May 09, 2011 - Victoria School District 61

Regular Minutes, May 9, 2011
Education Policy Development Committee and Operations, Policy and Planning Committee Meeting
Ms. Burley then showed a video that was produced about Read for the Top and was
sponsored by Victoria Foundation and the Rotary Club.
Randy Kaneen, District Principal followed the video by introducing the committee to
Bob Warren. Mr. Kaneen thanked Mr. Warren for his many contributions to the
Greater Victoria School District over his career and Mr. Warren was given a very
warm welcome by the committee and all those present with a standing ovation.
Mr. Kaneen then went on to explain how the games evening would look, namely that
a chess match would be played throughout the evening while a Read for the Top
competition would get started and be followed by a Spelling Bee.
A chess match between Trustee McEvoy and Campus View student Jason Cao
began at the far end of the library and was shown using a document camera so that
everyone could follow the match.
Young Mr. Cao is the 10 and under World Champion in chess and interestingly,
when he won the title in Greece, he was the only player there without a specific
coach to help him.
At the same time the chess match got underway, the contestants lined up for the
Read for the Top competition.
The Tilly 5 Stars team, made up of 4 (four) grade 5 (five) students went up against 4
(four) school Trustees; Bev Horsman, Catherine Alpha, Peg Orcherton and Tom
Ferris. The two masters of ceremonies, both Tillicum grade 4 students posed the
questions for the competition.
The students took an early lead in the game but the Trustees soon caught on and
answered all their questions correctly. However, this was not enough to win
because the students buzzed in faster with their answers, achieving more correct
responses. The final score was Students: 7(seven), Trustees: 5(five). Those
present agreed that this was a reasonable showing by the trustees and Mr. Kaneen
thanked the students for “taking it easy on them”.
After a good sportsmanship handshake by the participants, all were given certificates
for their participation in the game.
It must be mentioned that during the Read for the Top game, Mr. Kaneen checked in
on the chess match and to everyone’s surprise, Trustee McEvoy was still “in the
running”.
Mr. Kaneen then introduced Ken Andrews, Principal of Lansdowne Middle School
who in turn introduced Laura Weir, a student at Lansdowne and the Vancouver
Island Spelling Bee champion. Laura has been to the national competition twice,
and came 6 th (sixth) this year.
Laura competed against Trustees Jim Holland, Dave Pitre and Peg Orcherton in a
Spelling Bee. The match was tied four ways up until the 3 rd (third) round when both
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