SAC Meeting-June 5,2024

 Cabot Education Centre                              SAC Meeting                             Wednesday June 5th

Welcome

SSP- Literacy, Math and Engagement

-This is now wrapping up for the year.

-Data will be submitted by teachers in the next week and final report will be given to Center for Ed.

-Now in the second cycle, it started out slowly at end of January 2024 (Storm days caused delays)

-Next year goals will be based on the data from:

         Grade 6 Literacy & Math Assessment written in October 2023

         Grade 8 Literacy & Math Assessments

         Grade 10 written at end of June

Student Success surveys

         Classroom Data and Assessments, report cards

Next school year- PD day Admin will go through the data

Attendance

-Attendance Support worker- only one for the entire Center for Ed- referrals sent in but no one has gotten back to them.

-When does Social Services get involved? Only in the most severe cases.

-Alternative Ed program (AEP) or Homeschool program- parents can facilitate this at home

-Awards system for attendance- Chance to win a prize for not missing school

-Rethink incentives for next year: reasons for missing school are mental health issues, family issues, illnesses, prizes may not encourage these students to attend.

-Cannot have them exempt from exams

-Brainstorm other ideas to help encourage better attendance for next year.

-Survey the kids- what would they like to see happening at school for clubs, extra curriculars? What would make them want to attend?

-Youth Health Coordinator- Can they reach out to parents of chronically absent students to support them, offer resources to help get the kids to school. Admin will look into confidentiality concerns to see if this is possible.

-Mental health support- Caper Base will return, position has been filled.

-By 2026 the goal is that every school will have a guidance councillor or equivalent to support students.

Next year- SAC

-Conference in Halifax for next year Sept 27th

-Terms and configuration- will change to reflect SAC taking on more responsibility, by-laws may change.

-Jackie Organ expressed interest in joining the SAC- we will look at this after the conference.

-Innovation Grant Update- the turn around was too quick to apply for the outdoor track, we need to do more research and get quotes first. Instead, we applied for the grant money to bring more arts and culture to the school- plays, performances, art programming.  We should hopefully hear by end of the year.

Updates

-Middle school had 2 ski school days (were approved for 3 but lost a day due to storms and closures)

-Grade 9s went downhill skiing

-Grade 11s went cross country skiing- very positive experience for them

-African Heritage Month Celebration- Jackie and team provide traditional food (rice and beans)- 70 people attended

-Spring Fling- they did it 3 times, kids planned and organized it.

-Red Dress Day- Jackie and team organized this.

-02 class and Arts Entrepreneur class celebrated their participation in the Youth Health Summit

by making homemade pizzas and listening to live music by music teacher Kyle.

-Grade 11s Career fair in Sydney

-Marjorie Graham and Kylie Cabot- Did smudging in every grade, blanket exercise

(Naomi hoping to do traditional pow-wow next year).

-Fiona met with the new RCMP Corporal Cory Stead. He guaranteed more presence and regular presence at the school. He feels it is important that RCMP is involved in our schools.

-Denisa Ruso RCMP will act as our school liason. She will drop in every 1-2 weeks and if not, school is to reach out to Corporal Stead.

-Constable Connor will also be around and is first on the scene when there is an incident.

-It has been suggested by Admin/Teachers that all police officers should come introduce themselves to students to create familiarity.

-RCMP has been invited to the Grad

-Invite them to the Welcome Back Social in the Fall.

-Fitness room- Michael Barron helped to facilitate acquiring new equipment, Phys. Ed teacher and coaches are going to make up a list of rules that will be posted, then kids can use the space before school, teams, lunch. Supervision required at all times. All members got an email about naming of the fitness room for Aynsley.  Next step is to get the rules printed at Memorial and get a plaque made with the new name.

-If liability allows, a parent could stay and keep the fitness room open for students after school

-Youth Health Summit- a very positive day

-Gaelic Awareness Day- Margie Beaton and Kenneth MacKenzie

-Writing contest- went very well, Lauren Blackmore and Marie Hawley started it. This was the 3rd year, promotes writing and writers. No names on pieces submitted, judges used a rubric to judge. Informal gathering. Mentors highlighted things that stood out to them and they read it for the kids. Cake and fruit tray, H&S provided cash prizes.

-Awards night- went very well. Suggestions for next year: school community award, recognize students who cook food for breakfast program, check mic (replace cord which may be the issues, find the cordless mic), Announcement Award for morning announcements (most schools are moving away from announcements and doing news on the tv screen), audience will be instructed to applaud only after all kids are awarded for each group.

-Create a committee for awards for next year.

-Art club- reach out to Schools Plus to see about funding, have artists in residence come, lots of local artists.

-Grade 8 Literacy and Math Assessments

-Student Success Survey- completed by students in May, results at end of school year or Sept.

Graduation

-Dinner at Cabot June 7th 6pm

-Prom and supper at Keltic June 14th  5pm, Grand March at 8pm (Keltic covers the cost and tip will be paid by Cabot)

-Grad Ceremony at Cabot and Safe Grad at Gaelic college, breakfast next day at college. June 26th.

Up and coming

-Distinctions on June 11

-Honours Banquet June 12 at 6pm

-Middle School STEM program June 13th (morning) Dalhousie Engineering students run the program with teachers supervising.

-Hockey Day floor hockey tournament June 13th (afternoon).CBU women’s hockey team will send a virtual message of support. H&S will volunteer.

-Exams Virtual Monday June 17th

-Exams June 19th-24th- last minute change June 21st is Indigenous People’s Day and Center decided to cancel all exams that day. Exam schedule is in process of changing. Middle School and Elementary school is in regular session.

Staffing 2024-2025

-Heather will be principal

-Lloyd Francis VP - currently covering maternity leave for Learning Support Teacher (LST)

-Awarded another teacher for grade 6 due to size of class- there will be 16  students in each group (Fiona has accepted the role of second Grade 6 teacher)

-Grade 7 is at 30 kids and will be split for Math and English but all other courses they are together.

-Shannon Brown is returning permanently for Middle School English/SS teacher

-Jessica MacKinnon LST will return December 2024

-Positions still vacant:

         -High School Math and Biology (Possibly Jim)

         -High School Technology

         -Music- Kyle and Victor possibly

         -High School Learning Support Teacher

         -Lunch Bus Grounds (LBG) position- the Center will do a Career Fair to recruit

Supervision

-There needs to be more supervision, too many incidents of fighting and bullying, incident of stranger on school grounds (reported to RCMP).

-Only 3 schools don’t have a LBG position and we are one of them.

-Reach out to Baddeck Academy who is P-12 and has no LBG position to learn ideas for better supervision.

-Write a letter from the SAC- this is a safety and security issue, share examples of incidents and concerns in the letter. Admin will reach out to Suzanne and ask where to send the letter.

-Can H&S supplement by providing supervision sometimes?

Finances

-          Money for school improvement goals was used for:

o   Prizes for attendance incentives

o   Math contest prizes

o   Youth Health Summit- kids designed shirts

o   Honours Banquet- cost split between school, SAC, H&S

-          $12,980 current balance

-          $5000 each year

-          It rolls over if unused

-          $10,000 innovation fund

School Aesthetics

-Enhancing the school's appearance creating a more welcoming and inviting school environment for students.

-Heather wrote a letter to Operations Manager, Lewis MacDonald, and asked about painting walls, adding areas for gathering with comfortable furniture, library furniture, chairs for events.

-Lewis responded- halls have been painted so leaving as is for now, for library and furniture that is the school’s responsibility, they will provide chairs for the gym/events

-Can Home & School supply the paint and help find an artist to do a mural in hallway going upstairs?

-Wall wrap for stage wall with photos of each community the school serves.

Food and Nutrition course

-Foods and Nutrition course will not be held next year.

-Pilot project for a Tech program for the full year instead.

-Concerns- N.S. has the highest food insecurity rate in the country and Cape Breton has the highest increase in people accessing the food bank. This means that teaching kids how to prepare decent, healthy meals with the limited ingredients they might have access to is really important.

-Hopeful program will resume the following year