1.   Update from Waterdown (Kyra)

-report on Info Night

-meeting with Ted McMeekin

-petition numbers

-next steps

A meeting was held with Ted McMeekin. He has added Waterdown parents to an advisory group. Ted has suggested that the group hold a round table meeting. He will attend the meeting and would like a group of approx. 10 people present. Reg Woodworth would be invited.

123 students/parents have signed-up so far for FI in Waterdown. The survey has been sent.Parents requested that this committee add FI in Waterdown as a priority item for next year.  If Waterdown becomes a priority for next year, could we make a recommendation to the board about expanding FI to the Waterdown area?

Members would need to vote on this issue. We need to look more closely at ‘expansion’ & making a recommendation to the board about expansion of FI in general.

Are there any updates on land purchase in the Waterdown area? John reports that in the west end of the city, there should be accommodations made & as far as Waterdown being a priority, there are some discussions going on & some interest in looking at the issues in Waterdown.

Do we have any ability to do something next year to assist with this issue of FI in Waterdown? The problem in this area is space, not numbers.

When does the formal budget process begin to prepare for the 2007 Sept. school year? At this point in the school year, it is not a big problem. The budget process starts around December.

The survey of JK is underway in Waterdown. The survey is posted on the website. The results of the survey will be returned to Gisèle at the end of May by the individual schools.  There will be another survey of JK parents in the early fall of 2006.

2.   Dundas FI, update on school construction plans & FI programming

-update on numbers (Sarah)

A website has been created. Sarah will create a link to the Power Point presentation on our board’s website.

Jessica is saying that there will be a 2007 opening of FI at the Dundas school. Parents can contact her if they have any questions regarding this.

Ken Bain will be working on a survey for the Dundas school. A principal has been named for this school. The person is bilingual & is aware of the possibility of FI. The location will be to the west of Highland School, Governers Rd., on Bridlewood. If the school has FI, the entrance to the school would change to accommodate an increased number of students.

3.   French Immersion Policy

Changes for entry into the program (Gisèle)

Catherine would like an assessment created for the assessment centre. She has had a child enter her school in grade 2 that had tutoring & some summer courses. We would need a consistent tool from one building to another.

Glenn feels that the grade/classroom teacher that the child is planning on entering should do the assessment at the school level.

We need to develop a protocol of expectations for admitting a student, with some suggestions of how to gain French skills in other ways.

Glenn & Ginette have opinions/ideas that they would like to share, to assist with this.

4.     CPF insert in school student agendas (Roz)

Keys to French

If schools are willing to give up the first 4 pages of their student agendas, CPF would pay for an insert copy of Keys to French. This insert has French grammar & vocabulary that supports some key aspect of the French language. Roz has permission to copy this document (copyright permission), to put into the agendas. We could have different versions for Junior, Intermediate. Schools may not want to give up the 4 pages. They may be placing the code of conduct & other school related info on these pages. It is also fairly late in the year and schools may already have made decisions around agendas for 2006-07. CPF will subsidize the $1.50 version (4 pages of agenda). We could contact the schools to find out if they are interested.

Gisèle will contact the 8 elementary FI schools.

5.  Festival oratoire at Glendon College (Ginette)

Ginette was judge & questioner at Festival oratoire. The minister of Education announced that there will be funding available for Glendon to open a French teachers’ college.

OMLTA is encouraging teachers to pre-register for the Fall conference.

Ginette would like to promote other teachers to attend next year, to help judge Festival oratoire.

6. Increasing enrolment – ensuring safety & quality of education (Janine)

We have a decreasing enrolment in the board but our FI enrolment is increasing. Janine is concerned about space, staffing, administration, etc. What can we do to assist or support? We have hired French teachers much earlier again this year. FI is now a weighting factor, a .5 weighting, which can assist in generating a vice-principal. The needs of FI are being considered. We realize that we will soon need more space. Some of our FI schools will be adding portables this year. As schools increase in numbers, we need to consider washrooms.

7. Dates for next year

 Sept. 20, Nov. 22, Jan. 24, March 21, May 23

8. Article in Readers Digest (Ches)

Article from a French Immersion student in Reader’s Digest that  won a $20 000 scholarship to Ottawa University for an essay written about the advantages of being proficient in more than one language. There is a link to this article on the Waterdown website, at http://waterdownfi.bravehost.com/FIinfo.html.

1.  Update of interest in Waterdown  (Kyra)

There are presently a total of 74 students of varying ages on the petition. What is the number of students required to start up? In Waterdown, the answer is not a simple one. We need to have accommodation space first. We have looked at the growth in this area and realize that we will need to build another school. There may be a possibility of using the portables at Waterdown District. If this school builds an extension, we could use the portables, but that would be in future years.

Is Guy Brown at capacity? A rumour was heard that they had space.

We may need to look at a home-school model for Waterdown, due to population growth in this area. The board of trustees and executive council understand the need for FI programming in Waterdown. Due to the low amount of students in FI in this area, bussing is not being provided.

The committee would like their flyer to be approved, to then be sent out to school.

Would Waterdown be a good area to offer a late immersion program? Our model is outlined in policy, stating that it is an early immersion policy. Changing this policy would require more work than what we are presently looking at.

Can we offer a community information session? We can offer a session, to inform parents. Roz will assist with a brochure mail-out, on behalf of CPF.

In the Halton board, parents can only be guaranteed one year at a time, on a year-by-year acceptance basis.

There is some difficulty in getting the message to parents for SK. Is there some way this group can contact these parents?

What is the latest time that we could look at opening French Immersion in Waterdown for September 2007? We still have time to do this. Six months to a year in advance should be enough time to prepare for this.

When will the Waterdown High School expansion be happening? John feels probably in 5 years.

Could we run the program if there is room for the different classes in the 3 different schools? The difficulty is that if this was to occur, there is not enough space for the population growth.

Is there a possibility to perhaps share cost, building space, etc. with the catholic board? The catholic board is not usually interested in doing this. They want to keep their students.

If we must adjust catchment areas anyway, can we look at a catchment for FI, to have them all in one school? This might be possible, but it would cause a lot of disruption and upset in the community. Probably would not happen for program reasons alone. 

Is there a possibility to lease a portable, if parents are willing to raise funds? This type of option may be looked at if the board was going to build a new school in the near future and they were making the decision to have FI in this new school. As a short-term solution, this may work, but we would need an approved long-term solution first.

The group may ask for delegation status, to present to the board. They can contact the Director’s office for more information.

We will inquire about this.

Krys will try to get this item onto the agenda for exec council for next week.

Gisèle has booked April 27^th, at Waterdown District, from 6:30 to 7:30.

Krys will take this question to exec council to find out if we can survey parents in our schools.

1.     Waterdown students attending HDSB & HCDSB (Catherine)

In talking to parents, G.R. Allan is loosing Waterdown parents to HDSB & HCDSB. Can we find out how many we are losing? Halton may have 7 or 8 of our students (parent information). Halton Catholic does not have Immersion. Halton is not picking up within our area, but parents may drive to the bus stop just outside our jurisdiction and they will pick up students there. The distance to drive to G.R. Allan is a problem. The parents do not necessarily want bussing. They want a FI program in Waterdown.

Halton has reported having 6 students from our area. Halton Catholic do not have any.

3. Update of interest in Dundas (Sarah)

Joanne Saab is a parent gathering names in Ancaster.

The Dundas group has gathered over 50 names at the preschool age for September 2007, 6 JK, 11 SK students. An ad has been put in the newspaper. There will likely be a newspaper article soon. The group is putting flyers in a variety of places and sending direct e-mails.

Exec council is looking at the possibility of putting FI in the school, slated to open in 2007. G.R. Allan & Norwood are experiencing some enrolment pressure. 53 from the Dundas area, Ancaster would have 7 SK & 23 from gr. 1-5. It may be possible to do an SK - gr. 1 start. We simply need the political will and the operational piece to be put in place. Jessica Brennan, Dundas Trustee, is pleased to see the interest level. Jessica will return to the group who is looking at the preliminary drawings, to ensure that there is room for this program. She is giving her full support. If there is some resistance from parents who feel that FI would be taking over the school, the parents may wish to visit G.R. Allan to see how well the program works in a dual-track school.

We will be looking at a magnet program. We are able to do this with the opening of a new school. It is also in an area where there will not be a lot of new population growth in terms of new development. This decision will need to go to Exec. Council, then to a full board meeting with a recommendation made.

Site plan tendering still has months to come. Roz would like to attend this planning meeting,

How many interested students do we need to open a program in a new school? We need at least 20 students, but more would be better. Parents may not be adding their name to a list, but there is strong interest. There is a real chance that this program will open in this new school site.

What would we do if there were too many students? We may need to put a cap on the numbers – first come first served.

Is it possible to start the Core French program at the K or grade 1 level? Not at the present moment.

Is there another level of politics or people that need to be convinced? Some parents do not value the program. The challenges are to find enough fluent teachers for FI and finding resources.

Will trustees support this program? Jessica says that there needs to be a majority of the vote (11 trustees) that agree to this. If it goes through a positive vote with trustees, Jessica believes it should go through Exec Council. The trustee level is often what blocks these types of decisions. Ches would recommend to the Dundas parents to talk to all of the trustees.

An Information session can be offered in Dundas.

Gisèle has booked April 19^th at Highland Secondary, from 6:30 to 7:30.

4.  Transportation Update (Krys)

Last year, we received ministry transportation funding in June. A decision has been made to provide transportation for FI if there is funding available to do so. It does not look like we will have a surplus of funds, however the board is looking at finding some funds to continue to provide transportation for FI. It would be of benefit to provide transportation in Waterdown. There will be a review of how effective the transportation is this year, to better serve us next year.

Is there an opportunity for the 2 boards to work together to share the bussing? The catholic board has a bus coming form Carlisle.

Krys has asked Daryl Sage to investigate this option.

5. CPF Update (Roz)

A summer camp will be run out of Vanier Secondary school, for ages 7-12, sponsored by CPF Ontario. Roz will inquire about the parameters for the councillors. Information will be in the next CPF newsletter.

6. Funding to support renewal of FSL

We will be receiving extra funding for FSL. It will be on a proposal basis. We would like to hear suggestions from the group.

Math is taught in French to grade 10, in English afterwards, which makes it difficult to translate vocabulary. The same happens in Science. Perhaps create a vocabulary conversion table for Math and Science.

Guest speakers that are male role models.

Authentic French opportunities, technology, subsidizing field trips.

Provide funds to support a French Immersion pot-luck, as was done in past years at Westdale.

Library support for FI.

An injection of resources.

Public speaking competition.

7. Concours oratoire

Completed a few weeks ago. Fluency of students in French Immersion is comparable to students in a French language school. We have more students participating every year. Students are going forward to Festival at Glendon College.

Students will be invited to present at the board meeting.

2.  Transportation Update

Principals have received a letter to be sent home to students.  Grades 1-5 will be provided with bussing, grades 6-8 will receive a bus pass. For safety reasons, kindergarten students will not be included at this time. There can be courtesy transportation if the bus has room. It may be provided for grades 6-8 students. Norwood has 3 buses and all other schools have 1 bus.

A number of parents have called regarding our out-of-catchment rule. Students who are out-of-catchment do not receive transportation. This rule may encourage students to stay in their catchment area school.

Parents are worried that if the transportation is not well utilized, it may not be offered next year. Because we are starting in the middle of the year, we expect that it may not be fully utilized (routines established, etc), but the board should not be holding that against providing it. We hope that this service will be used, providing some help with safety at the school as well as relief to parents.

Daryl Sage has said that we can readjust stop locations if some stops are not being well utilized. As for next year, we may be able to add more stops, and perhaps change bell times.

Discussed changing the FI policy to reflect the transportation policy. The present wording is: Based on the Board’s current Transportation Guidelines, transportation will not be provided for this program. – Policy No. 3.01 Curriculum, French Immersion Policy. Motion: The French Immersion policy be amended to reflect the transportation policy. Motion by John Davidson, seconded by Marie Patenaude. Vote: all in favour

If transportation continues next year, there will need to be some discussion regarding the Kindergarten program. Will we provide bussing for these students? Will we be providing full-day alternate days, or half-day every day?

Krys will present this motion on our behalf to Exec. Council.

3.     Potential interest in Dundas and Waterdown

Interest in Waterdown & Dundas.

Kyra Paterson from Waterdown (Greenleaf school) is gathering interest in starting a French Immersion program. She has put up posters, and is receiving some some interest. There is some potential for opening an FI program in Waterdown in terms of interest; however the present policy is a magnet school, which is troublesome for this area of growing enrolment and accommodation pressure. The home school model received mixed reviews from Exec Council, and some board members suggested that the numbers should be 50 students to start the program. Krys will ask Exec Council to consider Dundas as a site. It may be possible to have a magnet site. Superintendent Ken Bain has been informed of this interest and is willing to consider it for the new school.  A new school is on the books to be built in Dundas in the near future, as soon as in 2 years time.

G.R. Allen is getting very crowded and may need a portable for accommodation if FI continues to grow. Norwood may be adding an extra class next year, needing another portable. Concerns are that the building does not have enough washrooms, gym space, etc.

Motion: The board address the accommodation needs of French Immersion to serve growing enrolment at a number of our schools and to respond to the interest of parents in Waterdown and Dundas for a FI site in their communities.  Vote, all in favour.

Krys will present this motion on our behalf to Exec. Council.

4.     CPF Update (Roz)

CPF applied to the provincial branch and received $17 000. With this they created flyers, posters, and pamphlets promoting FI and Information Sessions.

Next Wednesday, author Lisette Brochu will do a reading. French film at the Staircase Café.

Gregg LeRock concert.

Collège Boréal offering French courses for parents, textbook free to CPF members.

Grade 7 & 8 students, leadership weekend in February.

More information about these events is available in the CPF newsletter.

CPF is not offering a French course at this time.

5.   Pentathlon on Feb. 23 (Marie)

École Secondaire Georges P. Vanier, on Feb. 23, 9:45-2:00 for grades 5 & 6, singing, posters, drama, sports event, an environment of French language & culture. Offered for francophone & immersion students. Competitive teams. Register by calling Vanier school. Information was sent to schools in late November. Contact person: Serge Proulx

5. International Baccalaureate Program

Chuck Reid would like an International Baccalaureate program in our board. Paul Smith made a presentation about this on Nov. 29^th. Exec. Council has asked for more information. They need to look at funding issues as well as impact on staffing and timetabling, location and bussing. It is in a study phase at present. Concern is that it may impact French Immersion at Westdale.