By Walter Byj and Pepper Parr
October 21, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
The October 21 st Halton District School Board meeting was quick indeed. It started after the Blue Jays came ended and finished just before the Mets/Cubs came started. There were a number of housecleaning items that were passed unanimously.
The Community Partnership Policy had been posted on the Board’s website for the required 25 days and had just two comments from the public. Upon questioning from trustee Harrison (Oakville), Director Miller stated that the policy is usually reviewed every four years but will now be updated on a yearly basis.
Joey Edwardh runs Community |development Halton, the organization working the community side of the Jump Play Run Healthy Community initiative funded by the province. Direction of Education for the Public school board watches a group of students with Ms Edwardh
In a similar vein, the Trustees Expense Policy also resided on the website for the required 25 days and (with no comments posted from the public) was also passed unanimously. Perhaps this would be an ideal place to recap the remuneration that is available for the trustees.
Each trustee receives honoraria of $15,327.73 annually. There is a $4000 bump for the vice-chair to $19,309.23 while the chair receives $23,290.73. In addition, they have use of one of a number of different computer devices along with reimbursement of $59.85 for high speed internet service. They also have the use of either a monthly Blackberry or I phone plan that includes voice plan, data plan and long distance. The monthly reimbursement is $75.71 for the Blackberry plan and $107.35 for the I phone plan. All reimbursements are tax included. In addition, each trustee will have access to a $5,000 travel, personal professional development and office supplies amount.
With the hiring of a new Director of Education, Stuart Miller, the Director’s Performance Review Policy is now under review. This policy was last reviewed 5 years ago. The policy will be posted on the board website for the mandatory 25 days with the board to review any public comments in December. As of this writing, the policy has not yet been posted.
The board appears to rely quite heavily on the web site to convey information – and at the same time readily admits that the web site does not function all that well. Director of Education Stuart Miller tends to give people copies of information they need rather than send them to the web site
If the web site doesn’t work internally for the board there is little likelihood that it will work very well for the public.
Miller admits that the board is going to need every penny of the $100,000 allocated for the upgrade – probably a total re-build. And he adds that it will take six to nine months to get the job done.
Which suggests the flow of information is going to be limited – might be helpful if the board looked fore some kind of a work around to cover the major bases while the re-build gets done
Andrea Grebenc (Burlington) chair of the transportation committee noted that the board had applications totally more than 2400 for courtesy seats for the various bus routes. A courtesy seat is defined as a request for a seat on a school bus where the student who is not entitled to transportation based on distance they live from the school.
One would hope that the administrators would clamp down on this one – the board is involved in the Jump Play Run – Healthy Community initiative being funded by the province. Trustee Grebenc is all fired up on walking or biking to school – her vision should be shared with those parents who want their kid on the bus.
As the meeting neared conclusion, Director Miller reminded everyone of the upcoming public meetings of the Program Viability Committee that start on Monday October 26th at Nelson High School.
The Public School Board meetings to discuss English and French Immersion elementary programming begin next week. The increasing interest in French Immersion and the impact on the core English program has the board administration considering how these changes are going to impact the delivery of program. The board’s ability to recruit a sufficient number of qualified and fluent elementary French teachers is also part of the mix.
Parents/guardians are invited to attend to learn about the key issues, as well as the process and timelines to gather public input. Halton District School Board staff will present information concerning English and French Immersion program enrollment, as well as the preliminary recommendations of the Program Viability Committee.
All meetings will begin at 7 p.m.:
BURLINGTON Monday, October 26 Nelson High School (4181 New St.)
Director Miller told the Gazette that he doesn’t intend to do a lot of talking about the program initiative and the thinking that has taken place. “We want to know what people think and hope they will take the document away with then and get back to us with their thoughts”.
Miller points out that the uptake for French Immersion classes has created some difficult management problems. “It is very difficult to find really qualified French teachers” he said. And he added “ we have some English classes with as little as eight students in them” which is very inefficient from a teaching model aspect and not all that good for the socializing of students that takes place in a school setting.
The working up of the report and its recommendations was a file that Miller handled before he was appointed Director of Education so he has a really solid understanding of how large an issue the school board faces
