Update Bill 1 – The Lobbyist Act
Legislature committee recommends exempting school boards
The Legislature Committee on Government Services, last week, recommended the Alberta Legislature exempt school boards from Bill 1 – The Lobbyist Act. The bill makes strict rules about an organization’s lobbying activities. In the first draft of the legislation, school boards, unlike municipalities, were subject to these strict rules. The ASBA made a presentation to the legislature committee asking that school boards be excluded.  Pending adoption of these changes by the legislature, the ASBA will have been successful in its primary advocacy objective: to have school boards exempted.  While the legislature committee concurred with the ASBA’s call for a simplified regulatory and reporting regime, the ASBA did not achieve its second objective – to have ASBA; the College of Alberta School Superintendents and the Alberta Home and School Councils’ Association exempt from Bill 1.

Board of Directors approves new position re Grade Level of Achievement reporting
At its Nov. 8-9 meeting, the ASBA Board of Directors approved a compromise position regarding Grade Level of Achievement reporting. The new position emerged through discussions with the education partners, as called for in association policy. So far, the Department of Education, the College of Alberta School Superintendents and the Alberta Home and School Councils’ Association have indicated they support the new position which follows: 

GLA will be reported to parents and the department of education as follows:

CASS/Alberta Education project focuses on developing leadership capacity
The College of Alberta School Superintendents (CASS) announced Nov. 2 it is launching, in co-operation with Alberta Education, a project focused on strengthening and extending CASS's efforts to develop leadership capacity to support continuous improvement of Alberta's public education system. 

The initiative, funded by the department of education, will focus on four areas:

As part of co-sponsorship arrangement, Rick Morrow, former assistant deputy minister, Program Development and Standards Branch of the department of education, will join the staff at CASS to lead this initiative. CASS hopes to have the framework to support this initiative in place by the Fall of 2008.

More acclamations – 2007 elections
With 62 school boards reporting, out of 450 trustees, 274 were acclaimed and 176 were elected in the 2007 election. In the 2004 election, 201 of the trustees were acclaimed and 232 were elected. *Note Northland School Division was not included in the 2004 report.

Annual report evaluation report winners
Congratulations to Lavina Gillespie, Northland School Division, and Martin Blanchet, Greater North Central Francophone ER No. 2. They are the winners of the 2007 ASBA Annual Report evaluation form draw. They will receive $25 gift certificates from Chapters.

Correction to Serving on school board
Please note on page 13 in the Serving on school board orientation book – while Zone 4 is on the map – the list of boards in Zone 4 was omitted. My apologies for this omission and any inconvenience it has caused.  This error has been corrected in the online version of the document – which is available on the ASBA website. A label with the Zone 4 boards listed, which may be inserted directly into the document, will be provided to trustees attending the upcoming Fall General Meeting.

What’s new at www.asba.ab.ca?
Read the latest education news from around the province. Current headlines include:
Former school chairman prepares for fight
GYRD plebiscite voted down
Division puts bus routes back

The agenda for the Nov. 8-9 Board of Directors meeting is posted.

Online registration closes Nov. 13
Online registration for the ASBA’s Fall Meeting closed Nov. 13. In-person registration will be available at the registration desk on Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007. The fee for on-site registration is:  $503.50 ($475.00 +$28.50).

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