IN THIS ISSUE

Work on Secure Schools Protects Students in Emergencies Top

HWDSB is seeking input on an important Draft Secure Schools Policy Directive that will, once approved, provide clear direction for how we all respond to a serious threat on or off of school premises.

“Protecting the safety of our students is by far the most important responsibility we have as a community and as an education system,” said Board Chair Jessica Brennan. “As we open this policy directive to the public for consultation, I encourage everyone, especially parents, to comment and reflect on what their role would be when an incident occurs.”

The Draft Secure Schools Policy Directive is intended to:

“Situations of this serious nature unfortunately do occur and we must be prepared to respond immediately,” said Pam Reinholdt, superintendent of education responsible for the Board’s safe schools initiative. “Working in collaboration with our emergency services and community partners, this directive strengthens our secure school practices to ensure that a coordinated response is in place.”

Individuals can download the Draft Secure Schools Policy Directive and provide comment through an online survey. Consultation ends on April 22, 2010 at 4:00 p.m.

Grant Enhances Programs at Wever Hub Top

The Wever Community Hub – a unique partnership between Cathy Wever Elementary School and the Norman Pinky Lewis Recreation Centre – received a big boost in the form of a $40,000 cheque from the RBC After School Grants Project.

It lets the hub enhance programs supported by the United Way – specifically the Bingo to Better Health project, in which students fill bingo cards by attending a wide variety of after-school programs.

“We offer sports, we offer music, and we change things up so we cover a little bit of everything,” explains program co-ordinator Christa Morrison, who is also community engagement co-ordinator for the Wever Hub.

Programs enhanced by the RBC grant have included formal swimming lessons, visits by MAD Science instructors and the Reptile Man (and his critters), lessons on claymation figures, expert hip-hop instruction, drumming and more. New additions in the eight-week session starting April 6 include guitar lessons, fun-filled track and field and healthy cooking.

Morrison also notes that the program regularly feeds students, and has even been able to use the extra funds to purchase bathing suits for children who need them. The RBC-enhanced programs began their first session in October.

“We are meeting the need of people living in a high-poverty area, and there are absolutely no barriers,” said Cathy Wever Principal Lori Kyle, who accepted the grant with fellow Wever Hub executives Laura Troccoli-Ormond, Alex Moroz, Laura Laverty and Sean Gibson.

Cathy Wever elementary works with community partners to improve student achievement through the promotion of a healthy, active lifestyle for students and families. The hub has also received funds from the Rotary Club of Hamilton, the Hamilton Community Foundation and the Hamilton Golf and Country Club.

“When I visit, there are a lot of kids having a lot of fun,” says Kyle, noting attendance last year was 120-150 kids a day and can now reach 200 kids per day. “It is a big change from the early days when the recreation centre was empty. (The late Hamilton police officer) Cathy Wever and I said, ‘You can’t have an empty recreation centre!’ It’s gone beyond what she could ever have imagined.”

Ancaster Meadow Asks: Can One Person Make a Difference? Top

“Can one person make a difference?” That was one big idea in Grade 2 classes at Ancaster Meadow Elementary School. For Grade 6 students, the question was, “Should the Charter of Rights affect how we live?” For Grade 8s, their critical inquiry explored, “Is the world here to help you or are you here to help the world?”

The social justice themes were part of Human Rights Day at Ancaster Meadow on Feb. 18, which opened with a presentation by eight Sir John A. MacDonald secondary NYA:WEH drummers. Drumming is an important element in the ceremonies and prayers of indigenous peoples all over the planet, students heard.

Ancaster Meadow staff created workshops with titles such as Under the Hijab, If the World Were a Village, Take a Step Forward to Change the World, The Skin I’m In, Every Child Deserves a Better World, Developing a Global Conscience, Disabled By Prejudice, Exploring Social Justice Websites, Me to We: Trip to Kenya, Positive Space Awareness, Living without a Home-Out of the Cold and Keeping in Touch- Connecting Countries Kenya Pen Pals

“We learned about the discrimination faced by women who wear the hijab. We were saddened by the small-mindedness of people so close to us,” one student said. “We want to show different identities and individuality through expressing what the hijab means to us. We want to show that there is more to us than the hijab.”

More than 100 students from Hess Street and King George schools also attended the event, with presenters drawn from students at Ancaster High, Glendale secondary, Mohawk College and McMaster University. Trustee Shirley Glauser, Ancaster Meadow parents as well as Fortino’s and Topper’s Pizza were also supporters.

“We learned that everyone has the right to have freedom, clean water, and food. We have the right to speak, walk, and go to school to learn that everyone deserves to be treated equally. Lastly, we have the right to have shelter and a family,” a student reported after the event.

Award-winning Graduate Began with a Red Wagon, Big Smile Top

It started with a four-year-old girl, a red wagon full of Kidney Foundation Fall Treats and the question: “Who could say no to a little girl?” So began the volunteering career of Ancaster High School graduate Meredith Walker.

Now 18, Walker has more than 14 years of volunteering experience with organizations such as the Kidney Foundation of Canada, the Canadian Cancer Society, Ronald McDonald House, the Terry Fox Run and more.

At HWDSB, Walker was also the co-president of the Ancaster High School Girls Athletic Association, maintained a 90 per cent average and was on a variety of sports teams. She was so busy she had to plan on taking an extra half year of high school, just to fit in all of her commitments.

This year, she was cited for her off-the-field volunteerism, classroom excellence and athletics as co-winner of the Jeff Dickins Memorial Award at the annual B’nai Brith Sports Celebrity Dinner.

Currently, Walker is on the steering committee for the Canadian Cancer Society’s Relay for Life walk in the Ancaster/Dundas area and motivates area teens to take part. She heads to college for sports management this fall and hopes to work in event planning. Volunteering will remain a big part of her life.

Walker says her mother, brother, grandparents and teachers have helped her along the way. There is no way of knowing just how many people Walker has helped along her way. HWDSB will be recognizing Walker’s community excellence today (March 22) with a Profiling Excellence Certificate.

She was also a speaker this year at the annual YWCA breakfast, in celebration of International Women’s Day, which also involved exercises in which the girls — from 18 high schools — suggested how their school can help the local community. She is also one of the young nominees in the annual YWCA’s Women of Distinction Gala in May.

Westdale Aids Besieged Hospital in Haiti Top

Schools continue to raise funds for the recovery effort in Haiti – and Westdale was able to hand over a $4,363 donation this month. It came after staff and students did announcements, posters, student presentations and phone calls to parents, all with the goal to educate people about the devastation after the January 12 earthquake.

The group Students Bridging Borders led the effort but contributions certainly came from students and faculty throughout the school; parents also helped, with one family donating $700 dollars.

Funds raised went to L’Hopital Albert Schweitzer, a hospital in Haiti that managed to remain intact after the earthquakes. Due to the closures of other hospitals and the sheer number of Haitians who needed medical care, the hospital had its resources stretched.

“Since it is a functioning hospital, has been in Haiti for many years, and is also staffed by Haitians, we felt that this was a way to make a meaningful, but lasting contribution to aid and relief,” says Westdale teacher Dan Stepaniuk.

The March 1 donation will be matched by the Canadian government, so will actually total $8,726. All together, HWDSB schools have donated more than $80,000 to Haiti.

A Familiar Name for a New School Top

Board trustees approved a Committee of the Whole motion March 8 to keep Dr. J. Edgar Davey Elementary School as the name of a school being built on the site of the original 1971 Dr. Davey school.

Board policy requires that school names promote a positive image of HWDSB, provide inspiration to students, and have local, provincial, Canadian or international significance. Other names submitted during public input were Jillian Rumble and Dr. Gene Sutton – both of whom were prominent local residents who made a difference to students and families.

“This was a hard decision for trustees. All three names submitted were individuals that dedicated their lives to making Hamilton the best place to raise a child,” Board Chair Jessica Brennan said. “We know any one of these names would have inspired students and reflected our district’s core values of respect, creativity, excellence and citizenship.”

HWDSB will be opening one new school during the 2009-10 school year, as part of the Board’s revitalization plan that saw 10 new schools built by 2010. The new school, to open this fall, will have an adjacent City of Hamilton community centre. Its name requires approval at a full Board meeting today (March 22).

Dr. J. Edgar Davey had a long association with the former Hamilton Board of Education. He served as its School Medical Officer for 18 years, prior to becoming Hamilton’s Chief Medical Officer in 1940. During that time he worked to ensure that medical care was widely available in schools and helped eradicate diphtheria in Hamilton by the 1920s. Hamilton was the first Canadian city to beat diphtheria, an infectious disease that makes breathing and swallowing difficult.

The new school will rise three storeys at Ferguson Street North and Wilson Street. The school and city community centre will cover 86,095 square feet when it opens, with a total project cost of about $14.5 million. The school will have an elevator, exercise room and SMART boards in each classroom.

A Student’s First-Hand Look Inside the Human Body Top

Marcia DiStefan is a Grade 12 student at Hill Park secondary in the Healthcare Support Services Program. She filed this first-hand account after a stunning student trip to the Ontario Science Centre.

Have you ever wanted to know how you will look in 50 years, or what it is like to be in a rainforest? Well, on Tuesday, Feb. 23, students got an answer at the Ontario Science Centre. The centre is packed with information that is, in some cases, literally out of this world. For instance, the Space exhibit was filled with models of the solar system, stars, a black hole, the sun and the moon. You can even experience what it’s like to be a pilot, on a rocket chair!

After a trip into space, you can explore things you never knew about your body at the Human Body exhibit. The human body is quite an interesting and complex thing: science allows police to catch criminals using DNA, and even examine the colour of saliva. In just three minutes you can see into the future for a peek at what you’ll look like in 50 years. Do you think you’ll like what you see?

Next, it was time to think as the Communication exhibit showed us how the mind works. This exhibit is filled with tons of different games to get your mind working: in a reactions test, you drop a ruler and test your reactions speed by seeing how quickly you can catch it. The exhibit let you witness a crime and select who you feel committed it, based on suspects’ physical appearance.

Maybe the human body and mind is not what really interests you! That’s perfectly fine, because the Ontario Science Centre offers more. The Living Earth exhibit is filled with a rainforest, an exciting cave and terrifying tornado! Ever wondered if you can really taste the difference between bottled water and tap water? Here’s your chance.

Ready for a challenge? You better be because the Western Family Innovation Centre allows you to exercise your brain with different challenges. The exhibit has an area where you make your own shoe, a fish tank, a harp that plays words and a machine that shows you how to tell when someone’s lying.

Last and far from the least is the Body Worlds exhibit, an unforgettable experience which frequently leaves you asking: Is this real?

The exhibit’s whole-body plastinates – which replace water and fat with coloured plastics – showed us what’s under our skin. These aren’t boring skeletons; they are real examples of the body while hurdling, shooting a bow and arrow and playing hockey. You see the nervous and circulatory systems and all the organs in the body.

They have a plastinated heart, liver and kidney you can hold in your own hand, and a representative to answer questions. Fetuses are displayed from the different stages of a woman’s pregnancy. There is even a plastinate of a real bear! The Body Worlds exhibit truly lives up to the comment: “You need to see it to believe it.”

The Ontario Science Centre is an amazing place that everyone should experience. It allows you to expand your knowledge and see what is really in the world you live in. No matter what you see, remember it’s all science!

Can You Walk and Count to 10,000 at the Same Time? Top

Are you ready to start counting to 10,000?

That’s the magic number for walkers with pedometers, according to academic researchers who found that participants who walked this far had 40 per cent less body fat, waist- and hip-measurements than those who walked fewer than 6,000 steps.

 

With spring just around the corner, Counting Steps is the theme for the second Healthy Workplace Week at HWDSB, which is lacing up for the week of March 29-April 1.

“Walking is one of the simplest, most enjoyable and beneficial forms of exercise. To get started all you require is a good pair of shoes, comfortable clothing and desire,” said HWDSB Health and Safety Officer Corey Boyle.

He said that Healthy Workplace Week this spring is a great time to start building the walking habit, so that staff will be ready for the Aware Fair on Saturday, May 15, 2010 which features a 5km run and a 1km family walk. (Both events occur at the same time, so you must choose.)

It gives people of all fitness levels a healthy goal to work towards.

If you find yourself falling short of your 10,000 steps, be sure to increase your total gradually. It is recommended that people get active for 30 to 60 minutes at least three or four days a week. If you have any health concerns consult with your physician prior to starting or changing your exercise routine.

Virtual Views featuring Student Trustee Matthew Fondevilla Top

In the closing months of being a student trustee, I’ve learned that this is a role of high standing that requires a strong work ethic and can be a lot of fun! Unfortunately, many don’t know what a student trustee is, don’t know what they do and don’t understand why such a role exists.

I hope this helps.

Student Senate is what we call the highest level of governance composed of student representatives – usually student body presidents/prime ministers – from each HWDSB secondary school. As a whole, they direct immediate attention to the shared conflicts that most schools face. They offer advice and solutions.

A student senator is a position held by the student representative from their respective secondary school. Their job is to add their perspective and represent how their school would react to the issues presented.

The action of the office, however, occurs with the flow of communication. Information has to flow in a useful direction or there would be no point in holding meetings! As you can see in my diagram below, these are the paths that the information takes: each white dot is the destination and information can skip points to get where it needs to go.

Student trustees are the two secondary-school students who carry and represent the voice of approximately 50,000 HWDSB students. Their views can influence what is said and done at Board meetings and sub-committees, with elected trustees. The key is to provide input relevant to students.

Other roles for student trustees can include:

I am preparing myself to say “goodbye” as it nears time once again to elect new potential student trustees. To those running, heed my advice. The year-long term ends sooner than you think. Don’t take it in stride. Act upon your plans! Tell every student, whether elementary or secondary, it’s imperative to know what a student trustee is. Help others learn more about this opportunity!

And – if you are considering becoming a student trustee yourself – be sure to invest in a keyboard with a comfortable gel pad.

Matthew Fondevilla
Student Trustee (Glendale)