DPAC January 13 meeting
- DPAC welcomed Helen McGregor, VSB’s new Superintendant
- The Stronger Together: Anti-Racism and Non-Discrimination Engagement 2021 report has now been released and will form the basis for developing an anti-racism strategic framework for the VSB.
- Please see here for a list of scholarships available to VSB students. There are more scholarship links in DPAC’s January Newletter.
Vancouver School Board’s list of scholarships, bursaries and awards available to VSB students - DPAC heard from parents with children in MACC (Multi-age Cluster Class), a 4 year programme that provides academic and social-emotional learning support for highly gifted students in Grades 4-7. MACC provides unique social-emotional support necessary for those students who also experience deficits that make regular classroom experiences difficult and, potentially, harmful. VSB has announced plans to replace MACC with “Enrichment Centres,” a program that appears to be designed to serve a different, mixed population and run for only 6 weeks. Consultation has not happened and VSB is characterizing this as a ‘change’ rather than a ‘cancellation’ of a programme so that it does not need to go in front of Trustees for a vote. Parents want VSB to reconsider and for Trustees to have a say in the final decision.
- DPAC is in the process of approving setting up a Music working group to advocate for music education, make sure that schools are informed of the music resources available to VSB students, and to investigate the feasibility of a parent-funded district wide choral project.