The Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils of Saanich

SD63- SAANICH

Do you have a success story to share with your COPACS community?

We would like to identify and highlight school events that involve the collaborative efforts of parents, teachers and students to undertake. It will serve as an opportunity to raise awareness and encourage involvement of parents to engage in their school communities.

These stories will be shared with the school district, possibly the media and on our website. Sharing best practices and successes to help us celebrate parent involvement and learn from each other.

Please email your success stories to COPACS copacssd63@gmail.com

Parent involvement helps build a safe and inclusive community, so let's share our successes and actively support the Saanich School District motto "great places to learn and safe places to be."

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COPACS Discussion Forum

COPACS
Supporting SD63 Saanich
Parent Advisory Councils (PACs) and Families
in Public Education

Welcome to The Confederation of Parents Advisory Councils of Saanich's web page.

Parents and guardians are encouraged to subscribe to this page to receive updates of issues, activities and concerns of PACS in our district, as well as opportunities to provide feedback regarding district issues and policies. If you have any individual questions or concerns, please send an email to the copacssd63@gmail.com .

New PAC executive members should also subscribe to this page as this is the main communication tool used to provide information regarding COPACS meetings and special events.

COPACS meets on the first Thursday of the month at 7 pm at the Saanich Schools' Education Centre. All parents and guardians of Saanich District students are welcome to attend.

HELLO SD63 PACs,

Here is a brief update of district job action and general information and upcoming events that may be of interest to your PAC members. Please pass this on to your parents and guardians and anyone else who may be interested by email and add it to your PAC websites.

Thank you!

COPACS

GREAT PARENT EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES - EVERYONE WELCOME!!

at BAYSIDE MIDDLE SCHOOL (1101 Newton Place, Brentwood Bay)

On Thursday, January 12, 2012 from 7:00 - 8:30 pm, Steve Newlove will be speaking at Bayside Middle School on Restorative Practices, which is the conflict resolution method used in our district. Steve is Vice Principal at Bayside and is very knowledgeable in this area. This will be an introduction and overview of the topic..

On Thursday February 9th, 2012 at 7:00 - 9:00 pm Dr. Allison Rees (Parenting expert and psychologist) will be coming to Bayside Middle School to speak on the topic of Sidestepping the Power Struggle with your Tween.

CONTACT BAYSIDE PAC at baysidepac@gmail.com if you wish to attend.

at SPECTRUM COMMUNITY SCHOOL (957 Burnside Road West, Victoria)

On Saturday February 11, 2012 7:30 am to 4:30 pm Vancouver Island Parent Conference 2012 is offering amazing workshops and panel discussions for parents and guardians. Dr. Martin Brokenleg (Ph.D.) will introduce “The Circle of Courage” which offers concrete strategies fro creating environments in which all young people can grow and flourish. Dr. Stuart Shanker will teach about self-regulation which serves as a lens for understanding a child, his individual strengths and the areas that need work. Both are world class speakers that are highly respecting in the education community. Panel discussions will also include topics of engagement of elementary students, middle students, and secondary students, aboriginal panel on student success, what is personalized learning. So please CONNECT, COLLABORATE AND CELEBRATE with other parents and guardians from Vancouver Island by attending all or part of this great parent education opportunity.

Detailed information may be accessed from the conference website: www.vipc.ca
Early bird registration fee is $60 before January 31st and then $75 afterword.

COPACS (SD63 district PAC) is encouraging attendance of this conference and is offering to reimburse individual registration fee for Saanich SD63 parents or guardians who attend the conference and then submit a receipt received on the day of the conference to COPACS via their school PAC as proof of attendance. Also we kindly request completion of a brief questionnaire evaluation of the conference. The total reimbursement budget amount is $3500.00 for the Saanich district and reimbursements will be processed on a first come first serve basis. We are hoping to reimburse at least 45 SD63 attendees. Receipts/proof of attendance may be sent via school PACs to School Board Office marked “COPACS” after the conference date.

2012 University of Victoria SPEAKERS BUREAU – GRADUATE STUDENT SPEAKERS

Please go to www.uvic.ca/speakers for information regarding 19 exciting new topics to the 36 already available to the community through the UVIC Speakers Bureau.

Greater Victoria Restorative Justice Resource Group

Please go to www.rjvic.org for more information regarding training courses in restorative practices. Many of the school district staff have attend the 3-day training of Introduction to Restorative Justice and Conferencing.

LATEST INFORMATION FROM SAANICH SCHOOL DISTRICT WEBSITE

The following new bulletins have been added to the district website:

1. "Welcome to 2012" message

2. January/February Superintendent's newsletter

3. Updated message to parents regarding job action (included information regarding what may happen to recess, field trips, report cards, etc. during the remainder of the job action.)

Please GO TO the link www.sd63.bc.ca to take a look at them on the home page.

COPACS INFORMATION AND OFFERS

COPACS is extending an offer to all PACS in Saanich School District 63 to reimburse the cost of one box of paper and one cartridge of toner per PAC. Just submit the receipts to ‘COPACS” at the school board office and clearly mark your PAC name for proper reimbursement.

COPACS requires ALL SD63 PAC presidents and COPACS reps to sign up for direct email subscription from the COPACS website, so that all communication may be only captured and distributed via our website instead of multiple separate emails. Go to http://copacs.sd63.bc.ca/ to stay informed.

First SD63 Board of Education meeting in 2012 will be on Wednesday, January 18th, 2012 at 7pm at the board office.

Next COPACS meeting will be on Thursday February 2nd, 2012 at the Saanich Education Centre (behind Keating Elementary) beginning at 7 pm and we hope to see most of you there!

THANK YOU AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!

COPACS

	High School Student Grant Opportunity by Stasia Hartley - Saturday, 17 December 2011, 11:20 AM
	This message is for High School PAC's to post on their Grad websites OR if you have or know of a grade 12 student who might want to apply, please pass this website link along! http://planetconnect.org/2012wcgrants

Hello SD63 Families,

Thanks to everyone who provided feedback regarding the proposed changes of moving recess to the end of day. Last night, on Monday Dec 5,2011 the newly elected board of education discussed this issue.

Dr. Keven Elder provided a confidential print out to the trustees only which included all of the feedback received by parents since Thursday Dec 1st to Monday Dec 3rd. In all, 104 responses were received from parents and 101 of them were opposed to moving recess to the end of the day.
In response to the feedback, Dr. Elder brought forth and recommended another proposal that included leaving recess time unchanged and instead proposing to add ALL excluded and management staff to supervision duties commencing Jan 3, 2012, rather than just district management staff.
The extra staff would include speech and language pathologists, district psychologists and First Nations assistants to recess and before and after school supervision. This would have the unfortunate effect of reducing services to children during class times, but it must be remembered that teachers are on strike and there is an effect. Avoiding all negative effects on children during this job action, while desirable, is not possible.

The Saanich Board of Education passed a motion:

-approving the deployment of all management and excluded staff to the supervision duties as of Jan 3rd 2012

-requesting a report to be submitted to the board in January 2012 detailing the impact of the supervision duties on the ability to accomplish work requirements by district management and staff

-adding this issue to the agenda for the January 18, 2012 meeting for further discussion.

Thank you again for taking the time to send in your responses and expressing your valid concerns as it definitely had an impact. We will provide updates on this matter as they arise.

COPACS

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CONTACT COPACS:

copacssd63@gmail.com

2011-2012 Executive

President:

Cathy Fountas