Minister of Education Teleconference: Open to All

The Minister of Education is hosting a teleconference with parents and school councils at 7:45 pm on November 29th to discuss education.

  The Minister believes that parents play an important role in the education system, and is interested in hearing directly from them.

  Parents and School Council representatives are invited to participate in the conference call with the Honourable Thomas Lukaszuk, Minister of Education to discuss priorities for the next several months for Alberta's education system.

  Participants are encouraged to gather as a group to dial in where possible.

  The call will begin at 7:45 PM on Tuesday, November 29, 2011 and will take approximately 1 hour.
Please dial in at least 15 to 20 minutes ahead of time to the number listed below, as it will take time for all participants to be queued into the call and ensure participation.

Dial in information: 1-888-789-9572
Conference ID: # 5634664

  When participants dial in they will be greeted by a conference operator asking for the conference ID, the person's name, school and school authority. Participants will be able to ask a limited number of questions following the Minister's comments.

  All questions and responses will be heard by all participants and the Minister will answer as many questions as possible in the time allotted. If you experience any problems during the conference call, please stay on the line to speak to the operator.

  If participants have any questions in the days leading up to the teleconference, please contact Maureen Melnyk, Education Manager, Learning Supports & Information Management, at maureen.melnyk@gov.ab.ca or by telephone at 780-427-6272, or by calling toll free at 310-0000.

More Calgarians homeschooling through board programs

(From the CBC website)

Home schooling programs through the Calgary Board of Education have seen a 30 per cent rise in the number of parents taking part.


Read the full story here.

Remembrance display at Deer Valley Co-op

Thanks to all who attended our Remembrance Day assembly. The event was a very respectful, student-generated honour to all of those who have served our country. I was extremely proud of the time, energy and ownership our students demonstrated. If it is at all possible, try to stop in at the Deer Valley Co-op this Remembrance Day. Co-op will be displaying art produced by Room 11's grade 5/6 students. Be sure to pop in and take a look.

Calgary public school board drops plan to build wind turbine at E.P. Scarlett High School

(From the Calgary Herald website)

The city's public school board is abandoning its plan to install a 42.7 metre-high wind turbine in a school ground because of public concerns.

When the Calgary Board of Education unveiled its proposal for the $290,000 machine at Dr. E.P. Scarlett High School during a public meeting last week, area residents complained they had not been adequately consulted.

While officials said the noise from the nine-metre-long blades would not be audible in homes that are as little as 130 metres away from the planned turbine site, CBE spokesman Richard Peter said in a phone message that the board listened to the feedback from neighbours in the nearby Canyon Meadows and Southwood subdivisions and decided not to proceed.

The full article can be read here.

Not all children would thrive in all-day kindergaten

Michelle Bamford’s afternoon kindergarten students are sitting at her feet looking up at her in that open, starry-eyed kind of way that five-year-olds do.

These 19 students at West Springs Elementary School in southwest Calgary will spend about two and a half hours in her class this day and every week day, but that could change next year for kindergarten students, if Premier Alison Redford lives up to her leadership campaign promise to bring in full-day kindergarten across the province.

So the natural question is: Does full-day kindergarten make sense? Will it benefit children or just be an added convenience for parents who work outside the home — eliminating the need for additional daycare? Is the cost-benefit analysis of spending an additional $200 million worth it in the long run? Should full-day kindergarten be mandatory or optional?

Read the full story here.

Proposed wind turbine at E.P. Scarlett High School stirs stormy debate. What do you think?

(From the Calgary Herald website)


Community residents claim they weren’t ‘properly informed’

What began as a staid open house on a proposed 47-metre-tall wind turbine slated for a school ground turned stormy Wednesday when some southwest residents demanded to know why they weren’t “properly informed” of the Calgary Board of Education’s plan and questioned how such a project will benefit the community or even the environment.

While board officials defended the proposal as a superior learning tool for students, staff and residents, visitors to the open house at E.P. Scarlett High School accused the CBE of not being transparent.

“It really aggravates me that the board doesn’t bother to notify people of these things in a public way,” said Christine Ingham, who lives in Canyon Meadows and says she found out about the meeting by accident.

“And then, we get here and see there is no balanced information, just how great they think it is.”

Read more here.

Education Act put on hold

Alberta's new education act needs more work and has been pulled from this fall's legislative session, the province announced Thursday.

Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk said more consultation will be held on Bill 18 over the next few months. The move comes after school boards and other organizations identified some outstanding issues with the proposed act.

"I want to hear from as many individuals as I possibly can. What their view of the act as it is structured right now is and what the possibilities are to make this act even better," Lukaszuk said Thursday.

"I want to make sure that in this province for the sake of our kids and those entering our school system for many years to come, we have the best piece of legislation possible."

Bill 18 was tabled last spring by Dave Hancock, who was then Alberta's education minister.

Read the full article here.