School Fees and Funding

Please take a careful look at our letter to the Minister and attached background paper on school fees and related funding issues, later in the Cuffer. We understand the survey on school fees that the Department is preparing will probably go to schools after Christmas. We encourage school councils to ask to see the survey to help ensure all charges to parents, throughout the whole year, are mentioned. We hope the fundraising efforts and where the proceeds are directed will also be captured.

Your executive* welcomes ideas, thoughts, suggestions from councils on this issue. It will be one of the topics of discussion at the AGM in April. Perhaps your council would like to submit a resolution on this topic!

* Joan Combdon, Pres, 458-2043, combo2@nf.symaptico.ca;
Jane Haggie 1st VP, 679-5514, lubieloo@yahoo.com;
Denise Pike 2nd VP, 582-1108, dmpike@nf.sympatico.ca;
Glyn George, Secretary, 579-7404, ggeorge@engr.mun.ca;
Eva Whitmore, Exec Dir, 1-877-739-4830, nlfsc@stemnet.nf.ca.

What We've Been Doing ...

NLFSC has been represented at the following recent events or meetings:

October 2000
SSP Advisory Committee Meeting
Meeting with Dr. B. Burnaby, Dean, Fac of Educ
Meeting with Dr. Harold Press, Assistant Deputy Minister, Dep't of Education
Mtg with Mr. Wayne Noseworthy, Exec Dir NF & Lab Teachers' Assoc (NLTA)
Mtg with Mr. Glen Hutton, Missing Project
Meeting of the Atlantic Alliance for Children and Youth
Gathering Voices -- Building an Alliance for Family Literacy Conference
Advisory Committee on Special Needs
Consultation Session on the Early Child-hood Development (ECD) Initiative.

Members of the Executive met informally with Dr. Harold Press, Assistant Deputy Minister, Department of Education to chat about various topics. Of note is the Department's intention to revisit the process for approval and tendering of construction projects to streamline it and hopefully avoid delays such as those experienced this summer and fall.

Members of the executive met informally with Dr. Barbara Burnaby, Dean, Faculty of Education, Memorial University, to urge MUN to provide new primary/elementary teachers with a good background in strategies for teaching remedial reading. Though we will continue to press for more support for teachers, the reality is that they are taking more and more responsibility in this area.

Members of the Executive met with Mr. Wayne Noseworthy, Executive Director, NLTA for an informal chat as well. The conversation confirmed that to a large extent NLFSC and NLTA have the same goals. Mr. Noseworthy expressed appreciation of the role that councils play in pressing for improved working conditions for teachers (for example lower class sizes), in order that teachers can provide the best possible education for students.

The area of literacy is one of interest to many school councils. The conference included sessions on the province's new strategic literacy plan, as well as one on the newly formed reading specialist positions.

There is a limited pot of funding for literacy initiatives in the province. All applications now go through one committee. The funds are not available for the needs of the formal K-12 curriculum, however schools may apply for funds to support programs outside the regular curriculum, for example the bookbag program (see enclosed brochure for contact information).

The session on the reading specialist positions noted that these positions are still fluid, and will be different by district, defined by numbers and geography. Certainly the reading specialists will not be working one-on-one with students, rather helping districts formulate policies, providing professional development for teachers, developing information for parents, creating district resource centres for teachers, etc.

Discussion at the meeting started with a summary of concerns common to all Atlantic provinces. Brenda Smith (Acting Director, Student Support Services) noted that all four provinces are finding a rise in behavioural problems, an increase in requests for student assistants (especially in the area of behavioural disorders) and a concern by teachers about their ability to manage programs for children with many diverse needs in one classroom. The Dep't is currently completing a survey on resources and policies re safe schools and discipline. The Atlantic provinces plan to develop professional development for teachers on managing diverse needs.

Committee members rec'd an update on alternate formats (books on tape) and the autism project.

The committee requested that two recommen-dations be communicated to the Minister: 1) support for the provision of alternate format materials to students with special needs and 2) the need for more courses for new teachers on for example, classroom management, remedial reading, and dealing with diverse learners (including those with special needs).

It is hoped that the next meeting can be held at Memorial University with the Dean and Associate Deans of Education.

The Department of Education is in the process of putting course outcomes on the web. 100 courses are ready, the others are in progress. This initiative is designed to help teachers prepare ISSPs -- however, may be of interest to parents who are interested in what their child is expected to learn in any given subject at any given grade.

Go to the gov't website at www.gov.nf.ca, click on Departments, then Education, then Branches/Divisions, then Student Support Services Division (under Primary, Elementary, High School), then Outcomes.

Check out the National Adult Literacy Database at www.nald.ca for a compilation of resources and links on literacy.