Important upcoming meetings:
7 November is the APCS AGM (Calgary Girls School) beginning at 1 p.m., and the Board meeting immediately after
13 November is the next Chairs meeting
8 December is the next Executive meeting
Hopefully you are reading this on November 2nd, so you still have time to plan to attend our Annual General Meeting. This year, we’re hosted by the Calgary Girls’ School, and we look forward to seeing many of you. The pre-AGM starts at 11:00 a.m., with Superintendents and Secretary-Treasurers meeting to discuss the business of operations, while Chairs and Representatives meet concurrently to discuss opportunities and challenges at their level. We'll serve a light lunch over noon, and we’ll be joined by Catharine Kavanagh of CARDUS, who asked to speak with us about opportunities with them. The AGM starts at 1 pm, and the focus is reviewing and passing the updated APCS Policies. We then meet as the APCS Board to hold elections of President and Treasurer. I estimate we should be wrapped up about 2:30 p.m.
On October 23rd, I had the pleasure of attending the Edmonton program of this year’s Charterverse, the Alberta Public Charter Schools biennial gathering of teachers and staff. I had the opportunity to chat with a few folks who are all proud of the work Charters do and their role in it. We also watched the Minister speak from Calgary. Thank you to all those who helped organize and attend the incredible event. Well done!
October marked the start of the second phase of our 3-Year Communications Plan as I started a series of MLA meetings. Our goal is to meet with all 87 over the next 8 months. To date, I have met with the Honourable Sigurdson, the Honourable McIver, the Honourable Glublish, and MLAs Pitt and Johnson. In the coming weeks and months, I have a series of meetings planned and will continue to update. Of the five meetings to date, all have been enthusiastic supporters of Public Charter Schools.
On October 20th, Adam Koziak (our Vice President) and I met with Lora Pillipow (Deputy Minister) for the regular APCS meeting. While capital always looms large in these meetings, the focus that day was more on the unified grid costs and Superintendents Regulation. These are two vital elements for all APCS members, and I feel we are making progress in explaining our unfunded costs. We know the matter has been to Treasury Board once and needs to return for a final decision. I remain positive about the final outcome. The Superintendent's regulation limits our ability to pay our Superintendents an appropriate salary based on their work, rather than the government-created formula.
Connected to this Regulation, Joanne Higgins (Superintendent Representative) and I met in October with CASS, the Superintendent’s College and were briefed on their approach to proposed changes to the Regulation. They have decided to argue for “complexity” as well as enrolment. APCS generally agrees with this position, and we are well aligned with CASS on this issue.
Government introduced Bill 35 this past week. The Bill has 4 goals: 1. Report card standards (not applied to Public Charter schools); 2. Transparency for non-instructional days; 3. Process to manage parent inquiries and disputes; 4. Provincial oversight in naming school buildings. The only item I have serious concerns about is the dispute process. As many of you know, the Charter Schools Regulation is unique in that no other public or independent school has a specific Minister process for review of school enrolment. I expect this consultation will be vital to ensure the existing flawed process isn’t expanded, and perhaps we can even fix it…
Please let Terry-Ann Robertson (Secretary) and me know who your delegate is for voting at the Board meeting next week and who is attending, if you are able…trying to avoid food costs and waste…
Hope this is helpful; see many of you on the 7th. As always, please reach out anytime you feel I can help.
Kelley Charlebois
Executive Director
Alberta Public Charter Schools
(403) 615-6090