Province’s parent councils endorse more frequent criminal record checks
Association rejects call for mandatory nutrition guidelines for Alberta schools
Parents who serve on school councils across Alberta rejected the notion of mandatory nutrition guidelines for schools, and want more frequent staff criminal record checks and better accommodations for students with disabilities.
The majority of about 300 parents gathered at an Edmonton hotel this past weekend also voted to keep a resource for teachers to support LGBTQ students out of the curriculum.
They also said government should change its funding cap on high school credits to 150 credits for each student’s tenure instead of 45 credits per year.
“It was absolutely great to hear the voices from across the province and have the debate, so this provided parents the opportunity to express their opinion and to have their voices heard,” Alberta School Councils’ Association president Allison Pike said Sunday.
Pike was re-elected to a second two-year term as president Sunday.
NO MANDATORY NUTRITION
School councils voted down a proposal to lobby for provincial nutrition guidelines for children and youth to be mandatory in Alberta schools.
Family doctor and Belgravia School parent council member Dr. Kim Kelly proposed it, pointing to a statistic that one-third of Canadian children are overweight.
Edmonton Public Schools adopted a policy a decade ago saying schools will promote and serve healthful food, but not all schools enforce it, Kelly said.
Edmonton Public School board chairwoman Michelle Draper said in an interview late Sunday the district expects schools to adhere to the nutrition policy, and if parents have a concern, they should contact their school trustee.
Although six other provinces have mandatory school food rules, less than half of Alberta school boards have nutrition policies, Kelly said. Parents said they didn’t want to infringe on decision making by school boards and said a mandated policy would be difficult to enforce.
CRIMINAL RECORD CHECKS
Alberta Education should have a provincial standard requiring schools to do criminal record checks on staff, volunteer coaches, and overnight trip supervisors every three years, parents decided.
Parents debated the scope of their request for a couple of hours, saying small school divisions don’t have the staff to routinely file criminal record checks with police.
Others said it was tough to recruit volunteers for school events, and requiring a criminal record check would make it even harder.
Parents backed three motions to lobby for improved support and identification of students with disabilities. Greta Gerstner of the Ekota school council proposed the association lobby for mandatory testing for learning disabilities by Grade 1, enhanced teacher training for kids with complex needs, and for government to consider class composition when allotting money for support workers.
Schools and districts have inconsistent policies on early screening, said Gerstner, who has two children with learning disabilities. Parents sometimes have to wait for children to fail before they qualify for extra help. Edmonton Public Schools is under-diagnosing students with learning disabilities, Gerstner said.
Draper said late Sunday teachers identify which students should be tested for potential learning disabilities. The earlier they can provide extra support, the better, Draper said.
A majority of parents said a controversial teaching resource that helps teachers tackle gender identity and sexual orientation issues in school should stay out of the Alberta curriculum.
In a Sunday interview, Alberta Teachers’ Association president Greg Jeffery said the association’s PRISM tool kits are the resources teachers have the option to use, and were never intended to be part of the mandatory list of students’ skills and knowledge.