Board News: April 21, 2020
April 20, 2020
The Regular Meeting of the Langley Board of Education begins at 7:00 p.m. A link to the live-stream will be posted here in Board News.
Superintendent’s Report
Superintendent’s Report – COVID-19 Update
Superintendent Gord Stewart gave an update on District operations and the impacts of COVID-19. He began by expressing thanks to everyone in the system for their hard work and support during this challenging time. He mentioned the efforts from all staff over the past few weeks have made him proud to be a part of the District. He showed two video examples of positive stories in the District that has helped connect our community including the Aldergrove Family of Schools car rally and a Lynn Fripps teacher who has stepped up to make a device to help healthcare workers.
He explained the current situation and challenges that the system is facing. He talked about topics for consideration for transition back to in-class instruction such as grade levels, maintaining cleaning standards, and physical distancing for primary students for examples. He said the next step in the next few weeks could be an expansion in providing care for Tier 2 Essential Service Workers or including vulnerable students. The District will continue to take direction from the Ministry of Education and the Provincial Health Office.
He explained our current methods of communication to staff and parents with weekly updates. He reiterated that all large-scale events (50+) will not proceeding and that includes grad ceremonies, grad banquets/dances. Staff will continue to have schools look into options to honour grads. In relation to summer session, staff will continue to make decisions over the next few weeks on what will be offered.
District staff gave an overview of guiding principles including health and safety, supporting essential service workers/families, supporting vulnerable families/learners, and the continuity of learning.
Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Barry Bunyan explained our health and safety procedures and the process of visiting our school sites. He outlined a number of measures undertaken at both the District and school level including implementing signage communicating health and safety best practices and maintaining stock of cleaning products.
Assistant Superintendent Mal Gill provided a summary of our work of supporting Essential Service Workers/Families. He outlined our five Learning Hubs that are operating to provide care for children of Essential Service Workers. He said it started on April 6 with 27 students and has grown to 95 students/54 families by April 13, with more families to come. Next considerations moving forward include Ministry changes to school mandate, currently servicing Tier 1, and expanding to supporting Tier 2 and helping vulnerable learners.
Superintendent Gord Stewart outlined how the District is supporting families in our system. He summarized schools have a vulnerable learners team working to provide support, the District is feeding over 600 families weekly, help from the Foundation, and working with community partner agencies. The main intentions in the last few weeks was to identify families with food and housing insecurities and begin to eliminate barriers to accessing both. Then identify next priority of vulnerability to address.
Assistant Superintendent Woody Bradford gave an overview of the District’s Continuity of Learning Plan. He started with outlining the District’s framework including planning templates, ideas and guidelines for remote learning distributed to staff and families. He followed with how the District will be executing reporting and assessment. As he explained, students will continue to receive grades and a report card at the end of the year. Teachers at schools have been working collaboratively with each other and with their colleagues around the District to deliver this plan.
The Board received the report as presented. This portion of the Regular Board Meeting can be viewed below.
Secretary-Treasurer’s Report
International Student Program Tuition Change
Secretary-Treasurer Brian Iseli informed the Board of the District’s plan to raise international fees by $1,000. This would increase tuition to a total of $15,500 beginning in the 2021-2022 school year. The is due to the increased cost in MSP payments for International Students across the province.
The Board received the report as presented. This portion of the Regular Board Meeting can be viewed below.
School Calendars 2020-2021
Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Barry Bunyan presented the proposed school calendars for 2020-2021. He provided background information related to the District’s work with the schools to develop the calendars. He explained how this year the District is not going to have collaboration days (early dismissal days). This change was made after receiving feedback from the public. The calendars proposed are in compliance with calendar regulations and the collective agreement. There are eight calendars to be reviewed.
The Board approved the calendars as presented. This portion of the Regular Board Meeting can be viewed below.
Annual Facilities Grant 2020-2021
Secretary-Treasurer Brian Iseli presented the annual facilities grant spending plan for 2020-2021.
The Board approved the Annual Facilities grant spending plan as presented. This portion of the Regular Board Meeting can be viewed below.
Five Year Capital Plan 2020-2021- Bylaw 2020/2021
Secretary-Treasurer Brian Iseli presented the plans that have been approved by the Ministry. He explained these plans must be approved by the Board in order for the projects to go ahead. The projects include window upgrades at Brookswood Secondary, DW Poppy Secondary, Peter Ewart Middle, and an accessible playground at Topham Elementary. Other projects include a Building Envelope for Aldergrove Community Secondary. He mentioned the District is following up on potentially other future projects including a new elementary school in the North East Latimer neighbourhood, and three seismic upgrade projects for Shortreed Elementary, Peter Ewart Middle, and Vanguard Secondary.
Board Motions
- That the School District No. 35 (Langley) (Capital Plan 2020/2021) Capital Bylaw No. 2020/2021-CPSD35-01 in the amount of $1,325,000 be given first reading.
- That the School District No. 35 (Langley) (Capital Plan 2020/2021) Capital Bylaw No. 2020/2021-CPSD35-01 in the amount of $1,325,000 be given second reading.
- That the Board of Education of School District No. 35 (Langley) approves having all three readings of the (Capital Plan 2020/2021) Capital Bylaw No. 2020/2021-CPSD35-01 in the amount of $1,325,000 at tonight’s meeting.
- That the School District No. 35 (Langley) (Capital Plan 2020/2021) Capital Bylaw No. 2020/2021-CPSD35-01 in the amount of $1,325,000 be given third reading, passed and adopted on this 21st day of April 2020.
The Board approved all of the above motions. This portion of the Regular Board Meeting can be viewed below.
Trustee Comments
This portion of the Regular Board Meeting can be viewed below.