Regular Meeting Minutes
VCS Council
January 7, 2021
10:30am Via Zoom
Meeting ID: 475 290 4212
Chair: Teresa Boucher (780) 814-4827
Vice Chair: Stacie Wright (587) 297-4522
In attendance: T. Boucher; P. Braseth; S. Mumert; S. Wright; T. Braseth; T. Fricke;
K. Strand; S. Miller
Call meeting to order @ 10:32 am
Approval of December 3, 2020 meeting minutes – S. Wright motioned to
approve December 3, 2020 minutes. P. Braseth 2nd AIF
Principals Report:
- Kids are learning at home this week.
- Message from Alberta Education is the plan is to have kids back in class,
Monday the 11th. We have learned kids are doing better in school then they
are at home. Speeches are starting soon, and this will be difficult if kids stay
at home. - Very appreciative of the work council has been doing with ASCA/Advocacy
committee over Christmas Break. - Sanitation is being done by EA’s twice a day – noon and afterschool, not
cutting into their time in class. EA’s also helping teachers with prep work
after school.
Chairs Report - We discussed at our last meeting sending out a link for the JH kids to join an
online Martial arts class and I forgot to send Steve the link.
The link will be sent out if we end up staying home longer then the
Christmas break.
Treasurers Report - We do not have totals yet for the Christmas Auction. There are still a few
outstanding payments we are waiting on so I will have those next meeting
for everyone. The bank totals at the moment are:
Healthy Snack: $4200.97
Healthy Snack/Hot lunch Program: $2783.93
School Council Main Account: $11843.70
Total Amount: $18828.60
Last meeting, we had discussed the cameras purchased for bus but not
installed yet. Steve looked into it and said John would install over
Christmas. We have a few questions about this;
TOGG donated time for the cameras to be installed but the busses were not
delivered to their shop and now are being installed by the Transportation
departments mechanic. Who is paying for this extra expense, is the council
expected to foot the bill for this and how much is the bill?
Steve to ask John Moutray about install questions. - At the last meeting we talked about the sound system and Steve had said it
was not being used due to COVID-19 -19. School council would like to
know if the system still needs updates and if there was a need for more
microphones. We could and should update system this year while we have
the funds and time while it is not being used to get it ready for when we can
use it again.
It was mentioned that the motherboard does not to be changed, rather
another module addition would be ideal for more transmitters for more
mics. Steve mentioned if council wants to pursue this let him know and he
could talk to Wayne who set this system up initially.
Board and TAAPCS Report: No report available currently.
Updates on Committees:
Healthy Snack – Stacie Wright - Nutrigrains need to be restocked.
- Leftover Mac and Cheese is not an easy leftover for lunches so its not being
handed out. - More sandwiches need to be made.
Hot Lunch – Teresa Boucher - It was posted on Facebook that we are looking for someone to take over
organizing our Hot Lunches. - We also released funds for an extra hot lunch in January and then we missed
the first one due to the kids being at home for online learning, should we do
2 or 3 hot lunches in January?
All in agreement that 2 lunches are great. Hard enough finding people as
is to volunteer.
❖ January 22, 2021 ❖ Will let me know
❖ February 5, 2021 ❖ Hot Dog
❖ February 19, 2021 ❖
❖ March 12, 2021 ❖ Hot Dog
❖ March 26, 2021 ❖
❖ April 16, 2021 ❖ Hot Dog
❖ April 23, 2021 ❖
❖ May 14, 2021 ❖ Hot Dog
❖ June 11, 2021 ❖
❖ June 25 last day of school ❖
Fundraising – Sarah Miller (780) 545-0523
▪ Christmas Concert Auction Update – - Auction went great, fantastic donations came in, very successful.
- Roughly $2000 raised.
- Future idea to do an online bake sale as the baked good donations were the
biggest sellers. - Helped get more people onto the council Facebook page.
▪ New fundraiser ideas:
• For the love of art – - Students do self portraits, submit it and then parents can choose what they
want it to be printed on (canvas, mugs, tin etc.) 30-40% goes to school.
• H&M – - Has previously raised over $4000.
- Get it ready and delivered before May long or before other fundraiser
groups get there’s out.
Sanitization – Stacie Wright (587) 297-4522
• Follow up on questions asked to the Board, Principal and
Superintendent about
Stacie waiting on responses. It was also mentioned the concern about
burnout of EA’s/ Teachers, so the sign-up page will be reposted to try
and alleviate the pressure.
Communications – Micah Fricke
➢ Micah has asked if there is anyone else who would like to work on this as he
is currently working a lot of hours and does not have time.
➢ Facebook seems to be our only communications source at the moment,
should we put it out there that we will give the kids at the school a pizza
party if our Facebook page hits 200 members before the end of this school
year to try and get our numbers up? We are currently at 131 members after
our Christmas Auction.
P. Braseth motioned to approve and release funds for pizza party. S. Miller
2
nd. AIF
Class Reps
Kristin did up a letter that will be sent out ASAP asking for one parent rep per
grade.
Shadowing of Executives
➢ Steve mentioned at the last meeting that it might work to make a short video
presentation to try and get some parent interest.
Teresa working on a video, if anyone is interested in helping put it together
please contact her.
Advocacy Information for helping keep Charter Schools open
See “Albertans for Educational Diversity” handout - T. Fricke presented. There was an ASCA meeting in October that resulted in
3 resolutions being passed that are detrimental to Charter Schools. If these
get passed our school could potentially be dissolved and kids reabsorbed
into the public school system.
The purpose of this Advocacy committee is to arm individuals with necessary
information and to get ahead of this before it gets to far, to change the
resolutions and advocate what Charters are all about/dispel myths. - Advocacy committee to begin Jan 15th.
T. Fricke motions that Valhalla Community School Council sponsors motion
1 (see attached) for the advocacy committee. S. Miller 2nd. AIF
Albertans for Educational Diversity (placeholder name)
ASCA – Alberta School Councils Association
• Valhalla Community School is a member and by default ALL parents of the school are members
SOS – Support our Students
• Grassroots public school advocacy group campaigning strongly against charter schools
Background:
“In 1995, revisions to the Alberta School Act included mandated school councils – a forum for parents to
advise the principal and school board on education matters.
ASCA’s role evolved to promote and support strong school communities with effective school councils as
a means to facilitate collaborations among education partners, including parents, to enhance student
learning.” (source: https://www.albertaschoolcouncils.ca/)
As a parent council for VCS, we are members of the ASCA and the role of the ASCA is to represent
parents on school council to engage with Alberta’s Education Ministry.
Current Issue:
We have recently joined an advocacy effort, in coordination with other charter school parent councils
throughout the province in an ASCA subcommittee (tentatively named Albertans for Educational
Diversity ABED) to overturn some recent efforts made at a ASCA meeting in the fall.
At the October meeting, THREE motions were put forward by E’cole Sam Livingston School Council and
strongly supported by four representatives of Support Our Students.
These resolutions will remove support for public charter schools and as it
stands…the ASCA would have to begin advocating for the abolishment of charter
schools and their re-absorption in the public system.
Claims Against Charter Schools:
• Boards of directors are not democratically elected by their communities and are not directly
accountable to society
• Charters are at an increased risk of mismanagement of public dollars
• Enrolment of only a small portion of Alberta students is evidence that they serve no real
purpose
• They charge extra fees and are elitist and exclude and segregate students
What Does This Mean:
Charter schools would be removed from the definition of public education school systems and would be
forced to operate and be accountable to locally elected trustees and school boards. This ultimately
would threaten our school and likely result in a shut down as we know Peace Wapiti’s position on
keeping our school open.
What’s Next:
The ASCA subcommittee to putting together 3 MOTIONS that simply REWORD the original resolutions
and we would like the Valhalla Community School Council to sponsor one Motion 1 called ACHIEVING
UNIVERSAL PUBLIC EDUCATION.
Motion 1 – requests the changes to the THREE advocacy resolutions be rescinded or removed and for
them to stay as they were.
What Would Be Required of VCSC:
By sponsoring the motion, our name is associated with it and demonstrates our strong support for that
particular motion. If there are any other commitments or requirements for sponsorship, we will
determine them as we move through the process (e.g. representative at the April voting meeting).
Why should parent councils and parents take this on and not the boards or administration?
Parents have a strong and passionate voice and can present the most compelling argument for our
province continuing to provide US with a CHOICE in education.
Council Sign up form
➢ The council executives will be working on our Council sign up form that
goes into the registration package for parents each year and bringing forward
the adjusted form to our February meeting. If anyone is interested in helping
please contact Teresa or Stacie.
Zoom Coffee
First meeting was a success. Lots of good information about what is working for
parents/kids and what’s not. Teresa to compile the information and get it into the
office.
Penny reached out to other charter schools with a letter asking for any tips/ tricks/
advice for everyone involved with online learning. No response back yet
Communication apps were mentioned and one in particular (PowerSchool) is
being investigated by Jenine through Taapcs that could potentially be a better
communication app.
ASCA Course
➢ I have still not heard from the ASCA about courses since their funding was
cut, will keep this on the Agenda so I can keep everyone updated as I find
out information.
Advisement to Principal on schooling for when kids are home:
RE: VCS School Council Advisement of December 3, 2020
This advisement is for Core subjects only and should be in place if 1 or more children
are missing from class. The bare minimum should be a video posted in each class of
that day’s lesson with corresponding assignment. There should never be an entire week
of no work being posted for a core class, even if the teacher is only reviewing in class
the video should be posted.
• VCS agrees wholeheartedly with the premise that the goal of school and teachers is to provide the
best possible learning experience for all students.
• VCS agrees also that adequate instruction and communication is the goal for all Google
Classroom experiences.
• VCS agrees that there should never be an entire week of no work being posted for a core class
(unless there are no students learning from home or if home-based students have alternate
learning methods agreed to by parents and teachers).
That being said:
• We work from the understanding that teachers have students’ best interests at heart and have the
goal of providing the best learning experience for students possible and that teachers have the
training and experience to be reliably diagnose student needs and prescribe effective
teaching/learning strategies to meet those needs.
• While VCS deeply values insights and communication from our parents, it remains the
responsibility of teachers and administration to implement those practices that they believe are in
the best interests of students.
• We must understand that during this unprecedented time, much is being asked of our teachers …
more in fact than is being asked of teachers in other jurisdictions. What they are already doing is
an enormous task, and we must be appreciative of that. Were more requests to be piled on, we
would run the very real risk of teacher burnout and were one of our teachers forced to take a leave
of absence due to burnout, the potential harm for students would be much greater.
In conclusion
VCS will partially adopt this advisement. VCS will continue to work by all means possible to
provide the best educational experience possible for all students. Administration will continue to
monitor and support teachers’ efforts, and will expect teachers to diagnose, monitor and support
student learning by the best methods available to them.
- General discussion was that although this is a great response parents are still frustrated.
Parents are hoping for a more cohesive, more engaged response. Parents are hoping
council can offer additional advisement as to more of a criteria list to be met; A minimum
standard across the board that is feasible for all involved. This will be revisited at next
meeting and include the extra information from Zoom coffee meeting.
Sensory Path
➢ We have discussed with the initial group who wanted to install the sensory
path and even though this is a fantastic thing to have in our school they
would rather sell the pathway than continue trying to get it installed. They
would like to put it out to the school community to see if anyone else might
be interested in taking it over. If anyone is interested, please contact me after
the meeting and we can have a conversation about it. Should we also post
this on Facebook?
All agree to posting this on Facebook.
Black History in our Classrooms
➢ No one stepped forward but should we post this on Facebook?
All agree to posting this on Facebook.
❖ Adjournment @ 11:45 am
❖ Reminder the next meeting date is February 4, 2021 at 10:30am via zoom.