February 11, 2008 | Vol. 20, No. 05

WHAT'S INSIDE?

20^th AGM & PROGRAM 2008
Ministry Education Holds February Partnership Table Meeting
Ministry of Education UPDATE
Copyright Reform Does Impact the Education Sector
BCSTA e-Digest, February 14
CSBA InfoPicks, February 15
Calendar of Events

At OPSBA

20^th AGM & PROGRAM 2008
Thursday, 12 — Sunday, 15 June, 2008

Sheraton on the Falls Hotel and Conference Centre
5875 Falls Avenue, Niagara Falls, Ontario

HOSTED BY OPSBA’S CENTRAL WEST REGION

Join your colleagues to celebrate our 20^th ANNIVERSARY!

At the AGM we will determine our priorities and directions for the coming year, elect our officers and plan for the future. This event also includes a comprehensive professional development program of stimulating, challenging, and inspiring speakers and in-depth workshops, as well as abundant networking opportunities for trustees.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:

Dr. MICHAEL THOMPSON -- psychologist, school consultant, an internationally renowned speaker and author or co-author of seven books, including the New York Times bestseller, “Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys”.

DAVID WARLICK -- Our Students • Our Worlds
This presentation, by 30+ year educator, author, and technologist, will explore some of the changes and challenges in education and arrange them as a set of converging conditions that will provide direction for retooling our classrooms for the 21st century.

Make plans now to attend!

Welcome reception:  Thursday, 12 June 2008 at 7:30 p.m.

Conference ends:  Sunday, 15 June 2008 at 11:30 a.m.

Check OPSBA’s Fast Reports for regular updates and future announcements.

The Registration Form and the Preliminary Program will be available online in April.

For more information: Gail Anderson, Executive Director, ext.109, ganderson@opsba.org; Ernesta Graham, Events Coordinator, ext.115, egraham@opsba.org; or Susan Weinberg, Policy & Professional Development Coordinator, ext.128, sweinberg@opsba.org

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Ministry of Education Holds February Partnership Table Meeting

A meeting of the education partners and stakeholders was hosted by the Minister of Education on Monday, February 11, 2008 from 1pm to 4pm.  OPSBA was represented by the Association Vice-President, Loralea Carruthers, and members of OPSBA staff. Presenting for the Ministry were Kathleen Wynne, Minister of Education, Liz Sandals, Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister; Nancy Naylor, Assistant Deputy Minister, Elementary/Secondary Business and Finance Division and George Zegarac, Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Planning and Elementary/Secondary Programs Division.

The following matters were discussed:

• a draft vision paper, Reach Every Student: Energizing Ontario Education, Winter 2008
• Capital Plan
• GSN Update.  

For each of these items, the Ministry presented and then responded to questions and comments from the Partnership Table participants.

Draft Vision Paper, Reach Every Student: Energizing Ontario Education, Winter 2008

The Minister of Education presented a draft vision paper that included a cover letter from the Premier describing the document as follows:

"Today’s students are the workforce and leaders of tomorrow. They represent our province’s future prosperity and well-being. That is why it is so important to rededicate ourselves to giving each and every student the opportunity to succeed."

"Reach Every Student: Energizing Ontario Education outlines our government’s plan to continue strengthening and improving publicly funded education. My colleagues and I are committed to building on the achievements of the past four years – and to ensuring that excellence remains the hallmark of our system of learning."

"The paper also sets out how we will continue working with you to further vitalize Ontario’s publicly funded education system for our two million students. As educational leaders, you play an instrumental role in making our shared vision of an education system that is second to none a reality."

The draft vision statement describes the education focus of the government embodied in the statement Reaching Every Student. The document describes core priorities, the conditions that support these priorities and the commitment to move forward to meet the goal of giving every student the opportunity to achieve.

The government’s core priorities continue to be: high levels of student achievement, reduced gaps in classroom achievement and increased public confidence in publicly funded education as the education system of choice. The supporting conditions identified for special attention were: early childhood learning; arts education; character development; student engagement; safe and healthy schools; parent engagement; peace and progress; school buildings; small class sizes; professional learning; and leadership.

A number of suggestions and observations were made by the education partners for consideration in drafting the final version of the Vision Paper.

Capital Plan

Nancy Naylor, ADM, Finance, presented a clear and informative overview of the capital plan investments for schools and complimented boards for their management of their capital resources.

In terms of real estate estimates, the education system has 4000 elementary schools, 900 secondary schools comprising 240 million square feet of real estate and 2.2 million pupil places. The estimated real estate replacement cost is $37 billion.

As background to future planning for the next 5 to 10 years, the presentation demonstrated experience in capital funding and school building over the 10 year period since the new funding model (New Pupil Places) was first introduced. The funding model supported a significant number of new schools, i.e., 967 schools at a capital funding cost of $5.8 billion. However, declining enrolment had an impact on the capital funding for those boards that have been experiencing a drop in student enrolment. In 2005, Good Places to Learn was introduced for capital funding. This initiative provided approximately $4 billion in capital investments for school renewal, primary class size, prohibitive to repair, enrolment growth, French Language, and Best Start in new schools.

Under Good Places to Learn, there were almost 10,000 renewal projects. There is approximately $1.1 billion in the pipeline for construction. There continue to be capital needs that have been identified.  These are related to remedying space challenges, health and safety issues, and providing for program improvements. More is needed for renewal to address schools that need restoration and to handle the challenges presented by declining enrolment as well as schools where enrolment is on the rise. It is anticipated that part of the planning will involve new capital funding benchmarks and capital standards, green standards for construction and operations, as well as full day programming for 4 and 5 year olds. It was suggested that it would be helpful if those boards that have been building schools share their experience with other boards that are beginning to plan projects.

Questions that were raised for discussion were:

1. How do we move toward a multi-year flexible approach to support a range of capital needs?
2. Do boards want help designing and/or building schools?
3. Do we need a facility condition survey to see what has been accomplished and what renewal needs remain?
4. What timelines are realistic for communities and boards to move ahead on capital plans?
5. With limited funds, how do we strike a balance between investment in building and investment in staffing and resources for the classroom?

GSN Presentation

Liz Sandals, Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Education and MPP for Guelph Wellington, presented an overview in advance of the release of 2008-09 Grants for Student Needs.  Ms Sandals led the Ministry pre-GSN consultation on the 2008-09 education funding. This forum offered OPSBA representatives the opportunity to engage in a lively dialogue with Ministry officials on education funding issues and to highlight suggestions raised in the OPSBA education funding submission. The OPSBA finance document was also submitted to the members of the Legislative Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs during their pre-budget deliberations.  A copy was also provided to the Minister of Finance.

(The OPSBA Submission was adopted by the OPSBA Board in November 2007 and is available online).

Ms Sandals’ presentation included an outline of the issues identified by the education stakeholders during the pre-GSN release consultation as well as the Ministry’s future plans and response to the identified funding needs for 2008-09.

The Ministry received positive feedback for the early release of the GSN's last year; this helped boards in their planning cycle.  The Minister is committed to achieving an early release again this year. It was noted that the slowdown in the US economy and its impact on Ontario is a growing concern.

The provincial Auditor General is currently reviewing Special Education spending and school board facilities management. The Public Accounts Committee has decided to continue the practice (which it began last year) of calling the Directors from those boards which were selected by the auditor for detailed examination to testify at the Committee's Public Hearings on school board spending.

See
Ministry of Education Draft Vision Paper

OPSBA 2008/09 Grants for Student Needs

For more information: Gail Anderson, Executive Director, ext.109

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Ministry of Education UPDATE

Memo Summary: February 2008

See
http://cal2.edu.gov.on.ca/feb08.html

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Across CANADA

Copyright Reform Does Impact the Education Sector

The Canadian School Boards’ Association, through its participation in the Education Copyright Coalition, has participated in the development of a series of Copyright Information Bulletins which are designed to inform trustees, educators, and parents about the proposed “education amendment” for any copyright reform legislation. 

Whenever the issue of copyright reform is raised, CSBA has been vocal in its support of an education amendment to the Copyright Act which would permit the educational use of freely available Internet materials. The proposed amendment is intended to address educational needs and ultimately clarify and enhance respect for copyright ownership on the Internet. Additionally, CSBA believes that an educational amendment is necessary to ensure balanced copyright legislation, addressing the needs of users – in this specific case, students and teachers – while respecting the rights of creators and publishers. Exactly how this proposed educational amendment will benefit students and teachers is explained in the Copyright Information Bulletin Series. 

The Education Copyright Coalition is made up of:

• the Council of Ministers of Education Canada (CMEC),
• the Canadian School Boards’ Association (CSBA),
• the Canadian Teachers Federation (CTF),
• the Association of Universities and Colleges Canada (AUCC),
• the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT),
• the Canadian Home and School Federation (CHSF),
•  and Association of Community Colleges of Canada (ACCC) and
• other national educational organizations. 

As copyright reform legislation is expected to be introduced this spring, raising this issue among constituents is timely. School boards are encouraged to post this bulletin on their own websites, and to distribute the information to schools and parents.

See
Copyright Information Bulletin #1

For more information: Cynthia Andrew, Legislative & Policy Analyst, ext.112

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BCSTA e-Digest, February 14

CSBA InfoPicks, CSBA Advocacy, Goods and Services Tax on School Board Purchases and Protecting Canadian Libraries' Access to Reduced Postal Rates, February 15

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Calendar of EVENTS