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Oakville trustee Kelly Amos leads public school board into 2014 by Bob Mitchell Special to the Beaver 3 | Wednesday, December 11, 2013 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com Kelly Amos has been named the new chair of the Halton District School Board. The Oakville trustee defeated current chair Amy Collard and current vice-chair Kathyrn Bateman-Olmstead for top spot. They were the only trustees, who put their names forward during Wednesday's meeting. Collard defeated BatemanOlmstead for the vice-chair position. They were the only trustees who ran for the spot. A second vote was needed to select the chair with Bateman-Olmstead's name removed from the ballot after failing to gain more votes than either of her colleagues during the first ballot. Amos says she was surprised she won and gave a short acceptance speech. "We have a year with chal- Kelly Amos lenges in it that we are going to accomplish a lot for the residents and I look forward to working with you," Amos told trustees. Amos is in her third full term as a trustee, having served her first term from 2000-03 (after being appointed in September 2000 prior to being elected in the November 2000 municipal election). She was re-elected in 2003. Amy Collard Amos helped create, and served as founding chair of the board's Parent Involvement Committee (2006-08) before returning as a trustee when elected in the 2010 municipal election. Amos has served on a variety of committees, most recently chairing the board's Communications Committee and acting as the trustee representative on the Halton Learning Foundation Board. see Dialoguing on p.4 continued from p.1 Students will initally receive 40 minutes of French instruction per week in the program that will be reviewed annually. The first-year schools represent a variety of programs (K-8, K-6, dual track (DT), singletrack (ST) English, large and small enrolments) across the four geographic areas within the Halton District School Board (HDSB) -- Oakville, Burlington, Milton and Halton Hills. Schools selected for the initial rollout consist of 12 single-track and 12 dual-track schools with large and small enrolments. Altogether, 14 of the schools offer Grade 8, with 10 offering K-Grade 6. Staff initially recommended the pilot project be run in 16 schools, but trustees decided to increase it to 24 with the goal of delivering French as a core subject to all Halton public schools over the next four years. French as a subject has been taught beginning in Grade 4 in Halton public schools. In September, students in Grades 1-3 in the 24 schools will receive 40 minutes of French-speaking teachers are needed French instruction each week. That increases to 120 minutes for Grade 4 students and 160 minutes in Grade 5 with students in Grades 7-8 receiving 200 minutes each week. Under the plan, Grades 1-3 students will still receive the same amount of French by high school graduation, but classroom time will be spread over three additional years. Currently, students in Grades 4-8 receive 200 minutes per week of French, which results in them having acquired 600 hours of French by the time they enter high school. Meanwhile, the board is actively seeking top-qualified French-speaking teachers, who are also well-educated in teaching children with diverse learning needs with Grade 1 still the entry point for French Immersion (FI) studies, in which students receive half of their language instruction in English. The 24 schools include: · Frontenac (ST ­ K-8), Captain R. Wilson (ST ­ K-8), Irma Coulson (DT ­ K-8), Florence Meares (ST ­ K-8), West Oak (ST ­ K-8), Escarpment View Merry Christmas (ST ­ K-8); · Charles R. Beaudoin (DT ­ K-8), Emily Carr (ST ­ K-8), EW Foster (DT ­ K-5), John W. Boich (DT ­ K-8), Falgarwood (ST ­ K-8), Martin Street (DT ­ K-5), Clarksdale (DT ­ K-6), Maple Grove (ST ­ K-8), George Kennedy (DT ­ K-5), Tom Thomson (DT ­ K-6), Heritage Glen (DT ­ K-8) Silver Creek (ST ­ K-8), Mohawk Gardens (ST ­ K-6), Palermo (DT ­ K-8), Bruce T. Lindley (DT ­ K-6), Sheridan (ST ­ K-5) Maplehurst (DT ­ K-6) and Oakwood (ST ­ K-5). "We see this as positive for whatever schools we picked," said Associate Education Director Jeff Blackwell. "We know there are schools that are interested, but weren't selected, but we feel we have gathered a cluster of schools we can come back to in the spring and gather data on the impact and get feedback from the schools, the students and the parents." Principals were informed before trustees, Blackwell said. Oakville trustee Ann HarveyHope asked for an interim report before the annual review. 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