DPAC Rep. / Advocacy Update March 2018
Lots going on at the moment! Here are some useful links for finding out more:
District Parent Advisory Council – For links to

• Vancouver School Board information on two separate reviews underway – the overall French Immersion program, and catchment boundaries
• Timeline and process for the VSB budget for the 2018-2019 school year
• The February 22 presentation to parents on the new curriculum
• Information on DPAC’s new PAC2PAC program which allows PACs to donate funds anonymously to support PACs at less affluent schools,

see:
vancouverdpac.org/generalannouncements/2018/3/5/march-2018-update
All parents and guardians are invited to attend DPAC’s April 12 meeting (the day after our next PAC meeting) at which David Green, the VSB secretary-treasurer, will walk us through the preliminary 2018-2019 VSB budget proposal. 7 – 9 pm, Room 180, at the VSB offices at 1580 West Broadway.
British Columbia Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils – For links to

• Comment on the recent Provincial budget’s provisions for spending on public education, including funding for school playgrounds and accelerating the seismic mitigation program,
• Information on the Province’s review of the education funding formula (by which individual school district budgets are set)
• Information on the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) policy supporting inclusion and safety for all students in public schools,

see:
bccpac.bc.ca/
Our Hudson PAC resolutions asking BCCPAC to advocate for changes to the provincial Area Standards has gone through the BCCPAC resolutions committee and will come forward for debate at the BCCPAC annual general meeting this coming May 05 and 06. The final version of the resolutions is posted on the advocacy page of the PAC website; please contact Alan or Rob if you have any questions or would like to know more.
Parent Advocacy Network – For links to

• Submissions regarding the provincial budget and the funding formula review,
• Advocacy for restoration of arts education,

see:
www.panvancouver.ca/news
Interested parents are invited to PAN’s open meeting on April 10 (the day before our next PAC meeting) from 6:30 – 9:30 pm in the back room of the Tipper Restaurant, 2066 Kingsway.
For more information on any of the above, please contact Alan, our representative to DPAC, at apatola@telus.net

On February 10, 2018 the Hudson PAC submitting the following resolution to be considered at the BCCPAC 2018 Annual General Meeting. This is important to Hudson because as it stands now, when a school is rebuilt as a result of seismic upgrades, the Ministry of Education Area Standards do not force it to include space for non-enrolling education (e.g. art or music). Nor do the area standards consider the need for licensed Day Cares.

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Title of Resolution: Advocacy for Revision of Area Standards
Type of Resolution: Ordinary
Submitted by: Henry Hudson Elementary PAC, School District #39
Resolution Wording:
Be it resolved that BCCPAC advocate for revisions to the Ministry of Education Area Standards document for the design of all new or rebuilt schools throughout B.C. that would

1. require and protect space allocations in elementary schools for non-enrolling classrooms to ensure there is room for essential elements of quality public education such as art, music, science, individualized learning as per the new curriculum and support for students with special needs, and
2. require and protect space allocations in elementary schools for licensed out-of-school childcare programs

Be it further resolved that BCCPAC’s advocacy include

1. immediately writing a letter to the Ministry of Education asserting that such revisions of the Area Standards document are urgently needed given the current government’s expressed intention to increase the pace of seismic mitigation projects throughout the province,
2. participating to the greatest extent possible in any Ministry of Education consultations around such revisions, and
3. reporting back on outcomes to the BCCPAC membership.

Proposer’s Position Statement Supporting the Resolution:
The current Ministry of Education Area Standards (http://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/administration/resource-management/capital-planning/areastandards.pdf) are the basis for design of all upgrades and new schools. The current area standards include space allocations for non-enrolling classrooms for middle and secondary schools, but no such allocations for elementary schools. Thus in newly constructed elementary schools or rebuilds for seismic upgrades there is no protection for adequately sized dedicated spaces for a) core programs such as music and art, b) resources such as technology labs, c) individualized learning as envisaged in the new provincial curriculum, or d) resources such as sensory rooms or breakout spaces to support students with special needs.
In addition, childcare before and after mandated school hours is an increasingly necessary service for the growing proportion of families which need two incomes to cover their cost of living. The current area standards include no protected space for such programs. A fine csummary of this issue can be found at https://www.change.org/p/rob-fleming-mla-leg-bc-ca-integrate-out-of-school-care-into-our-schools.
We ask BCCPAC to advocate for revisions to the provincial area standards to address these concerns, which affect children and parents in communities across the province. As one example, our own elementary school has during recent years of rising enrolment seen the transformation of a music room, an art room, a computer lab, the lunch room and the staff lounge into enrolling classrooms, and our out-of-school care program space now shared with a classroom. This same school is in the queue for a seismic upgrade; using the current area standards and serving the same population of students, the new facility envisaged in the Vancouver School Board’s current capital plan submission would be 21% smaller than the original, in which it is difficult to imagine how the spaces already lost to our school can be restored.
Implementers:
Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance, Boards of Education
Interested Parties:
BC School Trustees Association, BC Teachers Federation, BC School Superintendents Association, BC Principals and Vice Principals Association, Childcare Licensing authorities

Dear parents,
Today there was a meeting regarding the drainage issue on the playing field with the PAC Chair, the VSB Trustee liaison, Mr. Cannon and other members of the VSB.
There is a chance we can move things forward with some drainage repair, but we need to vote on a resolution at a general meeting – which is tomorrow!
This important resolution vote will be the first agenda item at the start of tomorrow’s PAC meeting at 6:30pm in the library. All parents with children at Hudson are invited/welcome to attend and are eligible to vote.
For everyone who attends, the PAC Chair has a special seasonal surprise! (Limited to the first 35 parents as the PAC Chair is kind of cheap;)
We hope to see you there!!
Questions? Please email hudsonpac@gmail.com.

DPAC News

The latest DPAC newsletter, which includes a calendar of November events at the VSB and some recent education news, is available here.
The newly elected VSB board of trustees is chaired by Janet Fraser of the Green Party. The trustee liaison to DPAC is Lisa Dominato of the NPA. The trustee liaison to Hudson is Judy Zaichkowsky, who is the liaison to both Kitsilano and Killarney Secondary schools and all their feeder elementary schools (13 schools in all).
The current VSB French Immersion program review committee, on which two DPAC parent representatives are serving, will report and make recommendations on December 6 to VSB’s Committee III (Educational and Student Services Committee). This review is not focused on either restoring the 20% of French Immersion (FI) kindergarten spaces cut at the beginning of this school year or on building capacity for FI in the long term. Instead it is looking at ways to increase the equity of access to FI across the city – in some geographical areas an application to FI is much more likely to be accepted than in others – and considering either altering catchment boundaries or removing catchment boundaries altogether. A second, future part of the FI program review will focus on curriculum. Canadian Parents for French has already begun advocacy work directed at the new board of trustees pointing out the campaign promises of all candidates to work to restore the cut spaces for September 2018, which are not addressed in this current work.
The next DPAC general meeting on Thursday, November 23 from 7:00pm to 9:00pm, will include a workshop open to all parents and guardians on the new reporting model for students currently being used from K to grade 9. The panel will consist of representatives from the VSB, the provincial Ministry of Education, both the elementary teachers’ and secondary teachers’ unions, and the admissions department of UBC. Registration is requested to help DPAC plan for space and childcare

Items of interest

The provincial all-party committee, which collected public input on priorities for the next provincial budget, has released its report. As in the past few years, the public put a significant priority on reform of the funding model for K-12 public education and providing adequate funding for a quality system. You can see the committee’s recommendations here.
The Vancouver School Board’s latest proposed capital plan includes a potential timetable for completion of the remaining 58 seismic upgrades in the city over the next nine years. Hudson is #11 on this list, with study of options for mitigation proposed to begin the second year of the plan. We can expect a provincial announcement on a funding decision about this plan on March 2018, once the next budget is in place.
BCCPAC’s latest “Our Voice” newsletter, including an interview with the new Minister of Education, information about gaming grants and the provincial Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity policy, is available here.
BCCPAC has also released the results of their recent province-wide survey of parents of special needs children who are not receiving a full day of education. Check it out here.

November 15, 2017 – Over the past few weeks the Seismic Upgrade Committee has worked to distribute our petition more widely. If you haven’t already signed, please do, and please consider sharing the link among your own networks. We have gathered contact information for the other 154 high risk schools in BC that have not yet been upgraded and invited the PACs (or principals where no current PAC contact information is available) to distribute the petition link among their communities.  In order to reach schools which are not high-risk, a similar invitation will be included in the “PAC to PAC” section of DPAC’s December newsletter, and BCCPAC has been approached for help in reaching non high-risk schools throughout the province. We thank the PACs at Bayview and General Gordon Elementary for already spreading word throughout their communities.
The current thinking of the committee is to balance maximum participation with maximum impact by keeping the petition active until the end of this term – if we were to collect 100 signatures from each of the schools that have already been sent the link, we would have over 10,000 signatures! – and forwarding the completed petition to the province before the work on the next budget (February 2018) is substantially completed.
We have also connected through social media with two other parent advocacy groups focused on seismic upgrades – Richmond Schools Stand United, and Seismic Safety for BC Schools, based in the tri-cities (Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody) – and hope to learn from their experiences as well as gain their help in distributing the petition.
The committee will meet shortly to consider other possible initiatives for education and advocacy. Your input is welcome! If you are interested in taking part please contact committee chair Laura MacDougall at laura_macdougall@hotmail.com.

During rainy weather our playing field has to be closed due to health and safety concerns. This happens during a majority of the school year, eliminating the play and exercise space for students outside.
In May 2017 the PAC started a petition to the Vancouver School Board (VSB) to fix the drainage problem on our playing field.
Since then, there has been ongoing communication on the issue between the PAC chair and VSB which can be read below:
May 2017

• Letter sent to VSB along with petition from PAC.

June 2017

• VSB response from Diane Turner to PAC’s petition.

October 2017

• PAC response to at the VSB.

November 2017

• VSB response with cost from Janet Fraser to PAC.
• PAC response to Janet Fraser at the VSB.

December 2017

• On December 5 members of the VSB met with our PAC chair and Mr. Cannon on the field to discuss options.
• Parents at the December 6 PAC meeting passed a motion to use the PAC’s Pay It Forward fund towards the cost of field repairs.
• The PAC sent this letter to the VSB advising them of the motion.

 

As advised at the last PAC meeting, the Hudson PAC Interim Chair sent a letter to the BC Government regarding how to get Seismic Upgrading on track. (Not an official PAC communication.) Read the PDF here.
District Parent Advisory Council forum for VSB trustee candidates
This event will take place Tuesday October 03 from 6:30 to 9:00 pm in the auditorium at John Oliver Secondary School, 530 East 41st Avenue (at Fraser Street). All parents and guardians of children in Vancouver public schools are welcome.
Tracy Sherlock, education reporter for The Courier, will moderate.
All of the 19 candidates for the 9 trustee positions have been invited to participate. To make the best use of the time available, DPAC is working to prepare questions for the candidates based on the issues and concerns uppermost in the minds of parents. If you have a question you would like DPAC to consider including, please forward it to Hudson’s representative to DPAC, Alan Patola Moosmann, at apatola@telus.net by September 24.
The by-election itself takes place on October 14. For voter information, including advance polling options, see https://vancouver.ca/your-government/2017-by-election.aspx.
The Hudson PAC executive encourages all Vancouver voters connected with our school community to learn about what each candidate is bringing to support our public education system and to get out and cast an informed vote!
DPAC presents PAC 101
The September 28 DPAC executive meeting (7:00 to 9:00 pm, Room 120 at the Vancouver School Board office at 1580 West Broadway) will be dedicated to a PAC 101 session, open to all parents and guardians of children in Vancouver public schools. This will be a useful refresher on the basics of how to operate a PAC for those serving, or considering serving, on school PAC executives or committees.
BCCPAC survey for parents of special needs children who are not receiving a full day at school
BCCPAC, the provincial umbrella organization for all PACs and DPACs, is conducting a brief survey to identify the extent to which this is an issue and intending to take the results and some proposed actions to the Ministry of Education. To learn more and to take part in the survey, click here.

At the VSB Committee III (Education and Student Services) meeting tonight [May 31, 2017] Gord Lau, PAC chair at Trafalgar, presented parent concerns about the school board’s decision to reduce by five the total number of French Immersion kindergarten classes across the district in the coming school year. (Trafalgar, Lord Tennyson, Lord Selkirk, Hastings and L’Ecole Bilingue are the schools directly affected.) Following the parent presentation, Adrian Keough, VSB Director of Instruction, spoke about the background to the decision to cut FI kindergarten enrollment (presentation attached -“op_commIII_item2”).
There wasn’t any sense that the VSB would revisit this decision, but there was an effort made to reassure parents that this is a short term measure in response to specific issues around the speed of implementation of the restored class size and composition rules, and the challenges in engaging qualified staff. Staff and the official trustee also spoke of the district’s long-term commitment to a healthy French Immersion program, which remains in high demand.
VSB staff reminded parents at tonight’s meeting that as part of the VSB’s five-year strategic plan, choice programs such as French Immersion and school catchment areas are up for review next year. Given the current disconnects between demand and capacity, there may well be room to reduce pressure on over-enrolled schools and to find alternatives to closing schools with underutilized space by making adjustments both to catchment areas and to where choice programs are offered.
One parent present invited the VSB to consider using swing spaces not being used for seismic upgrades this year to house the five kindergarten FI classes next year, should another upgrade not be in process by then.
Any parent/guardian wishing to remain current about this is welcome to join the issue-specific mailing list set up by the Trafalgar PAC via http://trafalgarpac.ca/fi-kindergarten-issue/.
Also attached (“op_commI_item3”) is a staff presentation to VSB Committee I (Management Coordinating Committee) from earlier this week giving the larger picture of current K-12 enrollment issues in the district. This is worth a look as it also provides a wider context for Hudson’s current struggles to find space for in-catchment students for the regular English program. The report is slightly out of date as Mr. Cannon has confirmed that there will be a second Hudson English Kindergarten next year, so Table 2 should show 40 2017-2018 Kindergarten spaces for Hudson rather than 20.
Encouraging the VSB (staff and appointed trustee) to improve communication with parents throughout the choice program and catchment area reviews will be an important ongoing task for parents, PACs and DPAC. This would avoid repetition of the current situation where a decision was made with minimal public input and announced in a way which alarms parents, and create opportunities for respectful consultation with the public, who, with more understanding of the issues as they develop, could well be the source of some creative solutions.

DPAC Representative Report and Public Education Advocacy Update
Please note that materials posted on this page are FYI only and not intended to state positions for the Hudson PAC or its Executive.
Vancouver School Board 2017-2018 budget process:
The VSB official trustee approved the proposed budget for 2017-2018 on April 26. The relevant board meeting minutes will be posted shortly with the final approved budget, which includes cuts to services and programs to meet a $2.1 million shortfall, at http://www.vsb.bc.ca/2017-2018-budget-updates. The report on the survey the VSB conducted as their public input process can now be found on that page; the VSB refrained from reporting on the responses to the three questions asking the public to prioritize areas of spending as these questions were widely criticized by DPAC, parent advocacy groups and individuals.
Public Education Advocacy
Links to recordings of recent public events focused on public education (DPAC all-party forum with MLA candidates, SFU’s panel of education critics in conversation with a former BC education minister, etc.) will be posted on the Hudson PAC advocacy page as the event organizers make them available.
Non-partisan background on education issues can be found at http://www.panvancouver.ca (the Parent Advocacy Network) and https://www.youtube.com/user/educmatters (SFU’s Faculty of Education’s television program about education issues).
If you have questions about any of the above, please contact Hudson’s representative to DPAC, Alan Patola Moosmann, 778-998-8596, apatola@telus.net.

DPAC Representative Report
Update on April VSB Budget
Provincial Election Events
Please note that this is FYI only and not intended to state positions for the Hudson PAC or its Executive. If you have questions please contact Hudson’s representative to DPAC, Alan Patola Moosmann, 778-998-8596, apatola@telus.net
Vancouver School Board 2017-2018 Budget Process
The VSB anticipates a shortfall of $2.1 million dollars and is proposing a variety of cuts to balance next year’s budget. Details are available at www.vsb.bc.ca/district-news/vsb-online-survey-now-open-feedback-budget, click on the “Summary of budget proposals” link at the bottom of the page.
The timeline for public review and input is very short. There is a survey which can be accessed until 5:00 pm on April 18 through the above link or at www.govsb.ca/budgetsurvey. DPAC has received a number of comments from parents concerned about both the budget proposals and the survey; you can download DPAC’s April 11 presentation to the VSB from http://vancouverdpac.org/generalannouncements/2017/4/10/dpac-statement-to-joint-plenary-iii-v-committee-april-10-2017
A revised budget will be released on Wednesday April 19, and the survey results will be released on Friday April 21.
The only remaining opportunity for the public to provide face-to-face input to the Board is Monday April 24 – 7:00 to 9:00 pm at the VSB committee of the whole meeting, Vancouver School Board main office, 1580 West Broadway. To register to make a presentation, email budget2017-2018@vsb.bc.ca.
The VSB board will meet for final approval of the budget on Wednesday April 26 at 7:00pm.
Public Education and the Provincial Election
The provincial election is Tuesday, May 9!
DPAC’s MLA Candidate Education Forum
Tuesday April 25, 6:30 to 8:30pm (please note corrected time!) Room 180, Vancouver School Board main office, 1580 West Broadway. This event will feature two local candidates from each of the Liberal, New Democratic and Green parties, and will be moderated by Vancouver Sun education reporter Tracy Sherlock. In order to plan appropriately for numbers, DPAC requests that people register beforehand at www.vancouverdpac_mlaeducationforum.eventbrite.com
BCCPAC All-Party Forum on Education Available Online
The April 4 Forum is now available to view online. Jonina Campbell of the Green Party (currently chair of the New Westminster School Board), Rob Fleming of the NDP (the opposition Education critic) and Andrew Wilkinson of the Liberal Party (Minister of Advanced Education) were the speakers, taking questions collected by BCCPAC from DPACs around the province. Please follow this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ion8bVprk8&utm_source=ZOHO+Member+Contacts+2016%2F17&utm_campaign=1debd10202-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_04_10&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d837bec74a-1debd10202-254858745
When it becomes available we will also post the link to the Your Education Matters Forum, BC Public Education: In Dialogue with Critics of Provincial Education Policy, held on April 11. This is a lively discussion between George Abbot, former BC education minister and a panel of school, student and parent representatives.
If you can, please make an effort to attend all candidates meetings in your riding over the coming weeks and ask all candidates about their education platforms!