| August 30, 2010 | | | | BACK TO SCHOOL!!!QESBA Schedule for the Week of August 30, 2010Monday, August 30, 2010: - Montreal – Tuesday, August 31, 2010: - Montreal – Meeting with QESBA auditors Wednesday, September 1, 2010: - Montreal – Thursday, September 2, 2010: - Montreal – Professional Development CommitteeFriday, September 3, 2010: - Montreal – School ReopeningQESBA has circulated to the network and on the website a school reopening message from President Debbie Horrocks. The piece ran in last week’s Gazette as well, and was submitted to major weekly regional media. In addition to expressing our wishes for every success to staff, commissioners and students, QESBA focuses on a few of the key issues heading into a new school year, including the future of curriculum reform, the Fall “rencontre”, implementation of the new collective agreements and high school success. Rencontre nationale QESBA is planning to meet informally in the coming weeks with other English-sector education partners to discuss common concerns and ideas for presentation to the Fall “rencontre nationale”. No further details to those reported in last week’s message have been forthcoming from the Ministry at this time. School taxes QESBA Vice-President Carolyn Curiale was interviewed by CJAD last Thursday regarding the school tax issue. Spearheaded by SWLSB, this issue is now on the public agenda. Five English boards have one or more French boards on the same territory charging preferential tax rates, leaving our Boards in the unfair position of appearing to “over-charge their ratepayers. In reality, current rules, of course, leave each board with no flexibility in setting its tax rate. QESBA will be bringing the matter to the attention of the Minister and the MELS bureaucracy. The problem has resulted in some citizens moving from the English school tax role to the French one. Retreat of the Chairs and Vice-Chairs Pursuant to a MELS grant under the recent administrative agreements, QESBA plans to host Chairs and Vice-Chairs on Leadership development retreat in the Montreal area on November 5th and 6th. It will immediately follow the Fall PD-AGM and QESBA Board meeting. The PD Committee, chaired by Frank Di Bello, will be meeting later this week to plan the PD session. Bill 103 hearings QESBA has been invited to present its brief on the opening day of hearings of the Commission de la Culture et de l’Éducation on draft Bill 103. LBPSB will appear on the 13th of September and EMSB is expected to appear the following week. QESBA has already circulated its brief to the network. Should you wish to see a copy, please contact the office. In the coming days, QESBA should receive a first draft of a small Bill-103-related research project, completed with support from the Federal Language Rights Support Panel. Meeting with Ontario Education ADM Director of Labour Relations and CPNCA President Ben Huot was asked to meet with the Ontario Assistant Deputy Minister of Education to describe our negotiating structures and protocols in Quebec. Ontario is interested in learning about what works and doesn’t in our province. During the visit, Ben also explored with our counterparts at the Ontario Public School Boards Association a portal they have developed linking all Ontario school boards on a shared site featuring best negotiating practices and local negotiations agreements. We will explore implementing a similar model here. Audited StatementsFuller Landau, the accounting firm that is responsible for auditing QESBA’s financials, will review a draft of the audited statements with QESBA tomorrow. The statements, as always, will then be brought forward to the Finance Committee, Executive Committee and Board of Directors Meeting, on September 10, 2010. Senior partner Gilles Marleau will then be present to discuss the audited statements before sending them out to the general membership for consultation. | | |
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| | August 23, 2010 | | | | QESBA Schedule for the Week of August 23, 2010 Monday, August 23, 2010: - Montreal – Tuesday, August 24, 2010: - Montreal – Wednesday, August 25, 2010: - Montreal - Thursday, August 26, 2010: - Montreal - Friday, August 27, 2010: - Montreal – Basic School RegulationResponding to strong opposition from QESBA and other education network partners, the new Minister announced last Friday that there will be a postponement to the implementation of the Basic School Regulation until July 2011 to offer more training time for teachers. To QESBA’s disappointment, only minor changes to the content have been made, however. The changes will result in a single “bulletin nationale” and a substantial downgrading in the importance accorded to competencies. A clear timetable of deadlines and priorities has now been published on the MELS website. QESBA is still seeking assurances that MELS will withdraw a regressive proposal that would require many integrated students with special needs to get a Ministerial derogation in order to receive a report card tailored to their specific potential. Without the derogation, they would be forced to receive the same bulletin nationale. QESBA is still waiting for a clear answer. We will communicate it to you as soon as one is forthcoming. New Education MinisterAs you are all aware, Line Beauchamp, most recently Minister responsible for Sustainable Development, is the newly-appointed Minister of Education, Recreation and Sports. QESBA promptly issued a news release commenting on the day of the Cabinet shuffle. The office of Beauchamp, who succeeds Michelle Courchesne, has already contacted QESBA to indicate that it recognizes us as an important partner and will seek to set up a meeting in short order. QESBA President Debbie Horrocks has already written to the new Minister, outlining some key QESBA priorities, and to the former one, offering our thanks for three-and-a-half years of collaboration. School TaxesSir Wilfrid-Laurier School Board has been particularly active in raising publicly the inherent unfairness in a number of English school boards being faced with no choice under current regulations but to charge a higher mill rate than some francophone boards on the same territory. QESBA has committed to raising the issue with the new Minister. A survey of our member boards so far indicates that at least three others are facing similar problems. The situation results in many parents incorrectly believing that they are being over-charged by the English boards. Rencontre NationaleThe planned Education summit, announced in the last provincial budget, was confirmed by Premier Charest in his declaration of the new Cabinet. Dates have not yet been confirmed but the “rencontre nationale” is now expected to cover three days in early November. QESBA has learned that a planned day on addressing the global issues and approaches to special needs students has been put off indefinitely. Bill 103Hearings on Bill 103 are set to begin in Quebec City on September 8, 2010. QESBA has submitted a brief and we are confident that we will receive an invitation to present our brief to the parliamentary commission. Both EMSB and LBPSB have submitted briefs to the Commission as well. The QESBA brief has been shared with the network. Should you wish to obtain a copy, please contact the office. QESBA BudgetThe Board of Directors approved the proposed QESBA budget for 2010-2011 in June. The budget has been sent out to all nine Boards for consultation and we will present the resolutions they adopt to the September 10th QESBA Board of Directors meeting. Based on the results of that consultation, the QESBA Board will then submit a final budget to the AGM for approval in October. Audited statementsFuller Landau, the accounting firm that is responsible for auditing QESBA’s financials, are now completing their work for the 2009-2010 fiscal year-end in July. As we do annually, QESBA will hold a Finance Committee, Executive Committee and Board of Directors Meeting on September 10, 2010 with senior partner Gilles Marleau present to discuss the audited statements before sending them out to the general membership for consultation. | | |
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| | Monday Message for June 28, 2010 | | | | QESBA Schedule for the Week of June 28, 2010 Monday, June 28, 2010: - Montreal – Tuesday, June 29, 2010: - Montreal – Ménard sub-committee on second perseverance scolaire summit Wednesday, June 30, 2010: - Montreal - Thursday, July 1, 2010: - Montreal - Holiday Friday, July 2, 2010: - Montreal – BILL 103There will be no formal opportunity for the Board of Directors to approve an eventual submission by QESBA to the Commission parlementaire on Bill 103, amending the French Language Charter. That submission must be submitted by mid-August. A draft will nonetheless be circulated to the Board by e-mail, with an invitation for suggested modifications. QESBA will shape its intervention on positions and policies endorsed by the Board to date. The actual hearings will begin on Sept. 2nd. CSBA Congress 2010Next week delegates from across Canada will gather for the 2010 CSBA Congress next week in St. John’s Newfoundland. Quebec will have a delegation of 25 from almost all nine boards present during the Congress. A Quebec “Meet and Greet” will be held on Thursday, July 8, 2010 at 5:00 p.m. and Mickey Quinn’s, off the hotel lobby. MINISTER’S PRE-CONSULTATION ON FALL SUMMIT Minister Michelle Courchesne offered limited additional information when she consulted with President Debbie Horrocks and Executive Director David Birnbaum last week on the Fall summit, now scheduled for November. Lead representatives from ADGESBQ, FCSQ and ADIGECS were also in attendance as the Minister explained the topics and locations for the five-day event. She noted that she expected the Premier would open the gathering, and stressed that it had now been approved by Cabinet. A new and key focus is “la place de l’école”, and its relationship with the school board. The Minister suggested that school board democracy would be a subject but perhaps, not a central one. Of the five days, two will be reserved for a separate session on students with special needs, likely to be held in October. A consultative document, probably in the form of questions on each theme, will be circulated in early Fall. The Minister has asked the network to submit its written feedback on the general summit orientations by August 15th. While she insisted that there are no pre-conceived MELS scenarios up for discussion, the Minister acknowledged that a full hearing of all possibilities will be invited. QESBA challenged the Minister on the necessity and the format for the summit – necessity, in light of major change already under way since Bill 88 was adopted; and format, out of concerns that school boards are being “set up” as scapegoats. Her only assurance was that the approach to the sessions would be “positive and constructive”. QESBA will invite its Board members to react by e-mail to its draft suggestions to the Minister, to be produced by mid-July. BASIC SCHOOL REGULATION QESBA expects to draft a response to major changes on the Basic School Regulation published in the Gazette officielle on June 11th. The changes to report cards and evaluation not only compromise the current QEP, their implementation by school reopening will put tremendous pressure on schools and resources.There is substantial anger amongst the DGs and associations in both the English and French sectors regarding the content and timing of the changes. Final budget parameters As reported in an e-mail to the network, member boards will receive formal notification of their budget reduction requirements on administrative expenditures under Bill 100 in the coming days. While the MELS bureaucracy has sent the clear message that it will provide the most flexibility possible within the new law, there is no real indication that any substantive change will be effected from what was presented at least week’s comité MELS-réseau finance meeting. QESBA expects to join the Fédé, ADIGECS, ADGESBQ and others in co-signing a final appeal for school boards to receive derogations from articles 11 and 12 of the law, addressing the requirement for a plan de redressement by September 30th – one of the more unreasonable aspects of the law. QESBA Budget Now that it has been approved by the Board, the QESBA Budget for fiscal 2010-2011 has been sent out to all nine Boards for consultation. Based on the results of that consultation, the QESBA Board will then submit a final budget to the AGM for approval in October. Perseverance scolaire Executive Director David Birnbaum will represent the English network at a planning committee tomorrow for a second province-wide forum on staying in school, to be coordinated by Prof. Michel Perron. Perron has been asked by L. Jacques Ménard to coordinate planning for a session likely to be held about 15 months from now. The first session at Mont Ste-Anne was instrumental in launching the Quebec-wide movement focusing on school success. The recent bulletin produced by the Ménard task force included an article by the Executive Director on English-sector initiatives and approaches to promote staying in school (bulletin attached; Page 14). | | |
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| | Monday Message for January 18, 2010 | | | | Monday Message for Janauary 18, 2010 | | |
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