March - Lyall Bay School

LYALL BAY SCHOOL – BOARD OF TRUSTEESMinutes of Meeting held Monday, 5 March 2012Present:Visitors:Apologies:Absent:Minutes:Atawhai Tibble, Kevin O’Neill, Kieran McDonald, Gail Kelly, PaulKotrotsos, Liz Stewart, Dennis Thompson, Joe SereviClint ChalmersNilChris TaylorKathy DempseyAtawhai opened the meeting at 6.55pm, welcoming Clint, who had come along to doa presentation of the school curriculum and Joe, who was attending with an interestto being co-opted onto the Board.Clint presented a series of documents that, when combined, form our CurriculumGuidelines. There are 4 parts – Local Curriculum; LBS Achievement Expectations;LBS Teacher Planning Guidelines and Guidelines for Supporting Student Learning.Teachers can access this information at any time, but with the change in schoolorganisation this year, each document needs a little tweaking to incorporate the newMiddle Syndicate.All of the information will be available to parents via the website, possibly by midyear.Atawhai thanked Clint for doing such a great job during Dennis’ absence in 2011. Healso thanked Joe for expressing interest in being co-opted as the Board’s new PacificIsland Rep. Joe thanked the Board for welcoming him and said he is very passionateabout people and is looking forward to being able to contribute to the schoolcommunity and families.Election of Chairperson:Atawhai and Kevin vacated the chair and Dennis called for nominations. Kevin saidhe’s stepping down due to a heavy workload and also because it is his last year onthe Board.Atawhai said he would be happy for someone else to take the reins, but if nobody isinterested he will stay on as Chair.Gail nominated Liz Stewart. Paul Kotrotsos seconded the nomination. Liz said shewould need to think about it for a while as it came as a bit of a surprise to her.Motion:“I move that the confirmation of the new Chairperson be deferreduntil the next meeting.”Paul/KieranCarriedAtawhai stepped back into the role as Chair for the remainder of the meeting.

2Draft Budget:Dennis ran through the draft budget and explained that Education Services cannotstart providing monthly finance reports until they have our approved 2012 budget.A discussion followed.Motion:“I move that the Board approves the amended budget as perrecommendations made by Kevin”Kevin/KieranCarried2012 Meeting Dates:The proposed meeting dates for the year were:Monday, 5 March (Term 1, Week 5)Monday, 2 April (Term 1, Week 9)Monday, 7 May (Term 2, Week 3)Monday, 11 June (Term 2, Week 8)Monday, 30 July (Term 3, Week 3)Monday, 10 September (Term 3, Week 9)Monday, 29 October (Term 4, Week 3)Monday, 3 December (Term 4, Week 8)Social Function to be held on Monday, 10 December.Motion: “I move that we adopt the proposed meeting dates for 2012”.Dennis/KieranCarriedProperty Update:Dennis had a meeting with the Ministry, along with Barry Possenniskie and GaryEdridge, as the Ministry had indicated that what they’ve prepared for Lyall Bay Schooldid not meet Modern Learning Environment criteria.They met with Mike Quinn and Lucy Ross, who said that our plans had been sent toHead Office for review.Barry explained to them that their new design is no cheaper to build than what wealready had planned to build. He said Lyall Bay School is paying a premium for extrafoundation work, due to sandy soil.Lucy Ross can’t approve the extra $104,000 due to extra foundation work, so she hasto go back to Head Office and this will take a couple of weeks. Dennis made hercommit to an answer by Friday, 9 th March.Lucy hinted that the Ministry might consider providing extra funds to cover extrafoundation work and if this was approved, it would finance the closing in of theverandas (which would make the buildings comply with the Ministry’s MLErecommendations).

3We are $280-290,000 short of the required funds, so hopefully the Ministry will agreeto granting an extra $104,000 to close in the verandas.Dennis also said that when the Junior School is replaced, it must be the samenumber of square metres as at present. Only $1.2 million has been approved,whereas the Prendos report clearly stated it would take $1.6 million to replace theJunior School building!* Dennis will report to the Board with update on Friday, 9 March, after LucyRoss advises her decision.* Property Sub-Committee Meeting to be held at 7.00am, Monday, 12 March.School Charter Update:Bill Barrett has told Dennis that there is no urgency to get the Charter in to theMinistry. He would prefer time was spent getting targets “right” and would rather seegood target setting based on information, rather than just ‘throwing somethingtogether’.Dennis suggested the Board break into 3 groups to discuss the 2011 NationalStandards achievement data graphs he had prepared for Boy/Girl Achievement;Cohorts; Maori/Pasifika Achievement and ESOL Students.He asked everyone to identify areas that could be developed as school chartertargets in 2012.Gail’s group found that Pasifika children appear to struggle more with Reading andMaths, so this would be a good focus area. Joe tried to explain that when reading toPI children, you need to make sure they understand the meaning, otherwise they willlose interest and therefore not achieve.There appeared to be less concern regarding Maori children, but still focussing moreon Reading is probably a good monitoring priority.Liz’s group said that while the initial statistics for Cohorts look good, they found 2good areas for focus would be where there is a reasonably large below standardgroup. This seems to be bigger at the 40-week milestone and in the Senior Schoolclass levels.The second area would be targeting the large groups in the “at” group to try to movethem along to “above” the standard. Dennis said that following the cohorts throughthe school will give some very good data to work with over time.Kevin’s group thought it would be a good move to concentrate on girls’ writing. Theyfelt there was a need to move everyone up, rather than just the “ats”. Focus onwriting for both boys and girls.Last year’s concern was Year 4-6 boys’ writing and good improvements were made,so it would be great to move the girls on through as well.

4Dennis hopes to have the Charter to the Ministry by the 16 th of March, but was keento see the commencement of the long awaited classrooms prior to submitting theCharter.* Dennis will email a discussion to the Charter Sub-Committee, who willapprove the Charter for submission to the Ministry.Health and Safety Policies and Procedures Review:Deferred until the next meeting.Dennis said we need to have any recommendations in writing so there is a trail forany ERO visits.* Liz will email something out prior to the next meeting.* Atawhai will talk to Chris regarding a review template and will send outdocumentation to everyone.Principal’s Report:Taken as read.Dennis was pleased to report that things are going very well with the new schoolorganisation moving to 3 syndicates. It would be better if all the middle schoolclassroom groups could be together, but the new classrooms will sort that out.Gail asked about the Community Consultation and Dennis agreed that it’s time onewas sent out to the school community.Dennis explained that as Linda Nevill was not well enough to return in Term 1, he andClint decided to appoint Briar Parker as a long term reliever in anticipation that Lindamay also be unable to return at the start of Term 2. They preferred for the children tohave the stability of one teacher throughout the year.Liz asked about the HR stance and how long can Linda’s job be held open and wasthe school under obligation to have her back if she decides she wants to return?Dennis said that Linda is not being paid by the school, and if she is unable to return ina full-time capacity, an alternative arrangement may be able to be negotiated.In Linda’s absence, the Senior School will have a Senior Teacher rotation - RochelleTodd (Term 1), Debbie Limpus (Term 2), Kieran McDonald (Term 3) and ChristineCowan (Term 4), which will be a good chance for them to get some leadershipexperience.

5There was a very brief discussion regarding Banking Staffing.Motion: “I move that for 2012, all relievers will be coded “TS” (TeachersSalaries). Any consequential overuse above our Roll-Based Staffing Entitlementwill be funded later in the year from our school Operating Grant (2012 relieverbudget) and/or during Pay Periods 23-26 of the 2013 school year. This chargewill be against the cheapest teacher salary on the staff at that time”Liz/GailCarriedLiz asked if the draft action plan on ICT could be presented to the Board.Paul asked about the school zoning discussion. Dennis said that the Ministry hadverbally stated that they will provide us with classrooms on the proviso that we put aschool zone into place. Dennis will talk to Houghton Valley and Kilbirnie Schools fortheir thoughts on the matter as it is likely that the zone may need to overlap theirs.Ross Chalmers from the Ministry will come back with a firm proposal and recommendedguidelines around community consultation.Finance Reporting Update:Kevin said there are no ‘actuals’ as there is no budget to compare against yet.Mould Actions:As requested by the Board, with his science background, Kieran has written a reportregarding the possibility of mould issues raised by the Kuggeleijns last year. TheChemDry testing of the junior school had been quite thorough and didn’t show anyexcess levels of moisture, which mould needs to grow. The junior school building hasno leaks, so while there may have been some mould in the past, there is no evidencethat there are new mould spores present now.Paul Kuggeleijn had wanted the Board to spend quite a large amount of money havingthe building tested, but it was agreed this seems unnecessary at present, as the juniorblock is due for replacement.All agreed that the letter should be sent by the Chairperson as the official responsefrom the Board, once a couple of minor amendments have been made.Agenda Items for Next Meeting:Confirmation of the CharterHealth and SafetyAnnual 10-Year Property Plan Review (Property Sub-Committee to oversee)ICT Draft Action PlanFinance – 2011 Full Year Accounts if ready (needs to go to the MOE by the 3 rd Tuesday(22 nd ) in May)Chairperson Election

6Minutes:The minutes of the meeting held on Monday, 5 December, were read and signed as atrue and correct record.Kevin/LizCarriedCo-Option:Motion:“I move that Joe Serevi be co-opted onto the Board as the PacificIsland Representative”Liz/GailCarriedAtawhai closed the meeting at 8.55pm.Next meeting – 6.45pm, Monday, 2 April 2012.……………………………………..Chairperson……………………….(date)