Meeting Notes

Best Start Network Meeting

September 11, 2014

1:30 UCDSB

In Attendance: Gwendy Lapp Triple P; Gillian Jackson DSLG; Renata DeKeyser

SERAP; Janice Deacon WTK; Beth Steel YMCA; Cathy Gladu SJB Ange Gabriel;

Francine Raymond CECCE; Nathalie Daoust MinEDU; Sonya Bianchet KFLA Public

Health; Susan MacDougall UCDSB; Donna Vanderkloet BDACI; Marci Bruyere

CRCHC; Shannon Brown UCLG; Diane Clarke ICDP; Alexis Green Health Unit; Kevin

Kapler CMHLG; Maxine Weber LCP (chair); Harold Hess Volunteer Centre (co-chair);

Margaret Fancy Coordinator.

1)Welcome and Introductions – Maxine welcomed members. Roundtable introductions were made.

2)Approval of Agenda

Approved with additions to New Business

Report from CECCE

Update on Red Flags Revisions

3)Approval of Meeting Notes – May 8

Approved.

4)Actions Arising from May 8

a)Jessica will present EDI Special Needs Data to BSN Network

Margaret reported that Jessica has been ill and will report when she is able to return to work.

b)Margaret VB to call a meeting of key stakeholders to plan for Special Needs Strategy (June 20)

Margaret reported that a meeting of special needs service providers from LLG took place on June 20. Members reviewed the key components of the SNS and determined some first steps which include:

Determining others who should be at the table

Collecting best practices in terms of working together (what we are already doing) protocols, service coordination guidelines etc.

Next meeting will be scheduled after the regional consultations have been held.

c)Margaret to collate feedback on considerations for Child and Family Centre (posted)

Collated information on website.

5)New Business

a)Updates from Ministry of Education

Nathalie Daoust updated members on the 4 goals described by the Ministry in Achieving Excellence:

  • Achieving Excellence: Children and students of all ages will achieve high levels of academic performance, acquire valuable skills and demonstrate good citizenship. Educators will be supported in learning continuously and will be recognized as among the best in the world.
  • Ensuring Equity: All children and students will be inspired to reach their full potential, with access to rich learning experiences that begin at birth and continue into adulthood.
  • Promoting Well-Being: All children and students will develop enhanced mental and physical health, a positive sense of self and belonging, and the skills to make positive choices.
  • Enhancing Public Confidence: Ontarians will continue to have confidence in a publicly funded education system that helps develop new generations of confident, capable and caring citizens.

b)Reviewing our Priorities – where we are, priorities for this year, direction needed from BSN

i)Developmental Screening – Shannon

Shannon reported that the committee continues to work on a strategy to

support universal awareness and education. There are some concerns re:

the web-based NDDS i.e. difficult for parents to navigate the website.

There was discussion about how to reach the maximum number of

parents and community partners. Susan reported that UCDSB is using

Nipissing with all children entering JK. There was discussion about time

restrictions in promoting NDDS at WTK events.

ii)Transition to School – Tom and Margaret VB

Tom forwarded the following report:

1. West Leeds Pilot Expansion Project Update

  1. Both UCDSB and CDSBEO were able to develop a plan to expand and sustain this type of program using volunteer ECEs who would be given “in lieu” time to compensate them for their summer time.
  2. Unfortunately expansion of the model did not happen for the following reasons;
  3. It was felt that by the time we had all the “kinks” worked out it was a little too late in the school year,
  4. Principal changes can be a challenge in that asking/expecting an incoming Principal to take this on during the summer may not be reasonable.
  5. The program did continue in the Gananoque area.
  6. There does seem to be interest in continuing to work towards expansion of this highly successful model;
  7. We feel we need to identify areas where there is interest and capacity of both the communities/partners and the schools, before Christmas 2014
  1. Full Day Kindergarten Update
  2. This school year (2014-15) does represent Year 5 in the FDK Implementation which means that this is the final year of a 5 year plan.
  3. For both Boards, Year 5 means a significant amount of new schools that are now offering FDK (which has some significant differences from the old Ready to Learn Model, which many sites were offering before FDK).
  4. In the words of Deputy Minister Jim Grieves, “The rollout for FDK is all but complete, now the real implementation begins”
  5. The fact that the Ministry of Education realizes that it will take time to fully implement the vision properly, is welcomed by all parties.
  1. Early Years Joint Training Update

a.Partners and School Boards were very pleased with the joint training that happened last school year

b.All parties felt that together we made significant inroads on our journey to the seamless days for our young learners by building and strengthening our commitment and partnerships.

c.There is a commitment to continue this type of joint training however the School Boards do not have the money for the purpose that they were given last year from the Ministry of Education;

i)This is a challenge but not a barrier; we will become more creative as the work is too important not to find a way to continue.

d.Committee Structures

There is a desire from many partners to look at some kind of consolidation/streamlining with all of the various committees that touch/influence the Early Years.

i) There is a lot of overlap between existing committees who are all working towards the same big ideas/goals.

e.Welcome To Kindergarten

i) Both Boards are continuing to work with Janice Deacon from the Learning Partnership around WTK.

ii) Last school year was the first year that implementation of the Program was mandatory in both school boards.

iii) Having the Community Partner contact their Schools earlier and more often was identified as a best practice.

iv) Sustainability and growth in WTK is coming at the grassroots level and this is evident in a number of “pockets of excellence” where teams want to do more because they have seen the positive results as opposed to doing more because the Board Office told them to.

v) Important to note that the expansion of the West Leeds Pilot Project is an expansion of WTK initiatives.

Welcome to Kindergarten – discussion on 2014  priorities for 2014/15

  • Update on Summer Transition to K programs –> expanding to other communities – The summer transition to K programs were offered for 3 days in our 3 West Leeds Pilot schools. Parent and school feedback was positive. The English boards are willing to expand this program to interested schools and will offer in lieu time to board-employed ECEs to run the program.

There was agreement that interested schools need to be identified early in the year so that community partners can plan.

  • Changes at UCDSB – (ppt. attached) Margaret and Susan outlined organizational changes at UCDSB.

iii)Data – work plan was reviewed and questions will be deferred until Jessica’s return.

iv)Service Integration (Gillian) Gillian reported that she, Jessica and

Margaret F. will be meeting with Health Nexus rep. on September 23 to see the results of our partnership survey. Results will be used to support our planning.

Gillian will be reviewing the Service Coordination Guidelines with Lead Table on October 1.

v) Support for Special Populations (Cathy and Margaret)

  • French Language Regional Network – Cathy reported that work will continue with Brockville libraries to promote French language resources.

Cathy will explore the possibility of offering Read to Every Kid as a French language program with French language books. She will take this to the Regional French Language Network.

Margaret reported that there will be a page on the website with links to French language resources. (e.g. Franco Kingston and Regional French language networks)

  • Update on Plan to Support Aboriginal Population (Margaret)

This year’s plan has been submitted to MinEDU. It includes plans to support families with children who are over 6 years of age. Resources and the current plan can be accessed on our website by typing Aboriginal in Search section on front page.

vi) Early Literacy (Linda) –In Linda’s absence Margaret shared the

contents of the tubs that have been prepared for libraries to

support literacy development with infants and toddlers.

c)Report from CECCE – Francine reported that she will try to attend 2 or 3 meetings per year. She spoke about the free Nursery School programs that the Board is offering in selected schools.

d)Red Flags – Alexis thanked partners for their updates for the revised version. There was discussion about coordinating training with Checkered Flags training.

Action: Alexis will connect with Kevin Kapler, chair of Checkered Flags revision workgroup.

6) Business Reports

i)Coordinator’s Report

1)Transition to School –

Step into Kindergarten programs were offered at the 3 West Leeds schools during August. Classes were full and anecdotal feedback very positive.

We will need to continue conversations with school boards and communities about the sustainability of these programs, possibly looking at other funding options.

Margaret VB, Gillian Jackson and Janice Deacon (Learning Partnership) met over the summer to discuss WTK; how to build on success

2)Read to Every Kid Every Day

Titles have been chosen and ordered. Important Dates:

Community partners breakfast – September 25 8 a.m. Thousand Islands Mall

Official Launch – October 4, 10 a.m. Front of Yonge Library

Official Closing – January 24, 10 a.m. Joshua Bates Centre Athens

Requests for additional funding have been submitted to TD Canada Trust and MacNeil Foundation.

4. Red Flags – Alexis Green from the Health Unit is taking the lead in revising this document. It

is hoped that like Checkered Flags, Red Flags will be an online document. For further

information contact Alexis at )

5. Triple P Next Meeting: – September 18, 9:30 to noon Health Unit

A smaller group met on September 6 to discuss data collection and plan for meeting to

expand workgroups.There has been renewed interest by school boards in implementing

Triple P.

6. Developmental Assets – Next Meeting October 21

Tawnya Boileau (Health Unit has agreed to chair this committee)

Thanks Tawnya! United Way has agreed to fund Asset Surveys for LG children and youth.

  1. CCCF –Judge Anderson and I met with Judge Nott over the summer. We presented him

with an overview of CCCF process and funding to date. He is very supportive of continuing

withCCCF in its present form and expanding possibilities.

8. Supporting First Nations Population – We submitted our annual plan to Ministry of

Education in late August. It is posted with September resource materials. An e version of “Gathering Communities, Making Connections” is available at

9. United Way All that Kids Can Be – the indicators and measures for this pillar of United Way plan have been finalized. Please consider how EKIOC can address some of the goals/outcomes identified. (Summary of United Way plan on website)

10. Bridges out of Poverty Training October 2 – Smiths Falls

11. Priorities of EKIOC– ppt. posted Members encouraged to share with staff.

12. Committees of EKIOC—ppt. posted. This provides an overview of current work of EKIOC committees

ii) Report from French language Network (Cathy) (See report above)

6)Roundtable Sharing -- tabled

7)Next Meeting – October 9