Meeting of the Board of Trustees
Highlights of the May 23, 2006 meeting

Board Highlights

PEYA presents environmental activities to Peel board

The Peel Environmental Youth Alliance (PEYA) presented their organization's initiatives that promote and support environmental awareness throughout Peel. Some of the events included earth week celebrations, region-wide tree and shrub planting, litter removal, and landscaping to help beautify the community.

Chair Janet McDougald congratulated students on their exemplary efforts in contributing to PEYA.

Established in 2004, the Peel Environmental Youth Alliance (PEYA) is a network of students in the Peel Region concerned about environmental issues and determined to make positive change. For more information, visit the PEYA website at www.peyalliance.com

Peel board approves Instructional Coach Pilot Project

The Instructional Coach Pilot project has been developed based on the Peel board's commitment to building instructional capacity in teachers in order to ensure student success. 24 of the Peel board's Pathways schools were previously staffed with literacy coaches, who are recognized experts based in schools. These teachers spend .5 of their time working with colleagues on professional development.

Based on the experience with these literacy coaches in the schools, the curriculum department recommended a pilot project to extend the site-based coaching support approach by adding 10 Instructional Coaches to provide .5 professional development support in 20 more schools. The cost of this pilot project would be approximately $900,000.

EDC by-law amendment approved by Peel board

The Peel board approved the EDC (education development charge by-law) by-law amendment. The by-law has been amended because the land values used to calculate the education development charges in the EDC by-law passed by the board in 2004 have become understated. This is due to a number of factors:

• Changes in the overall conditions – eg. increased demand for serviced lots
• Increased development density parameters – developers are increasing the density on the lands which is having a positive impact on values
• A dramatic increase in lot prices due to a shortage of serviced land – larger tracts of land are being purchased by a smaller group of influential developers

The administration in conjunction with staff at the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board requested that Royal LePage Advisors update their previous report on land values. As a result of this review, new land costs have been provided to C.N. Watson and Associates. In turn, C.N. Watson and Associates have updated the model used to develop the EDC rates.

The proposed new rates to be included in the updated EDC by-law are as follows:

Charge on residential development	2004 by-law - $1244/unit
	Proposed new charge - $1367/unit
Charge on non-residential development	2004 by-law- .17 cents per square foot of gross floor area
	Proposed new charge - .19 cents per square foot of gross floor area

The board's current EDC by-law is jurisdiction-wide and it applies throughout the Region of Peel. The existing by-law ensures that 85 per cent of education land costs (eg. the purchase price of school sites and associated costs) are recovered from residential development, and 15 per cent from non-residential development. These will not change as part of the by-law amendment.

Assessment and accountability at Peel board wins top awards

Peel board congratulates the assessment and accountability department on receiving two Outstanding Publication Awards from the American Educational Research Association in April 2006. The two reports, Schools Like Us – Cluster Analysis, Social Risk Index, ESL Students, EDI, Alphakids Levels Report and Peel Reading Attitudes Survey, won as the best research reports in the Advances in Methodology and Summary Report Categories. The reports were chosen first overall from more than 125 entries from across North America and internationally.

Student trustees appointed for 2006-07 school year

The two student trustees for the 2006-07 school year have been selected. Akanksha Paliwal from Central Peel Secondary School will represent Peel schools north of Highway 401, while Emmy Marshall-Hill from Cawthra Park Secondary School, will represent Peel schools south of the 401.

The first runner-up in each district council election is named as the alternate for that district. Farouk Yassim from Lincoln Alexander Secondary School is the alternate for the north. Dean Mandraphilias from Glenforest Secondary School is the alternate for the south.

The students were elected by their district councils in elections held on May 17.

Delegation

Gina Heisz on behalf of the Association for Bright Children - Peel Chapter delegated the board regarding resources required for gifted classes.

Secondary Vice-Principal Assignment and Appointment

The board approved the following vice-principal assignment, effective September 5, 2006:

Julia D'Amico from vice-principal at Turner Fenton Secondary School to vice-principal at Heart Lake Secondary School.

The board approved the following vice-principal appointment, effective September 5, 2006:

Marianne Kelley from vice-principal at Central Commerce Collegiate, TDSB to vice-principal at Turner Fenton Secondary School.

Retirements

Trustees recognized the contributions and years of service of the following staff who are retiring effective June 30 unless otherwise indicated:

• Irene Arnold, head secretary
• Christopher Berry, teacher
• Susan Burton, teacher
• Richard Clark, teacher
• Karen Coleman, teacher
• Dianne Duff, teacher
• Carol Foster, head secretary, will retire July 1
• Lenora Green, resource teacher
• Ann Hill, teaching assistant, will retire June 28
• Nancy Holloway, teacher
• Ingrid Lentine, resource teacher
• Edward Mulqueen, teacher
• Anne Peters, teacher
• Sandra Reid, head secretary, retired May 8
• John Richardson, teacher

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The next regular meeting of the board of trustees is June 13, 2006 at 7:30 p.m.

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