Edmonton Public Schools Foundation Luncheon

10/16/10 10:39 PM

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I briefly met Sandra Woitas, director of the Edmonton Public Schools Foundation, few months back at an EPSB event. I guess they ordered too much food and needed my help cleaning up at the luncheon, so I gladly obliged. We had a great tour of John A. McDougall School, which, if I heard correctly, is comprised entirely of students living in poverty. They do amazing work there, and I was particularly impressed with the reading program. Give those women a child with a reading problem and they will have them reading at or better than grade level in 20 weeks. Awesome!

The purpose of the Foundation (which I did not understand before this event) is to provide full-day kindergarten where it is needed. Not throughout the city in every school, because not every student/family needs it. It is for low-income families where having to come back from work prevents them from making ends meet. It also allows for early learners who may be disadvantaged socially or otherwise to get the extra learning they need. I wish I had all of the stats that she shared pertaining to things like the number of words a child will hear by a given age in a stable home versus a disadvantaged home, and how that impacts learning and language acquisition, and so many other interesting tidbits of knowledge.

Aside from being hilarious and entertaining, Sandra was very informative and compelling. We all had a greater understanding of what an inner-city school was all about. We walked the hallways, visited the classrooms, learned of the struggles. Some parents would rather not send their children to a school like this for fear that their ‘normal’ children wouldn’t receive due attention if the teacher is busy slowing down to help the ESL students catch up. I really don’t think that would be the case. Furthermore, I think that being around students from completely different backgrounds is good for children. It expands their understanding of different cultures and teaches them to respect those who are different. Call me a hypocrite, because my children go to a pretty homogenous school, but I think it would a great place for them to learn if we did live in the inner city. Everyone knows that travelling gives you a greater understanding of others and helps you appreciate what you’ve got back home, and I think that the same thing applies here.

Here is the guest list of the event and a few more notes I took while there.

In attendance:

Brad Wood IBM

Harry Mah IBM

Allison O’Grady MacEwan

Dr Enrico DeBoja MacEwan

Cindi Williams

Jess Bradley Edmonton Pride Centre

Fay Orr-AB mental Health patient advocate, former Deputy Minister

Jason Garner Grand & Toy

Jazz Gennaro Grand & Toya

Dave Erdmann former teacher, St John’s Music

Marlene Boisvert admin assistant at Oliver School

Al Stafford manager at St John’s Music

Carol Moeller Superintendent secretary, Lions, Girl Guides

Steve Glassman area executive producer for CBC

Don Marcotte regional manager for media operations and technology, aka “change management” for CBC

Blaine Campbell flooring distributor

Jessica Freligh

Ambreen Ahamed mom, former teacher

Mitchell Knox Macs convenience stores, Northern AB

Debbie Jacobs IBM

Sana Principal of MacDougall Elementary 28% aboriginal, 50% ESL, 100% in poverty. “Every child is worth it”.

Guest speaker: Fardoussa Omar, a Somalian refugee in ’97. No English. Never been to school before. Mother died in labour just before grade 9 grad. Full IB at Victoria school. Recipient of Great Kids Award. At Concordia.

Sandra Woitas. Only 20% of people paying taxes for public schools have someone in the system. The foundation seeks to engage the remaining 80%. They want to help the vulnerable succeed from an early age. A lot of children can’t even identify the cover of a book.

The brain is 75% developed by age 5.

Edmonton Public has 22 full-day kindergartens. Only half a day is paid by the government. The rest comes from the district, and some comes out of junior high programs.

Did you know? Prison construction rates are projected by the number of boys in grade 3 who can’t read

Follow them on twitter at @EPSFoundation.

http://www.school4you.ca/go-lunch/

http://foundation.epsb.ca/