Board Meeting: February 27, 2024
February 26, 2024
The Regular Meeting of the Langley Board of Education was held in-person and streamed online.
Agenda
Announcements
Diversity and Respect Week and Black History Month
Board Chair Candy Ashdown announced that this week is the District’s Diversity and Respect Week, which is a week-long initiative “to coincide with Pink Shirt Day in February to promote awareness, acceptance, reconciliation and inclusion for all members of the school community.”
She said that during this week schools across the District celebrate with learning activities and events which help raise awareness of empathy and inclusion, which is also in line with the District’s core values.
She also recognized February as Black History Month. She talked about it being a time to acknowledge and celebrate the important achievements and contributions of Black Canadians and encouraged all members of the community to engage in learning opportunities this month.
Secretary-Treasurer Reports
Amended Budget Bylaw 2023-2024
Secretary-Treasurer Brian Iseli provided an overview of the amended budget for 2023-2024. He reminded trustees the budget has to be finalized and sent to the Ministry at the end of the month. He shared tables outlining District expenses, revenue, budget bylaw amounts, operating revenues, operating expenses, and included a detailed breakdowns of different categories of the budget such as salaries, benefits, services, and supplies as examples.
Recommendation: That the Board of Education approves staff to appropriate (unrestrict) the following restricted surplus amounts to balance the 2023/2024 Amended Budget:
- $2,937,040 Internally restricted for commitments 2022/2023
- $125,000 Internally restricted for initiatives not completed 2022/2023
- $77,271 Internally restricted for Indigenous Education
- $264,997 school surpluses
Recommendation: That the School District No. 35 (Langley) Amended Annual Budget Bylaw 2023/2024 in the amount of $383,173,373 be given first reading.
Recommendation: That the School District No. 35 (Langley) Amended Annual Budget Bylaw 2023/2024 in the amount of $383,173,373 be given second reading.
Recommendation: That the Board of Education of School District No. 35 (Langley) approves having all three readings of the Amended Annual Budget Bylaw 2023/2024 in the amount of $383,173,373 at tonight’s meeting.
Recommendation: That the School District No. 35 (Langley) Amended Annual Budget Bylaw 2023/2024 in the amount of $383,173,373 be given third reading, passed and adopted on this 27th day of February 2024.
The Board approved the above motions. The video above will begin on this agenda item.
Superintendent’s Reports
District Calendar 2026-2027
Superintendent Mal Gill provided some background on District Calendars and how traditionally the District provides three years of calendars and makes them available on the District website to help families make future plans.
District Principal of Human Resources Kevan Reeve presented the proposed District Calendar for 2026-2027. He says the District Calendars must be in compliance with Ministry calendar regulations and need to meet certain instructional hours for each grade level. He shared the calendar and noted the significance of the colour coding for certain days.
Recommendation: That the Board of Education requests staff begin the consultation process for the District Calendar for 2026-2027.
The Board approved the above motion. The video above will begin on this agenda item.
The Board invites members of the public to provide feedback on the District Calendar 2026-2027 (see below) by March 24. Please send comments to feedback@sd35.bc.ca
District Calendar 2026-2027
Communicating Student Learning: Student Inclusive Conferences
Director of Instructional Services George Kozlovic provided some background on student inclusive conferences. He explained how it’s a 30-minute learning conversation involving the student, teacher, and family, which replaces traditional report cards.
He said one of the main reasons for the shift was because these conferences were more meaningful to teachers, students, and families and gave students a “voice” in their learning. He explained how teachers were spending a lot of time writing report cards and not a lot of families were reading the report cards or having a full understanding of what their child was doing at school. This shift helps with that. This move to student inclusive conferences was also aligned with the Ministry’s reporting order and the District’s Guiding Principles of Assessment. He said the very first pilot was at RC Garnett Demonstration Elementary in 2019, which then followed with a few more elementary schools over the next few years. In 2023-2024 term 2, student inclusive conferences expanded to include all elementary schools.
RC Garnett teacher Julia Henry explained her experience with student inclusive conferences. She says students share evidence of their learning and teachers shares students’ areas of success and areas of future growth and families share reflections on the students’ growth. Families discuss goal setting together and have open conversations. She shared a sample of the anchor document that is used in these conferences and went over them in details. She outlined some benefits for teachers.
RC Garnett Principal Zoltan Bako shared some of the benefits for the family/guardian including clearer language (limited educational jargon), greater awareness of their child’s learning, voice in their child’s learning, and involvements in setting goals. In the first two years of the shift, they collected feedback from families on the process. Bako shared some of the highlights from parents including how they liked personalized feedback, they liked the focus on the child’s progress and taking ownership, it enabled to students to have their own voice, and one-on-one time to hear details, among other comments. After surveying parents, they found that parents overall have had positive experiences.
Recommendation: That the Board of Education receives the report on Communicating Student Learning: Student-Inclusive Conferences for information, as presented.
The Board approves the report as presented. The video above will begin on this agenda item.
Education/Strategic Plan Committee
Annual Review of International Baccalaureate Fees
Recommendation: That the Board of Education approves the fee structure for the International Baccalaureate Program at RE Mountain Secondary for the 2024-25 school year, as presented.
Annual Review of Specialty Academy
Recommendation: That the Board of Education approves the fees for Specialty Academies for the 2024-25 school year, as presented.
The Board approved the above motions. The video above will begin on this agenda item.
Finance and Facilities Meeting
Long Range Facilities Plan
Director of Facilities, Transportation, and Capital Projects Tristan Schaufler introduced a consultant that the District has contracted to help the District conduct a consultation on a new Long Range Facilities Plan. Les King, President of King and Company, presented to the Board the potential consultation plan. King opened his presentation by explaining how the Long Range Facilities Plan is a road map for the next 10 years. The purpose of the plan is to help look forward and plan for those years.
He shared a historical growth in Langley. He noted that the Township of Langley is the second fastest municipality growing in B.C. He commented that households in Langley are expected to increase by 27% by 2033. He shared a series of slides related to the enrolment forecast (preliminary information) for the Langley School District. He outlined some items in the Long Range Plan may not be changing. He gave an overview (in chart format) of the enrolment forecast in the six school district regions expected to grow. King closed the presentation with a summary of recommendations which included: that the District continues to implement middle schools where possible, restrict enrolment to those in-catchment to manage school capacity, use portable classrooms as required to provide school capacity, and utilize prefabricated classroom where appropriate. He listed a number of capital plan priorities for the District which included: building Smith Secondary, identifying three new sites and requesting land acquisition and new elementary schools in the Willoughby catchment, among other items. He noted that as part of the consultation on the Long Range Facilities Plan, administration and PAC chairs will be invited to group consultation meetings. It will include consultation with First Nations. He also shared the timeline of the upcoming consultation process.
Recommendation: That the Board of Education approves that staff proceed to consultation on the Long Range Facilities Plan.
The Board approved the above motion. The video above will begin on this agenda item.
New Business
No New Business
Trustee Comments
No Trustee Comments
Question Period