Board News: Tuesday, January 29, 2019
January 29, 2019
The Regular Meeting of the Langley Board of Education will be streamed live beginning at 7:00pm. A link to the video feed will be posted here in Board News just prior to the start of the meeting.
Agenda
Board Meeting Summary
Superintendent’s Reports
Strategic Plan Update – Superintendent Gord Stewart provided an update on the development of the District Strategic Plan for 2018-2022. At this point the Superintendent has met with five of the six partner groups to review the draft and receive some preliminary feedback. Each of the partner groups, through a lead partner representative, have until February 22nd to submit feedback to the Superintendent on the draft.
Once the feedback is incorporated into the first draft another set of meetings with each partner group will take place in March and April before a final version of the Plan is brought to the Board at their Regular Meeting on April 30th .
Initial conversations with each of the partner groups have been very positive with respect to goals set out in the Plan. The video above will begin on this agenda item.
BC Settlement Workers in Schools Program
English Language Learners (ELL) Department/Settlement Workers in Schools (SWIS) Program Update – The English Language Learning (ELL) Department and Settlement Workers in Schools (SWIS) program play an important role in supporting our English language learners and newcomers in Langley schools. In doing so, we also help to promote our District Vision to make the Langley School District an “Inclusive and Accepting Culture.” SWIS programs have helped increase capacity and understanding of settlement issues. Funding for the SWIS program has seen many changes provincially, and data reflected the population affected by the changes. The video above will begin on this agenda item.
Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI)
Instructional Services and Student Support – The Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI) is a self-report questionnaire completed by children in Grade 4 and Grade 7. It asks them how they think and feel about their experiences both inside and outside of school. The questionnaires include questions related to the five areas of development that are strongly linked to well-being, health and academic achievement. It also looks at the presence of assets that children have that support their well-being. Data presented was based on a self-report survey for children in their middle childhood years. The video above will begin on this agenda item.
Balanced Literacy Plan
Instructional Services – The Langley School District is in the third year of its Balanced Literacy Plan. The Plan was put in place to support all students in their ability to read and write proficiently by the end of Grade 3. It is recognized that the primary years are foundational for students to acquire the necessary skills in literacy to allow for successful transitions throughout their educational journey. The District’s approach has been to scaffold the implementation of different strategies to support schools based on their past five years of reading results. The support for each elementary school is provided by the Instructional Services Team. The video above will begin on this agenda item.
Human Resources – Hiring and Recruitment
Human Resources – Barry Bunyan, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources provided the Board an update regarding the practices and details resulting from the efforts of the Human Resources Department to address the District’s needs for teachers and support staff. Procedures and processes were shared, explained and specific data was presented, in most cases to cover the period of 2016-2018 to help inform the Board on the state of hiring as it presently exists. The video above will begin this agenda item.