September 27, 2005 Minutes
by recorded by Michelle Danicek
This is a DRAFT copy
LORD BYNG SENIOR SECONDARY
PAC MEETING MINUTES
DATE & TIME: September 27, 2005. Convened at 7:30 PM
LOCATION: Lord Byng
ATTENDANCE: List attached
DISCUSSION:
1. Approval of the minutes of May 24, 2005 meeting
John Robertson moved to approve the May 24, 2005 minutes, Michelle
Danicek seconded the motion. /Motion Carried/.
2. Principal?s report ? Darlene Braeder
� There are 1226 students this year.
� Tim McGreer is the new 2^nd Vice Principal.
� The grade 8?s have been to camp Stillwood at Cultus Lake for 2
days.
� Sports groups have started, club day will be held in the
beginning of October, the student council retreat will be this weekend ?
at which time, they will plan the year.
� Provincial exam results are in: 56 students received provincial
awards, 16 students had 100% in either their provincial or final mark.
� For the 2^nd year, Lord Byng was nominated by the Fraser
Institute, although we are declining the nomination.
� The B-Link project proposed by last year?s grade 12 Student
Council President to help the grade 7 transition into grade 8, was a
success.
� Last year it was recommended that the vending machine product
be changed from Coca Cola to give more choice to students. The contract
was given to PineTree, and the choices now include water and juice.
Revenue is down to $5697.
� Student fees were down $20K last year, this was reduced to $10K
by sending out letters to parents. There is $8703 is still outstanding
for 2004-2005.
� The school growth plan was accepted by the trustees to address
issues of appropriate language in the school, theft, and sexualized
behavior. A dress code and code of conduct have been implemented to
address these issues [a handout of the codes was distributed, a copy of
which is attached].
� Leanne Tyco is a new staff member as a teacher leader and is
working on projects for school growth.
� The UBC survey continues this year ? there is a 5 year mandate
for the survey which deals with issues of language, clothes etc. and
helps develop programs for kids to help with these issues.
� PAC Forums will be held to help hear from students.
� Re the job action, the walkabout is cancelled as 25% of the
teachers said they would not participate; job action starts tomorrow; DB
cannot do anything about the conflict between the province and the BCTF,
please contact your MLA or the BCTF
� Q: can we visit teachers? A: make an appointment with the
respective teacher
� Q: why are 25% of teachers refusing to participate in the
walkabout? A: the walkabout is voluntary, and during the teachers own time
� Q: what are the largest classes? A: chemistry has 33 students,
but some classes have only 15 students
� Q: can parents get a list of the kids who have responded to the
UBC survey? A: No, it?s anonymous
� Q: will sports programs be affected [by the job action]? A: no
� Q: how should parent?s contact teachers? A: drop a note in
their box [in the office]
� Q: could sports participation change? A: yes, if the job
action escalates
� Q: will school trips be effected? A: not usually
3. School Growth Plan 2005-06 ? Darlene Braeder
/Covered above/
4. Treasurer?s report ? Kirsten Brawn
[Report attached]
Gaming funds will be distributed by Daniel Chowne on
non-curricular spending
Regular account interest from a GIC was $186.52 and $85 from the
gaming account.
The surplus was from the grocery certificates, hanging baskets,
blueberry sales ? the budget this year is $11K for these items.
Last year $10,657 of the wish list funds were not spent,
therefore, $13K from last year and $11K from this year?s estimate
of fundraising will give us a surplus of about $24K, so the PAC
Exec is looking for suggestions as to how this money should be
spent.
There is $7K in the gaming account attributable to funds that were
not spent and we received some tax rebates from prior years.
Leo Ferry moved to receive the treasurer?s report, John Robertson
seconded. /Motion Carried/.
John Robertson spoke re the review of the annual report and
indicated that in accordance with the constitution, non-signing
officers must attend the review, which included Alex Crowe, John
Harding, himself, and Kirsten Brawn. A sampling of receipts,
cheques and the books were reviewed and were deemed to be fine.
The audit recommended that in the future, receipts should be
submitted faster after funds are distributed.
Q: why must there be two signing authorities? A: because no one
can write a cheque to themselves
Judy Thau moved to approve the annual report; Rick Downie
seconded. /Motion carried./
5. Election of additional Executive members
Nominations included Leo Ferry, Judy Thau and Barry Hansen. Three
calls were made. /Nominees Elected/
6. Election of PAC representatives to School Planning Council
One PAC executive and two PAC members must be on the council.
Judy Thau and Kathy Mukai are the current reps for the PAC; Barry
Hansen volunteered to take Judy?s place. 1^st and 2^nd nominations
were made for Kathy and Barry. /Elected/.
7. Grocery certificates ? Tracy Proke
You have until Friday to purchase certificates for Oct 14, please
order; you can pay by cheque or visa. If you pay by Visa,
Ticketmaster takes a percentage.
Q: why is Ticketmaster used? A: because it is the only not for
profit company out there ? they only charge 2%, while visa charges
more than that.
8. Directory for 2005 -2006 Jan Berney
If you haven?t signed up, please do so by Sept 30.
9. Other business
Judy Thau spoke re the School Planning Council: the Ministry
conducted a survey of Grade 10?s and 12?s to determine their
school satisfaction rating, but they believe the data is
inaccurate due to the way the questions were posed and prepared;
they think that open ended questions about the ways that the
school can help benefit their school experience would be better;
Point Grey did this, and bribed kids with pizza and they had a
good turnout; they need volunteers to be part of the Focus Group.
Q: will the data analyzed by professionals? A: only if the PAC
pays for it
Q: will UBC analyze the data? A: they are already doing the survey
10. Guest speaker ? Erin Zimarro ? School Librarian
Described herself as having experience as a teacher in drama and
speech arts, pathology of speech, and also taught learning disabled.
She sees herself as a teaching librarian; she is not a lover of
computers and believes that language is important and therefore
wasn?t to stimulate a love of language through books.
Parents are welcome in the library.
She will be asking for $$ for books from the wish list committee.
She indicated that if the kids are courteous, she will assist them.
Lana Chow and Eric Ewen are on for lunch and after school.
Next PAC meeting will be held on Oct. 25 at 7:15 pm in the Library.
11. Meeting Adjourned