Archive
Parents’ Shared Learning Conference
Abbotsford Parent Shared Learning Evening
School District #34’s 4th Annual Parent Conference Thursday February 20, 2014 at Abbotsford Arts Centre
Langley EdCamp35
School District #35’s First Ever Free Professional Development Unconference Saturday, April 12, 2014 at RE Mountain Secondary School
Abbotsford 2014 – 2015 Earlier Spring Break Calendar
Earlier March Vacation Calendar Called “Status Quo” on District Website
Abbotsford 2014 – 2015 Later Spring Break Calendar
Follow District Website Under News Hub Menu For Updates
Parents are invited to participate in an online survey, available via the district website at http://www.sd34.bc.ca/board/consultations
Laws Belong In The Public Domain
More often than we might imagine, the laws that govern us are not available for the public, journalists, or researchers to access for free.
Laws that are not in the public domain are directly opposed to any good faith effort to establish political accountability. That’s why I believe we must post all of Abbotsford’s 46 school Parent Advisory Council (PAC) Constitutions online to prevent tampering. Abbotsford parents could re-type any PAC Constitution simply to double the term of their own political office. We need to guard our constitutions.
Any Abbotsford PAC Constitution that calls for appointments rather than elections, or a minimum of 1 in-person meeting per year would also appear to violate multiple layers of laws, including our own Abbotsford District Parent Advisory Council (DPAC) Constitution and Code of Ethics, the School Act, and the Charter. Naturally, this accountability comment applies in spades to all British Columbia’s family laws.
La fête des bulles d’amour – le 25 avril, 2014
Ensemble, nous sommes capables de beaucoup.
Il n’y a que 91 jours avant la journée de sensibilisation!
Bubbles Of Love Day – April 25, 2014
Together We Can Make A Difference
Only 91 days till Awareness Day!
Delay Spring Break A Week?
Want To Change Spring
Break Again?
Abbotsford Trustees Give Parents 5 Days To Respond
On January 14, at the first school board meeting of 2014, the trustees asked if parents wanted to change Spring Break to the end of March instead of the usual earlier March vacation. It wasn’t immediately clear why we would move Spring Break back a week, but read on.
On January 20, the trustees put out an email saying if parents want to present their opinions to the board, they need to register with the Superintendent’s secretary, Lois, within the next 5 days. Usually, matters like this would be discussed at the District Parent Advisory Council (DPAC) first, but Abbotsford hasn’t had an effective or voting DPAC for the last three years, since the last election. When Abbotsford parents created our 2-week Spring Break in 2011, 75 parents and one teacher addressed the DPAC, asking to increase our holiday. It was an easy sell, like asking voters if they want to lower taxes. Maybe we are about to start changing our Spring Break every election year.
Re: Official Notification – Local School Calendar
At the Regular (public) Meeting of January 14, 2014, the Board served the following Notice of Intent:
That the Board of Education serve Notice of Intent that the 2014/2015 Local School Calendar be presented for debate and vote at a regular meeting of the Board to be held on February 25, 2014.
In support of Bill 36 (The School Amendment Act), the Ministry of Education has recently issued a revised calendar regulation, Section 81.01(7).
Parents are invited to participate in an online survey, available via the district website at http://www.sd34.bc.ca/board/consultations
Your two options:
1. Earlier Spring Break
- Two-week Spring Vacation March 16 – 27, 2015
- School begins the day after labour day (Sept 2, 2014)
- Two-week Spring Vacation March 23 to April 6, 2015
- School begins the day after labour day (Sept 2, 2014)
2. Later Spring Break
Parents are invited to attend the Regular (Public) Board Meeting where stakeholder input will be received by the Board regarding the proposed Local School Calendar for the 2014/2015 school year on:
Tuesday, February 4th at 7:00 p.m. in the Boardroom at the School District Administration Office
Both options meet the prescribed minimum hours of instruction that a board must offer to students enrolled in the schools in its school district. Each calendar includes a two-week winter vacation, two-week spring vacation, 6 non-instructional days, and Thursday, June 25, 2015 as the last school day for students (Friday, June 26th for teachers). In addition, Thursday November 27, 2014 has been designated for Parent-Teacher Conferences (this day is not counted in the instructional hours).
When you go to the online parent survey, it provides the following explanation. The first option is to schedule Spring Break from March 16 to 27. Selecting this option would allow us to overlap at least one week with every school district in the Fraser Valley and Metro Vancouver.
The second option, has a later Spring Break (March 23 to April 6), which would be combined with Easter.
Balancing Our Minds 2014
Tools For Youth Wellness Tue.Feb.11.14 Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC
Here’s a link and the poster for the upcoming Youth Forum taking place at Rogers Arena in February. Please send to anyone you think may be interested in attending this exciting event!
Prime Minister Harper Speaks To Israel
Sharing Our Values About the Rule Of Law
It’s interesting to focus on Israel and Canada discussing increasing parenting time for male parents after hearing Prime Minister Harper vowing loyalty in his January 20th speech to Knesset.
La fête des bulles d’amour – le 25 avril, 2014
Ensemble, nous sommes capables de beaucoup.
Il n’y a que 94 jours avant la journée de sensibilisation!
Bubbles Of Love Day – April 25, 2014
Together We Can Make A Difference
Only 94 days till Awareness Day!
2013 Summary Review
Formative vs Summative Assessments in Education
Assessing Student Learning with Portfolios at Rick Hansen Secondary
When teachers prepare a report card at the end of the year, they call it a summative assessment. When teachers ask their students informal ongoing questions to monitor if they understand the course material, they call it formative assessment.
Rick Hansen Secondary students blog about their weekly reflections in the Aviation Academy and their teachers call these portfolios a new assessment method. When the WordPress.com stats helpers prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog, I guess I could have called it a year-end summative assessment, but maybe like the students, the Make Abbotsford Aware website is also my parenting portfolio?
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 990 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 17 trips to carry that many people.
Click here to see the complete report.
The Changing Definition of Parent
How To Amend A British Columbia Parent Advisory Council Constitution
The School Act changed on March 18, 2013 which is the day the Family Law Act came into force, trying to discourage high conflict divorces by removing incendiary words like custody and access from our vocabulary and encouraging reasonably co-operation. The new words are parenting time and parental responsibilities and we need to add these new concepts to every PAC Constitution in our province to comply with our amended School Act and for the sake of our children.
Teachers Infiltrate Parent Groups
Teachers On Parent Advisory Council Executives In Conflict of Interest
Teachers asking to be PAC Presidents and then voting to shut down the Parent Advisory Councils are a big problem in British Columbia. Teachers are so desperate to try to silence parents and control the discussion about education they will even obstruct the School Act to do so by discouraging parents from being involved in school planning.
La fête des bulles d’amour – le 25 avril, 2014
Ensemble, nous sommes capables de beaucoup.
Il n’y a que 97 jours avant la journée de sensibilisation!
Bubbles Of Love Day – April 25, 2014
Together We Can Make A Difference
Only 97 days till Awareness Day!
The Definition Of Parent
A Day At The Courthouse
The Definition of Parentage Under the Family Law Act
I had an amazing day today at the Abbotsford Provincial Courthouse, learning about British Columbia’s new Family Law Act. Judges are starting to use the new language of parenting responsibilities and parenting time. When you go to court in British Columbia ask the Honourable Judge to order that you and your parenting partner shall have the parenting responsibilities outlined in Section 41 of the Family Law Act. The next paragraph is a copy of Section 41 because parenting is the tough and these 14 jobs are a good to-do list.
Parental responsibilities
41 For the purposes of this Part, parental responsibilities with respect to a child are as follows:(a) making day-to-day decisions affecting the child and having day-to-day care, control and supervision of the child;
(b) making decisions respecting where the child will reside;
(c) making decisions respecting with whom the child will live and associate;
(d) making decisions respecting the child’s education and participation in extracurricular activities, including the nature, extent and location;
(e) making decisions respecting the child’s cultural, linguistic, religious and spiritual upbringing and heritage, including, if the child is an aboriginal child, the child’s aboriginal identity;
(f) subject to section 17 of the Infants Act, giving, refusing or withdrawing consent to medical, dental and other health-related treatments for the child;
(g) applying for a passport, licence, permit, benefit, privilege or other thing for the child;
(h) giving, refusing or withdrawing consent for the child, if consent is required;
(i) receiving and responding to any notice that a parent or guardian is entitled or required by law to receive;
(j) requesting and receiving from third parties health, education or other information respecting the child;
(k) subject to any applicable provincial legislation,
(i) starting, defending, compromising or settling any proceeding relating to the child, and
(ii) identifying, advancing and protecting the child’s legal and financial interests;
(l) exercising any other responsibilities reasonably necessary to nurture the child’s development.
If you live in Abbotsford you will also ask the Honourable Judge to order that Spring Break shall be shared equally between the parties. The first half of the Spring Break to be with you in 2014, and your parenting partner to have the first half of Spring Break in 2015 and to alternate in this manner.
Technically, School Boards can set school calendars to change over a three year period in British Columbia, so call your local school board to figure out your parenting schedule.
The First School Board Meeting 2014
The Definition Of A Parent Under the School Act
This evening I attended the first Abbotsford School Board Regular Meeting for 2014. The Trustees are trying to develop greater clarity around the definition of a parent under the Family Law Act. That definition states thirteen sections that describe how to assess parentage in adoption and assisted reproduction. However, even before the Family Law Act, the definition of a parent was never clear. I always told judges I had never done a DNA test on our children, but I was their parent because I felt it in my heart. Everyone went along with my definition of a parent because they wanted to try to get court costs and child support out of me.
Interestingly, the definition of a parent changed under the British Columbia School Act on March 18, 2013, which is the date the Family Law Act came into force, as follows:
“parent” means, in respect of a student or of a child registered under section 13,
(a) a parent or other person who has guardianship or custody of the student or child, other than a parent or person who, under an agreement or order made under the Family Law Act that allocates parental responsibilities, does not have parental responsibilities in relation to the student’s or child’s education, or
(b) a person who usually has the care and control of the student or child;
I suspect that the School Act wants to get parental consent from which ever adults have parenting responsibilities in relation to the student’s or child’s education. The Family Law Act is how you get an order that the Honourable Court is satisfied that you have parenting responsibilities in relation to your child because you feel these duties in your heart.
One way to get such an order would be to ask your former spouse to consent to this order. The judge would have difficulty denying a consent order.
Another way to get such an order, would be to bring a Charter Challenge asking the Attorney General of Canada why the Divorce Act of Canada violates our Charter of Rights by denying an automatic consent order or a rebuttable presumption of equal parenting. In your Charter Challenge you would simply offer as a remedy that you be granted a one-time Constitutional exemption from the Divorce Act to allow you to parent equally. The Courts would probably let one parent get away, rather than strike down the entire Divorce Act. Or better still, maybe when your children grew up, you could tell them the story of how their parent struck down a terribly hurtful law in Canada. Every time there’s an unequal parenting order, women get hurt, either mom herself or a second wife, a grandmother, a sister, an aunt, or maybe a cousin.
La fête des bulles d’amour – le 25 avril, 2014
Ensemble, nous sommes capables de beaucoup.
Il n’y a que 99 jours avant la journée de sensibilisation!
Bubbles Of Love Day – April 25, 2014
Together We Can Make A Difference
Only 99 days till Awareness Day!
Make Abbotsford Aware 