GPPSD Board Highlights 2017-02-28

Grande Prairie Public School District

FEBRUARY 28, 2017

BOARD HIGHLIGHTS Central Office, 10213-99 Street, Grande Prairie, AB, T8V 2H3

The Grande Prairie Public School District is a learning community in which every student succeeds GRANDE PRAIRIE PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT Board of Trustees Board Chair John Lehners Board Vice-Chair JoAnn Cazakoff Trustees Brenda Howard Karen Propokowich Paulette Kurylo Superintendent Alexander (Sandy) McDonald Associate Superintendent - Secretary-Treasurer Jeff Olson Assistant Superintendent - Curriculum Services Nick Radujko Assistant Superintendent - Student Services James Robinson

UPCOMING DISTRICT DATES

Students from Hillside Community School posing for a group photo during Pink Shirt Day

Annual Report Presentation

GP PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT EDUCATION FOUNDATION

Regular Board Meeting Tuesday, March 14, 2017 06:00 p.m., Central Office

Laura LaValley, Chair, and Angus Sutherland, Vice-Chair, of the GPPSD Education Foundation presented the Foundation’s annual report for 2015-2016 and an overview of the work they have undertaken to serve the needs of our school community over the past year. They also provided some of the highlights of the Foundation from the current year. The Foundation raised just over $100,000 over the course of the past year. Details on the various scholarship and grant programs

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were also presented to the Board. The theme of the presentation focused upon the fact that the Foundation collects funds from various sources including community donations and contributions from GPPSD staff and distributes that money to various scholarships and projects throughout the district. Over the past two years, the Foundation has distributed over $40,000 to schools in our district. This is an impressive number from an impressive group of people.

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GPPSD BOARD HIGHLIGHTS

FEBRUARY 28, 2017

GPPSD Trustess

School Administration

The Trustees toured the site of the new central office. Construction is on track for late spring 2017 occupancy of the building.

Mr. McDonald shared the following changes to Administration for the 2017-2018 school year.

TOUR OF NEW BUILDING

Presentation by 3D Charity

PRINCIPAL’S MEETING

STAFFING UPDATES - Joanne Perrott will be the new principal at Roy Bickell Public School beginning May 2017. She is moving from Avondale School.

- Corinne Kruse will be moving from Swanavon School to take up the principalship at Crystal Park Public School.

Update on GPPSD

FRENCH PROGRAMMING

The Board was provided information on the growth of the French programming in Grande Prairie Public School District schools. Highlights included:

Superintendent McDonald discussed with the Trustees, the presentation principals received from members of the 3D Charity (formerly the Tri-District Hockey Tournament). The Charity Foundation discussed that they have made some changes for the coming year by adding a soccer tournament to the annual hockey tournament format. Tournament representatives were also proud to share with principals that the Tournament has raised close to $900,000 since its inception.

- Continued success with the Late Entry French Immersion programming beginning in grade 5. We have a wait list of students so again have a full class of students excited to take this programming.

- In three years, Late Entry French Immersion numbers have grown from 18 in one grade to 58 in three grades.

- In four years, enrolment in French Immersion from grades 1-12 has grown from 458 to 657 students.

This is an approximately 44% increase in student numbers.

- Programming opportunities at the grade 9-12 level were discussed including increased course offerings in more subjects including math and science instruction provided in French.

Board Engagement Meeting

WITH ADMINISTRATORS

Mr. John Lehners, Board Chair, led discussion on the work being done by the Board and system/school administrators on Board/Administrator engagement. The level of work being accomplished through this structure is providing many insights for the Board as they build their new vision, mission and guiding principles.

The other purpose of these sessions is to engage in discussion about how we define student success in Grande Prairie Public School District.

Once again the engagement afternoon was rich with discussions around the refinement of the focus of our work as leaders in GPPSD. Aligning the work of the Board to their governance perspective and the administrators to the operational perspective provides the ability to make decisions as we move forward as a team.

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Update on GPPSD

PINK SHIRT DAY

This has become a bigger event than anyone could have imagined when this “anti-bullying” day come into being. Trustees appreciated the efforts of the staff from all the schools and central office who participated by wearing pink, having assemblies and taking pictures to show their united stand against bullying in our schools and our city.

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