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| 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 Wednesday, June 30, 2010: - Montreal - Thursday, July 1, 2010: - Montreal - Holiday Friday, July 2, 2010: - Montreal – BILL 103 There 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 2010 Next 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 of fered 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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