Short Update

No school for students this Friday January 30.

Report cards sent home Wednesday February 4.

Student/Parent/Teacher Conferences are on Wednesday February 11 from 12 – 3 pm 

and 5 – 8 pm.   

Lord Beaverbrook High School staff will also be on hand to answer questions for grade 9 students transitioning at the end of the school year.

Dr. EP Scarlett School Open House: Thursday November 20th

Click here for open house flyer regarding EP Scarlett High School.

Update from the PA

The Wilma Hansen Parent Association monthly meeting was last night in the library. Here is a quick synopsis of what was discussed and decided:

-Thanks to Ms. Berry for another brilliant band camp. Our young musicians are raving about the clinicians, the extra training, the time away with peers... and the food!

- Parents check out the CBE main page under "what's new" for a brief survey regarding the chief superintendent. What qualities are you looking for in the replacement? Now is your chance for input into the selection. Click here.

- Parent/teacher interviews are coming up, no appointments necessary. They will be held in the gym, simply find the teacher you wish to speak with and step up to the desk. The interviews will be on March 20th after noon dismissal from 1-4pm then again at 5-8pm and on March 21 from 9-12 am.

- Spring break begins at noon on the 20th and classes resume March 31st.

- Upcoming Casino Dates: April 1st and 2nd at Casino Calgary: 1420 Meridian Rd NE. Contact Neil at cieno@shaw.ca, he is the Casino Chair for the WHSPA. The sign up sheet and more information is here. You can fill it in, print it off and bring it to the school or simply email it to Neil.

Everyone is welcome to the Parent Association meetings, make a point of coming out to the next one and have your voice heard.

High School Open House: LBHS

 

Lord Beaverbrook High School is hosting an open house this Thursday, February 6. Please click here for more details.

System-wide Technology Outage Feb 15-17

From the CBE:

"The Calgary Board of Education will have a system-wide technology outage over the Family Day long weekend (Feb. 15-17) while our Information Technology (IT) Services works with Internet and telecommunication service providers on enhancements.
During this time there will be no access to any CBE computer system or application, including: internal and external websites, network drives/folders, CBE email, student Gmail, and CBE applications such as SIRS and D2L.

Staff, students and parents are encouraged to make alternative arrangements to complete work or activities that would require CBE computer systems.

Frequently asked questions

Why are all network systems going down at the same time?
Over the Family Day long weekend, IT Services together with internet and telecommunication service providers on system enhancements. This important work is required to ensure the technical environment is stable and secure.

Why are you doing this now?
There is no ideal time to do a system-wide shut down. This weekend was chosen after consulting with key stakeholders to determine the best possible/least disruptive time to conduct this work.

I still have work that needs to be done over that weekend, what can I do?
You will need to make other arrangements to complete work requiring access to CBE system or application – please plan accordingly; either working offline, completing prior to the outage or postponing until systems are available."

Thursday Update: with Ms. McGovern

Another community and school update from Ms McGovern:

Parenting for inattention/hyperactive children - January 29: 6:30 to 8pm

Concurrent Disorders in Youth: drug use and mental health - February 6: 6:30 to 8pm


Free Family Skate Party at Deer Run Community Centre - February 8; 1pm to 4pm

CPEP (Community Parent Education Program) is a Hull Services program open to all families that consist of children ages 5 - 17. All classes require pre-registration and Children's Groups are included. Upcoming classes include Transitional Warnings and When/Then Strategies (Jan 30), Planning Ahead (Feb 6), Motivation Systems (Feb 20), Effective Consequences (Feb 27), Problem Solving (Mar 6). See the website for more details.

Deer Park United Church is hostng a LGBTQ teen support meeting on Friday January 31 at 6 pm to 8 pm with guest speaker Becky Van Tassel from the Calgary Sexual Health Centre. If you have questions about this meeting please contact tommelvin@dpuc.ca. 

Seasons Greetings From the Board of Trustees and the Chief Superintendent

From the CBE:

"The holiday season is upon us once again. It’s a time to celebrate and reflect on the year that is ending.

We can’t look back on 2013 without remembering the unprecedented flood that occurred in June. It was a difficult time for so many of our communities and caused disruption to our year-end exams and activities. Yet, our teachers, staff, students, parents and volunteers pulled together as a strong, supportive community to ensure our students, schools and facilities were safe – and to support each other and those impacted by the flood.

The dedication demonstrated at that time was inspiring and continues throughout the year. We value your commitment to our students and schools and we look forward to continuing to work together to support student learning.

Best wishes for a joyous holiday and for the coming new year."

From the CBE: Check upcoming school open houses to see choices to personalize learning

"The CBE has a rich variety of programs to personalize learning for students. A great way to learn more about these programs is to visit the many open houses that take place throughout the year. To see our full calendar of open houses click here."

Police Charge Minor With Online Threats

From the CBE:

"The safety and security of our students and staff is of utmost importance to us at the Calgary Board of Education. To that end, we support the Calgary Police Service in its efforts to serve and protect young people and are circulating the following news media release which police released today, Nov. 25. "

Read the story here.

Respect Group Inc Comes to the CBE

The CBE has partnered with Sheldon Kennedy's Respect Group Inc to bring Respect in the Workplace to their organization. Read all the details here and for more information on this fabulous online program, click here.

CBE Newsletter - November

November Meeting

Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday November 20th, 7:00-9:00pm AE Cross school library (3445 37 St SW).  Please stay tuned for details on meeting content.

September Meeting Follow Up - The Personalization of Learning and Iris Please see the attached document for a summary of our September meeting.  It covers a brief description of the CBE presentation, much of which encouraged dialogue between CAPSC members and the CBE administration.  Should you have specific questions related to the meeting content, please forward them to us at info@capsc.ca, or to Karen Drummond at the CBE kldrummond@cbe.ab.ca.

October Meeting Follow Up - ASCA meeting, co-hosted with the CBE Several members of the CAPSC executive were in attendance for the October 16th CBE co-hosted meeting with ASCA (Alberta School Councils' Association).  CAPSC executive member Karen Lloyd offers these comments from the meeting.  To read up on the meeting content, please click here and make sure to check out these great tools provided by ASCA ASCA presenter Marilyn Welsch touched on a lot of information that could be of great value to your school council.  As a school council in the CBE system, your council has an automatic membership to ASCA, so make sure to take advantage of the resources they offer.  For specifics on the ASCA research behind the importance of parent involvement in student council, please find the attached document.

CBE Council of School Councils (COSC) The first COSC meeting of the school year is scheduled for November 27th.  For details on the meeting please click here.

Voilà Learning - Free Online Homework Help in French  If your child is studying french and is in need of programming and support, please feel free to check out the attached information from Voilà Learning.

Helping Boys Learn Dr. Edmond Dixon will be returning to Calgary Nov. 27 to 29 to make several presentations on helping boys learn.  For information on the workshops or to schedule a one hour presentation for your council, please see www.helpingboyslearn.com

Trustee Procedural Review Takes 'Backseat'

Rookie trustee Trina Hurdman introduced the motion Tuesday for an ad hoc committee to examine whether board meetings at the Calgary Board of Education are in keeping with the “principles of openness and transparency.” - From the Calgary Herald

Calgary Parent Upset with Teacher Arranges Secret Recording in Classroom

From Global Calgary:

"A Calgary mother who says her child has been the victim of a bullying teacher now says she has the evidence to prove it.

After raising the problem with the principal of Grant MacEwan Elementary, she felt there was no resolution. Her next step was to send her son to his Grade 5 classroom with a recording device.

'We went from having a son excited and happy, to very worried and not sleeping at night and not wanting to go to school in the morning,' the mother told Global News. 'That’s when I noticed there was something I needed to look into.'

The device caught the following exchange between the teacher and another student.

Teacher: 'Can you stop making excuses? Did you call the teacher’s attention to say I was trying to write this and ask your neighbour? Did you talk to your neighbour?'
Student: 'Yeah.'
Teacher: 'Which neighbour?'
Student: 'Her- she said she didn’t know and I asked, and then I didn’t get the rest of it' (student crying)
Teacher: 'Oh, so keep crying, Prince. After you ask, I asked everybody to put a red strip on the top of their table if they needed help. Did anybody hear me say that?'
Class responds: 'Yes.'
Teacher: 'Where is your red strip?'
Student: 'I don’t know.'
Teacher: 'How then would I know you needed help? I am not a magician. Stop making me one or I will make you vanish.'

In other portions of the recording, the teacher was soft-spoken and encouraging to students.

Officials with the Calgary Board of Education say they cannot comment on the case because it is a personnel issue. They add they are aware of the concerns and have taken action to 'ensure the safety of students.'"

The tone of the teacher's voice portrays a clearer description of how the conversation was carried out.

Listen to the recorded conversation here.

Election Day!

Polls open at 10 am today (close at 8pm). If you are unclear about where to vote, click here to find out. If you are unclear about which Trustee to vote for, read Rox's blog entries below or follow this link to read about the candidates (our ward is 12/14).

Get out to vote! It takes minutes to get it done, you provide an excellent example for your kids, you exercise your most fundamental democratic responsibility, and (best of all) you earn the right to complain about elected officials for the next 4 years.

HomeLogic

You probably received a recorded message from the school in the last few days about opening and accessing a HomeLogic account. HomeLogic is a portal for parents to the information that the CBE has about students. This is a tool that parents can use to view information about their child's Attendance, Schedule, Transcript, and Demographics. Sign up is simple and is a great way to keep track of important information. There is even a list of your child's current teachers.

Here is the letter that describes HomeLogic to parents and here is the web page from Wilma's website with all the links you need. If you want to just go and sign up: click here and select 'new user?' under the credentials section.

Role of a Trustee

The following is an excerpt from an excellent article by Laura Shutiak for a group called Artics (Association for Responsible Trusteeship in Calgary Schools). In it, she examines the role of a trustee on the CBE board, shows examples of real transparency, and points out some of the differences in our trustees.

In mid-September, a few parents took to Twitter to thank Calgary Board of Education Trustee Joy Bowen-Eyre for helping them secure additional bike racks at their school. A picture of bikes stacked neatly by the school door accompanied the thank yous.

Why shouldn’t you pat your trustee on the back when you think he or she has been responsive to an issue?

Well, because securing resources for an individual school, whether it’s a computer, basketballs or bike racks, isn’t the job of a trustee.

Now, we don’t actually know what impact Bowen-Eyre had on this decision, if any. We also don’t know if there were other, more needy schools that missed out because of politics.
But, doesn’t it show there’s problem in the system when the principal couldn’t secure needed facilities for his or her school? Instead of handing out kudos, perhaps those parents should be demanding answers.

So, what is the role of a trustee? - Click here for the entire article.

Meet A Trustee Candidate

In 26 days municipal elections will be held in Calgary. We will be voting for a Mayor, 14 Councillors, 7 Public School Trustees and 7 Separate School Trustees - are you ready? Don't let the voting booth be the first place you see their names.

Since this is a school related blog, this post will be about the Public School Trustees in our area. There are seven trustees on the board, each representing two wards. Wilma Hansen is in Ward 14. Our present, long time trustee Carol Bazinet has announced her retirement from the board.

There are three declared candidates for Wards 12/14. They (and their websites) are:

Amber Stewart

Christina Steed 

Malik Amery

The Council and Parent Association will be meeting on Wednesday, October 16 at 7pm in the library. One of the candidates, Christina Steed, has asked to chat with us during the first part of our meeting. Plan on coming out and listening to Christina and asking her some questions about her candidacy.

Find out about all the candidates in our ward by reading their websites and sending them questions. The CBE Board of Trustees makes decisions daily that directly affect our children's education so your participation in this process couldn't be more important.

No More Grades on Report Cards?

A pilot project will be introduced in some Calgary schools next year eliminating numerical grades on report cards.  “Evident,” “emerging” or “support required” would replace "1 - 5" on reports to parents. There would be fewer (and maybe no) personal teacher's comments about our kids and reports would only be done twice per school year.

There hasn't been much, if any, public input about the project and even the trustees say they haven't been fully informed: click here.

Frank Bruseker, the ATA president has suggested that this would be a welcome change because teacher's wouldn't need to spend as much time on reporting student's progress. An interview with CBC can be heard here. David Grey at Calgary Eye Opener asks: "Are these changes about finding better ways to give parents feedback about how their kids are performing in school or are these changes about cutting down the workload for teachers"?

CAPC would like some help with parental response to this project. Please see this web page if you'd like to provide a voice.


From my point of view, teachers are going to spend a whole lot more time explaining to parents what 'emerging' means than if they just wrote down a 3.

From the CBE

Budget update for all parents

"Our organization is grappling with the impact of the provincial budget announced on March 7. As we have reported to you before, the provincial budget means our system will have the same revenue next year as we had this year. This happens when we expect to welcome 3,000 more students and our costs will be increasing. It is the tip of a very difficult iceberg.

For more than a month, we have been crunching numbers, evaluating services and reviewing options to achieve our objectives. Student success and safety are our top priorities. The approach we are taking to the budget focuses on maximizing the budget directed to classrooms while balancing the budget.

On Tuesday, we will present the budget assumptions report to the Board of Trustees. It will be available online today. This report sets out the decisions, uncertainties and strategies that we propose to achieve the objectives set out in the Three-Year Education Plan.

Before the report is published, there are some messages I would like to emphasize in advance.

To put students, classrooms and schools first, we have looked everywhere in our system to be more efficient and make cuts.

Key Communique

Come out to next Council of School Councils meeting

The spring meeting will take place on April 17.

Trustees will provide a summary of the Trustee-hosted meetings held in February, an update on the 2013-14 budget and information about getting involved in the upcoming school board trustee election.

Read more

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Help the CBE strengthen its connection with school councils and parents

All parents are invited to attend one of the upcoming sessions to share their thoughts about parent and school council communications, and how we can work together to improve the parent experience.

Area II - April 24 - 6:30-8:30 p.m. - Mount View Centre, 2004 - 4 St. N.E.
Area III - April 23 - 6:30-8:30 p.m. - Marlborough School, 4711 Maryvale Dr. N.E.

Please RSVP to kldrummond@cbe.ab.ca, indicating which meeting you plan to attend.

Read more

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Province invites input on review of individual program plan (IPP) components

As schools and school authorities move toward a more inclusive education system, there remain high