BOARD ROOM HIGHLIGHTS
September 12, 2016 – Committee of the Whole

The following report is submitted to ETFO members by Jeff Pelich. Please contact Jeff if you have any questions or concerns about the content of this report. Follow the live tweets from the WRDSB Board Meetings using the hashtags #wrdsb and #etfowr.

Date: Monday, September 12, 2016
Trustees In Attendance: K. Woodcock, K. Smith, S. McMillan, N. Waddell, C. Harrington, T. Martin, M. Ramsay, J. Hendry, C. Millar
Trustees Absent: A. Mitchell, C. Watson
Meeting Agenda: PDF

Celebrations and Announcements

Overview of WRDSB Social Media Strategy
The Board’s new Chief Communications Officer shared about the positive news stories from the last two weeks. The board is now focussing on social media as the primary means of communicating with the public and has begun to more actively use Facebook and Twitter. As well, they are beginning to plan the release of EQAO data.

Principal Conference Presentation
Highlights of this year’s Principal Conference include presentations from musician Amy Sky, former Columbine Principal DeAngelis, and hockey play Darryl Sittler. The conference is taking place at Oakwood Resort in Grand Bend at the end of September. ETFO members are reminded that principals should leave instructions of who to contact in case of emergency in their absence. A system memo will be issued in the near future with a list of available administrators.

Delegations

Waterloo Collegiate Institute re: WCI/Northdale Feasibility Study
Kai Elgie
Ms. Elgie advocated for the board to ensure that the current WCI building remains due to its importance historically and architecturally. There are many compelling arguments to keep WCI in its current form and adaptively reused.

Policy and Governance

Review of Board Policy 3004 – Holding of Public Meeting
Review of Board Policy 4002 – Community Use of Schools
Review of Board Policy 4007 – Approval of Research Projects
Review of Board Policy 6007 – School Nutrition

All of these reviews of Board Policies included minor wording changes and references. All were carried.

Reports

Waterloo Collegiate Institute/Northdale Feasibility Study Final Report
This report focussed on what direction WRDSB should go with WCI in the future. Repairs to the existing school will cost over $25 million. The report recommended rebuilding the school as “community hub” in collaboration with Laurier, the City of Waterloo, and private partners (FYI – Public-Private Partnership – a dirty word in the labour movement). This concept fits into the city’s goal of revitalizing the Northdale community in Waterloo and comes at a cost of approximately $65 millon.