Latest DPAC News

Kung Hei Fat Choi

Welcome to 2012! This school year is continuing to go by fast and continues to be challenged with the Teachers' Job Action.  While the teachers continue to teach and will be sharing progress reports with students and parents, there are many committees that continue not to meet as a result of the Job Action.  This year looks like we will be continuing with advocating for appropriate funding for all our programs and support to make the year successful for our students. With a newly elected Board we will continue to remind the Trustees what our priorities are in the hope of establishing a solid foundation for a sustainable budget as the budget discussion start up in the coming months. Town Hall Meetings We will be holding two "Town Hall" meetings in February for parents to participate and share ideas with our DPAC Executive.  This information will be consolidated for presenting to the Board of Trustees before the 2012/13 budget is finalized.Please share this with your PAC members and invite them to come out and share ideas with your DPAC Executive.  Details are still in the works but the events will be held on Wednesday, February 22nd at Vancouver Technical Secondary School and February 23rd at Magee Secondary School.  Your input will help your District PAC represent all interests from all PACs.  Check out our DPAC website for more information and locations -www.vsbdpac.ca. DPAC Election Result PAC Chairs ratified of Diana Day (nominated by Vancouver Technical School PAC) for a position on the DPAC Executive.  Diana has already jumped in to represent our DPAC on the Aboriginal Focus School Steering Committee with fellow DPAC Representative Iraj Khabazian.  In addition she has attended our first DPAC Executive meeting for 2012.  We are looking forward to working with Diana as she brings another voice to the DPAC Executive. Registered Disability Savings Plan - Information Session The Federal Government has engaged the services of Compas Incorporated Consultants to provide information sessions for Parents of Children with Disabilities.  Our DPAC along with the Vancouver School Board have agreed to promote this information session to assist any parents that may want more information on this program.  The date is February 9, 2012 at 7:00 PM at Tupper Secondary School.  Light refreshments and childminding will be available.  Please check out the attachment for full details and registration.  This is expected to be an informative session for parents who would like more information. BCCPAC Update As of December 21st, 2011, Vancouver had 46 out of our 110 PACs join BCCPAC.  For those PACs that have not joined yet, there is still the opportunity to join which will still provide for your voice to be represented at the BCCPAC AGM (although your PAC would not be able to vote).  The more PACs that belong, the stronger the Parent Voice is at the Provincial level.  The Education Partners in BC listen to the parent voice through representation from BCCPAC.  In addition the opportunity to attend the Spring Conference and AGM is of benefit to all PACs.  The Regional Conference this past Novemeber was informative and interesting for those representatives that were able to attend.  The AGM is expected to be held in late April or early May this year.  There are several Board positions open for election including the President, 1st Vice, 2nd Vice, Secretary and two Director positions.  The deadline for nominations is February 28th, 2012. Resolutions can also be submitted anytime.  If your PAC is considering submitting a resolution, it is better to get it in sooner than later as there is a resolution acceptance committee that will assist to make sure a resolution meets the criteria to be accepted. Friend on Facebook Forward to a Friend Additional DPAC Website Going Live Our DPAC has created a second website for easier access to information that is relevant to PACs, Parents and much easier to keep up to date.  This website is expected to assist with better communications as it provides the opportunity to contact our DPAC directly and for PAC Executive members to sign up to our e-list for direct communications.  We hope this information will be helpful to both PACs and Parents.  The site is atvsbdpac.ca. As this site is work in progress, any feed back for what your PAC may want to have on the site would be welcomed.  For those of you who are on Facebook, we also have aFacepage. This is intended as an information page for basic contact information. Internet Safety Another event that may be of interest to parents is "What’s Up Online" presented by the Safe Online Outreach Society. This presentation is designed for parents and youth ages 13+. Please share with your PAC members. VSB Friendly Website Deputy Superintendent Jordan Tinney provided our District PAC Executive with an overview of the VSB's latest Website initiative - "Our Future".  The website consolidates information on schools to provide an easier way to access information on your School, Community and provides an opportunity for direct input from the community on matters of interest in the Vancouver School Board.  Check it out!