Key Communiqué

This bulletin comes from the CBE's Communications Advisor and is to be shared with the school council and parent community.

System Orientation Session - Important Update:

The System Orientation Session webinar is scheduled for November 4, 2009 at 6:00 p.m.

I will send out a link to the session once it is made available along with further instructions on when and how to log into it.

After the session is over, everyone who was invited to the session will receive an email link with a recorded version of the webinar in case you wanted to share the information with other council members.

This is a new approach that we are trying; however, we will still be having face-to-face system meetings throughout the year as well as Area meetings. As soon as the dates for the Area meetings are made available, I will include them in this newsletter.

We hope you will join us for the session and welcome your feedback on the effectiveness of this new communications approach.

Board Chair and Vice Chair Named for 2009-2010

Pat Cochrane returns as Chair of the Board of Trustees of The Calgary Board of Education, and Lynn Ferguson was acclaimed Vice-Chair at the public Board meeting on Tuesday, October 20, 2009. The elections were part of the annual organizational meeting of the Board of Trustees. This is the time when Trustees traditionally reconfigure their governance and committee responsibilities in order to fine-tune their contributions to the system.

Our Board of Trustees brings tremendous personal and collective resources to the task of stewarding and developing public education in Calgary. They have demonstrated an unshakable commitment to public education and advocated tirelessly for its effective and equitable delivery.

For more information about our Board, please visit the CBE Board of Trustees' webpage.

Key Communicator Steering Committee:

There are some vacancies for the Key Communicator Steering Committee this year. If you are interested, please email me for details.

Registration Forms:

Thank you for submitting your forms. I have received forms from the majority of schools. If you still need to submit yours, here is the form. Please ensure that it is filled out and faxed to 403-294-8172 Attn: Katie.

CAPSC:

CAPSC is Calgary’s city-wide, public school parent association. CAPSC’s primary goal is to keep parents up to date and involved in their children’s education, and to help make individual school’s Parent Councils as effective as possible. CAPSC provides parents with resources, learning and sharing opportunities. They represent parent concerns to the CBE and all levels of government. For more information or to subscribe to their newsletter, visit www.capsc.ca.

School Council Development

School Council Development (SCD) provides workshops and resource materials to assist school councils.

School Council Development provides the following services:

• Workshops for school councils anywhere in Alberta
• Toll Free School Council Consultation Line - 1-800-661-3470
• Instructor training to deliver workshops to school councils
• Resource manual and materials for school council

Alberta Education

School Council Resource Manual

Meeting Notice from MTSC and MTSPA Chair

A message from the MTSC and MTSPA Chair

It is hard to believe that almost two months of school has passed. Although two months does not seem like a lot, I find myself already reflecting back on the significant progress we have made with our new school.

This is to remind you and encourage you to attend the McKenzie Towne School Council (MTSC) and the McKenzie Towne School Parent's Association (MTSPA) meeting on Monday (October 26) at the Haultain Memorial School Library starting at 6:30pm. These meetings are a great opportunity to hear about the efforts underway, become informed and get involved. We welcome and encourage all parents/guardians/those involved to attend.

We will start first with the MTSC meeting. This will have news about and from our newly Established School Council Executive, the Principal, Vice Principal and a
teacher (or two). And then immediately following this will be the MTSPA meeting.
This will have news about the significant efforts being made toward a Playground, Fundraising and involve making decisions on how some initial funds will be spent.

For more details please see the MTSC and MTSPA agendas. If you have any questions, comments and/or concerns please feel free contact me.

I look forward to seeing you on Monday,

Sherri

Stop the Cuts

The Alberta School Councils Association, Alberta Teachers' Association and the Alberta School Boards Association are trying to raise awareness about the potential funding cuts to public education and the impact of these cuts to students and schools. $80 million in funding cuts is being considered this year and another $300 million in potential cuts for 2010. Go to www.stopthecuts.ca to learn more. You can also find a link to contact your MLA and the Minister of Education to voice your opinion.

Final Annoucement for the Student Union Ticket Pak Fundraiser

It’s the last week . . . Don’t Forget!!!

We need some initial funds to start the grant and application process for our playground project. We are halfway through selling our S.U.T.P. books and would like to reach our goal of selling 300 books. The MTSPA needs to raise approximately $35,000 by December 2009 in order to meet goals for a September 2010 playground.

The SUTP books are sold for $20 with $10 staying with McKenzie Towne School Parent Association, helping reach this goal. This is a great time to get family and friends on board with our new school and playground endeavors.

Additional forms are available by clicking here. Please ensure that you fill in your students name and grade so we can get the books back to you. Please note, payment is required for all orders before books can be issued.

Cheques can be made out to M.T.S.P.A. or McKenzie Towne School Parent Association.

Please have all orders returned to the school by Wednesday, October 14.
Orders will be processed and back to you within 4-5 days.
If you have any questions, please e-mail fundraising@mtsparents.com

Kindergarten PM Bus Route Changes

For all parents of afternoon kindergarten students: there have been some updates made to the kindergarten PM bus routes. Changes take place effective October 14th. Click here for the updated maps.

Upcoming Meetings

Our next school council and parent association meetings have been scheduled. Please join us in the Haultain Memorial School library on October 26th at 6:30 pm for the school council meeting. The parent association meeting will take place immediately following.

The November council and parent association meetings are scheduled for November 30th. A reminder will be sent out prior to these meetings. In addition, The Calgary Association of Parents and School Councils (CAPSC) is holding their monthly meeting on Wednesday, October 21st, from 7:00 - 9:00 pm at AE Cross Junior High School in the SW. All parents are welcome to attend this free meeting.

October News

The school newsletter is out for October. Click here to view it. You can also click here to open the school calendar for October. Please note, the first Gabuccino is being held on October 15th from 2:15-3:15 at Haultain Memorial School. This is your chance to meet with the principals in an informal setting and talk about topics of interest.

Parent Survey 1 Results

In our first parent survey, we asked you about your preferences regarding fundraising. We had 40 responses to the two questions in the survey.

The first question was, "The MTSPA needs to raise approximately $35,000 by December in order to meet goals for a September 2010 playground. To help achieve this goal, we will be focusing on one big event this fall. What type of event would you most likely participate in." Here are the results:

1. Silent Auction - 28%
2. A family/community fundraising event (e.g. walk-a-thon) - 48%
3. A family/community paid event (e.g. amazing race/rally) - 20%
4. Other - 5%, with suggestions of Donations and Business Solicitation tied into fundraising activity

The second question in the survey was, "To supplement the above goal and/or provide much needed general funds, what type of fundraising activity would you most likely participate in." Results are as follows:

1. In school ordering (eg. basket raffle, catalogue sales) - 28%
2. School activity (eg. book sale, ice cream social, in-line-skating) - 43%
3. Family/community paid activity (eg. corn maze) - 20%
4. Other - 10%, with suggestions of Bottle collection, Selling blitz, and a School Fair

The fundraising committee will be meeting next week to develop a plan using this feedback. Thanks to everyone who completed the survey. Keep checking back for our next one!

Key Communiqué

This bulletin comes from the CBE's Communications Advisor and is to be shared with the school council and parent community.

Registration Forms:

Thank you to everyone who submitted their registration forms to me and my apologies for not providing the link to the registration form in the previous edition of the Key Communiqué. Here is the form. Please ensure that it is filled out and faxed to 403-294-8172 Attn: Katie at your earliest convenience.

System Orientation Session - Important Update:

This year we are going to try a new approach to the System Orientation Session. We are going to organize it as a webinar. You will be able to ask questions, interact with speakers virtually and view their presentations on your screen as we progress through the session. It will take place at the end of October and I will finalize the date ASAP.

After the session is over, we will send a recorded version to your schools in case you wanted to share the information with other council members.

Key Communicator Steering Committee:

There are some vacancies for the Key Communicator Steering Committee this year. If you are interested, please email me for details.

Area Meetings:

If you are a returning Key Communicator or School Council Chair, I would really appreciate your input with regard to Area Meetings. If you could please take a moment to fill out this brief survey it will assist us greatly moving forward.

Three-Year Education Plan:

The CBE's Three-Year Education Plan is like the compass that guides the strategic direction for the system. All school boards in Alberta are required to maintain a three-year timeframe for their plans and all plans must be updated annually. As one year is completed, another is added, rolling the plan forward. The plan is revised and adjusted based on performance and changes in the operating environment.

Click here to read the CBE's plan and get an in depth look at where we our system is headed in the future.

Provincial Achievement Test Results:

The results are in and there is much to celebrate. Recently, the results from the Provincial Achievement Tests and Diploma exams were released and CBE students displayed results well above the provincial standards as well as improved results locally.

In the PAT’s, Math scores for Grades 3, 6 and 9 have all gone up in the acceptable and excellence categories over last year’s results. Our students have also made gains in Language Arts in the acceptable and excellence categories.

In Diploma exams, CBE students improved in the excellence category in Pure Math 30 over last year. Applied Math 30 has shown improvement since the 2007/2008 school year in both the acceptable and excellence categories. CBE students improved in both categories in Biology 30 over last year.

Student Enrolment:

CBE Chief Superintendent of Schools Naomi Johnson announced some extremely good news about the latest enrolment figures during a public board meeting last night. She revealed that student enrolment at the CBE has increased for the new school year, according to figures submitted to Alberta Education on September 30th.

The number of students enrolled in CBE schools for the 2009 / 2010 school year is 102 413. That’s an increase of 591 students from the previous school year.

Board chair Pat Cochrane thanked Calgary parents for choosing the Calgary Board of Education as their first choice for their children’s education.

Report to the Community:

We are currently starting to work on our Report to the Community for the 2008/09 school year. If you have not seen last year's report, you can read it here.

Your input on this publication is most welcome. Do you find the stories interesting? Are there areas you'd like to see less of, or expanded? What would you like to see in a report from the CBE? We would greatly appreciate your thoughts and feedback on this publication. Please email me.

WorldSkills Calgary 2009:

We are very interested in your perspective on the impact of WorldSkills on your child. We would appreciate if you would take a few minutes to complete this anonymous online survey to provide us with data that will be presented to our CBE Superintendents’ Team and to the Trustees. Please feel free to send the link to other parents who would be interested in giving us their opinions on this event. The deadline for completing the survey is October 16.

Please click on the following link and answer the questions, then click DONE to submit your answers.

CAPSC:

CAPSC is Calgary’s city-wide, public school parent association. CAPSC’s primary goal is to keep parents up to date and involved in their children’s education, and to help make individual school’s Parent Councils as effective as possible. CAPSC provides parents with resources, learning and sharing opportunities. They represent parent concerns to the CBE and all levels of government. For more information or to subscribe to their newsletter, visit www.capsc.ca.

School Council Development

School Council Development (SCD) provides workshops and resource materials to assist school councils.

School Council Development provides the following services:

Workshops for school councils anywhere in Alberta
Toll Free School Council Consultation Line - 1-800-661-3470
Instructor training to deliver workshops to school councils
Resource manual and materials for school council

Alberta Education

School Council Resource Manual