying issue. Mr. McCormack is in the process of having this bullying concern investigated. Grand Falls-Windsor Mr. T. Brown and Mr. Mercer attended a meeting in April at Grenfell Intermediate. At this meeting concern was expressed about the number of transitions for the present grade 7, 8 and 9 students. The mayor of Grand Falls-Windsor has contacted the Board to discuss the restructuring plan. The Town would like to coordinate its work around the schools where possible with the school board. Leading Tickles The parents in Leading Tickles have requested a meeting with the School Board to discuss the restructuring planned for their school. This meeting will be held at a later date. Eastport The parents in Eastport have written letters requesting a meeting with the School Board. A meeting with these parents will be held at a later date. Eastport’s restructuring is not planned for September 2005. Lewisporte Mr. Sceviour has attended meetings in Lewisporte. The plan for Lewisporte is progressing as outlined in the Restructuring Plan. Twillingate Mr. McCormack has had a call from Mr. Derrick Dalley, Principal of J. M. Olds Collegiate in Twillingate with a request to have the restructuring planned for Twillingate progress at a faster rate if possible. Musgrave Harbour There have been concerns expressed about moving the high school students from Musgrave Harbour to Carmanville. Burlington The School Board has received a letter requesting that there be a meeting in Burlington to discuss the restructuring planned for M. W. Jeans Academy in Burlington. Baie Verte In Baie Verte everything is proceeding for September. There has been some concern expressed about the teacher loss to the Baie Verte System. The people of the Baie Verte area are anxious to secure a new school for the area. Botwood Ms. Andrews attended a meeting in Botwood. A major concern expressed to her was the loss of 3.25 teaching units. The feeling expressed to Ms. Andrews was that this loss will have a negative impact on learning in the Botwood School System. Another concern expressed to her at the meeting was the amount of secretarial support that the schools would have in September 2005. Ms. Andrews also relayed the concern expressed to her of the number of letters that had been sent to Mr. Mercer and they were still awaiting replies. There is a meeting planned for Thursday May 10, 2005 with the three school councils in Botwood. Mr. McCormack, Ms. Hewlett and Ms. Andrews will attend this meeting. Mr. McCormack requested that this meeting begin at 6:30 PM. Springdale Mr. Edison expressed concern over the information that he was requesting and was not able to obtain. A Chair of a School Council in Springdale approached Mr. Edison for information regarding schools in Springdale. Mr. Edison e-mailed Mr. Sceviour requesting this information approximately two weeks prior to the Board meeting. Mr. Edison was awaiting a reply from Mr. Sceviour. Mr. Sceviour informed Mr. Edison that he wanted to discuss with the trustees what type of information should be released to school councils especially since some reports are often of a technical nature and would need interpretation by a professional. Mr. McCormack informed the trustees that there is no problem with sending out information. However, sometimes the information requested is not readily available and we don’t have the human resources to respond to some requests in a timely fashion. There may be times when we can’t provide the information requested. Should that be the case, this should be communicated to those requesting the information. 3.4 NLSBA Update Mr. Sceviour attended a meeting at Lakewood Academy, Glenwood where Prime Minister Martin announced a new funding program. Mr. Sceviour also attended the Enterprise Fair in Lewisporte. The NLSBA AGM will be held in Gander at the Albatross on June 3 and 4. The constitution is in the process of being developed. There will be 5 voting members per Board. The Chair of the new NLSBA does not have to be the chair of their respective Board. All Boards have paid Association fees to date. There was a meeting on May 4th but Mr. Sceviour was not able to attend. Any trustee who would like to attend is eligible. The information re the AGM was circulated. Terry Brown, Clar Brown, Carolyn Andrews, Linda Cutler and Gerald Hounsell indicated they would be attending and would be the voting members representing Nova Central. Other trustees indicated that they would possibly be attending as well. 4. Reports 4.1 Finance-Property Committee Update The Finance/Property Committee has not met since the last board meeting, however, there are two issues that require attention.