Boardroom Briefs

Boardroom Briefs is intended to provide highlights of presentations, reports and decisions made at the regular meeting of the Limestone District School Board of Trustees. These briefs do not serve as the official record of the meeting. Please refer to Board minutes which are approved at the next regular meeting. Community members are also invited to follow along during live tweets of regular Board meetings using the hashtag #LDSBmtg.

You can view the entire Twitter thread here.

You can view the full Board Agenda Package here.

Director Krishna Burra began the meeting with a personal acknowledgement of territory.

In accordance with Section 208 of The Education Act, and LDSB By-Laws Article II, and IV, and under the authority invested in the Secretary of the Board, Director Burra welcomed everyone to the Annual Meeting of the Limestone District School Board for the term ending November 15, 2023.

Director Burra was the presiding officer of this Annual Meeting, pending the election of the Chair of the Board.

Trustee Robin Hutcheon was acclaimed to the role of Chair and Trustee Bob Godkin was re-elected to Vice-Chair. Trustees elect a Chair and Vice-Chair each year of their four-year mandate. This is the second year for both in their respective roles.

Chair Hutcheon, who represents the Townships of Loyalist and Stone Mills, pledged her commitment to students upon being acclaimed to serve a second year as Chair. “We will continue to be focused on students, and ensuring the work we do as a Board provides opportunities, in all pathways, to help them achieve success and well-being."

Hutcheon was first elected in October 2018, and this is her second term of office. She has served on several Board committees and provincially through the Ontario Public School Boards Association.

Vice-Chair Bob Godkin, who is also in his second term of office, represents the City of Kingston: Pittsburgh and King’s Town Districts, and Frontenac Islands.

Trustees will be selecting those committees they wish to serve on next week at the Nominations Committee Meeting November 20, 2023.

Regular Board Meeting Minutes – October 18, 2023

Audit Committee Meeting – November 6, 2023

Special Audit Committee Meeting – November 14, 2023

Trustee Ruttan, Audit Committee Chair, shared the following:

On Friday, November 10, 2023, the Ministry of Education requested all school boards to add an additional note to their financial statements.

Since this was two days after the Audit Committee meeting, the Audit Committee needed to meet again to review and approve the revised draft consolidated financial statements with this new note before the minutes came to Board.

The Audit Committee was presented with a revised draft consolidated financial statement package at the special meeting on November 14 that included a new Note 26. This new note is a result of a settlement between various labour groups and the government and the litigation surrounding Bill 124, Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act 2019. Superintendent Young shared further information about the particulars of Bill 124.

Two Motions were presented and passed,

MOTIONS:

1. That the Audit Committee recommend to the Board approval of the revised audited consolidated financial statements for the year ended August 31, 2023, that includes Note 26.

AND

2. That the revised 2022-2023 consolidated financial statements be filed with the Ministry of Education and posted on the Board website subject to the approval at the November 15, 2023, Board Meeting.

Minutes of the Special Meeting of the Audit Committee of November 14, 2023, were approved at the Board Meeting.

The purpose of the report is to update Trustees on progress of the development of Limestone’s Math Achievement Action Plan aligned to Ontario’s new Math Achievement Action Plan for 2023–24 school year. See Appendix 1 on p. 29 of agenda.

Background:

In June 2023, the Ministry of Education provided details regarding Math Achievement Action Plan, which included ensuring a dedicated Board Math Lead who will inform, monitor, and report progress towards math achievement and improvement targets, as well as leading board-wide actions to meet these targets.

A Math Achievement Action Plan must be developed, based on requirements provided by the Ministry, and endorsed by the Director of Education and the Board of Trustees. The plan will outline the board’s concrete, visible, and measurable strategies as well as key performance indicators under the following areas of focus:

• Fidelity of the Math Curriculum
• Ongoing learning of Math Content Knowledge for Teaching
• Knowing the Math Learner and ensuring mathematical tasks, interventions, and supports are relevant and responsive
• Measurable Results: Improvements in Math Achievement at the last update to Trustees, key principles of the LDSB Math Achievement Action plan were shared including an overview of the most recent EQAO data to frame the context for implementation of the LDSB Math Achievement Action Plan across the system.

Current Status:

Since the last update in October:

• Additional meetings have been held with the Provincial Math Lead to discuss data analysis, possible improvement strategies, and key performance indicators to support development of the LDSB Math Achievement Action Plan
• Another meeting was held with all Board Math Leads across the province to further discuss the role of Board Math Leads and provide additional clarity on data reporting requirements
  
• 2 additional webinars have been held provincially to help build math content knowledge for Math Action Teams and Ontario educators in Grades 3, 6, and 9
  
• Deeper analysis of EQAO mathematics and other achievement data has been occurring, with a focus on system-level data and math priority schools
  
• The LDSB Math Action Team provided a series of math-related professional learning sessions for educators at the district-wide PA Day on October 27 and are supporting learning in certain schools on the November 10 PA Day
  
• Instructional leadership learning for school leaders has begun to help frame the LDSB Math Achievement Action Plan, clarify expectations, and provide support for the implementation of the plan in every mathematics classroom, in every school
  
• School Math Facilitators are working in math priority schools to meet Principals and educators and will support the implementation of schools’ Student Achievement Plans and the LDSB Math Achievement Action Plan

The initial LDSB Math Achievement Action Plan (MAAP) blueprint (working version) is Appendix 1. It includes initial key performance indicators to assist with monitoring the effectiveness of the plan. The MAAP intends to provide system coherence by clarifying actions required by system leaders, school leaders, and mathematics educators to improve students’ math confidence and achievement.

Although currently there are no targets associated with the Ministry-defined key performance indicators of improved achievement on EQAO mathematics assessments in the Primary Division (Grade 3), Junior Division (Grade 6) and Grade 9, the inclusion of mathematics achievement targets are part of a broader conversation with the senior team as part of the development of the new LDSB multi-year strategic plan and may be included in the future.

As discussed provincially with Board Math Leads, the MAAP is a dynamic working plan to be endorsed by the Director of Education and Trustees before sharing with the Provincial Math Action Team, which will occur following this meeting.

Next Steps

• Share the LDSB MAAP with the Provincial Math Action Team for feedback
• Initial communication of the LDSB MAAP with all LDSB schools, school councils, and families with ongoing monitoring and reporting throughout the school year
• Finalize procurement of a new digital math tool to support educators and students
  
• Continue to gather, analyze, and use a variety of data as guidance to ensure the MAAP is responsive to the needs of students, educators, administrators, and families in service of better math outcomes for students
  

The purpose of the report is to amend the school year calendar for 2023-2024. Specifically, to change the Professional Activity Day in April 2024.

Status:

A total solar eclipse will occur on April 8, 2024 and southern parts of the LDSB will be in the path of

totality, which means that these regions will experience complete darkness at approximately 3:20pm.

Maintaining a regular school day will present several challenges to staff and students in our schools with respect to transportation and safety. As such, and after consultation with our co-terminus school boards, Algonquin Lakeshore Catholic District School Board and Hastings Prince Edward District School Board, as well as Tri-Board Transportation, we propose to move our current

Professional Activity Day from Friday April 12, 2024 to Monday, April 8, 2024 to coincide with the day of the eclipse.

During a total solar eclipse, there is a significant change in natural lighting conditions. Moving the

Professional Activity Day to align with the eclipse helps ensure the safety of students and staff,

particularly when it comes to transportation. The sudden darkness during regular dismissal times can pose risks, such as accidents related to reduced visibility, fear for some students, and potential eye damage because many students would still be in transit on Tri-Board Transportation or preparing for dismissal.

This proposed plan has been shared with the School Year Calendar Committee and the Parent

Involvement Committee. While adjusting the school day was considered for April 8, by shifting the day by 80-90 minutes at the start and end of the day to accommodate students in schools during the eclipse, two factors presented concerns: (a) given some employees, as well as bus drivers for Tri-Board, have other employment, shifting the day could result in staffing challenges; and (b) families would be having to adjust and accommodate two days of disruption in the same week (April 8 eclipse day adjustment and April 12 PA day).

It should be noted that ALCDSB approved the calendar adjustment outlined above at their October

24, 2023 board meeting, and HPEDSB is currently looking at this same amendment on November 27, 2023.

If all three school boards approve the school year calendar amendment, and it is approved by the

Ministry of Education, broad communication of this change will need to occur with members of the

Limestone DSB community, and community partners who schedule student activities on PA days.

LDSB Trustees approved changing the April 12, 2024, P.A. Day to April 8, 2024. The amendment will be submitted to the Ministry of Education for final approval.

November 20, 2023, Special Meeting

The Board serves more than 19,000 elementary and secondary students in 60 schools and 8 education centres covering a geographic area of 7,719 square kilometres. To get in touch with your trustee, visit Meet Your Trustees.

Email: communications@limestone.on.ca
Website: www.limestone.on.ca
Location: 220 Portsmouth Avenue, Kingston, ON, Canada
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