Events – IPE/BC

Healthy school food; Let’s do it together

There is more to do to help kids have access to healthy food at school – let’s do it together.

Please join the Coalition for Healthy Schools and school trustees from across the province to discuss how to help kids have access to healthy food at school and support the implementation of quality programs in every district.

September 25^th at 6:30pm

Featuring Brent Mansfield (co-founder of Lunch Lab, founder of the BC Chapter of the Coalition for Healthy School Food and a Vancouver teacher) and Mark Robinson (Trustee for School District 68- Nanaimo Ladysmith).

Please join by Zoom at this link.

Events

Watch the video of our March 6th forum on inclusionary practices in BC schools

On March 6th, in conjunction with our Annual General Meeting, IPE/BC held a forum titled, “Inclusionary practices in BC schools: Are we making progress? We’re grateful to our panelists Hilary Thompson, President of Inclusion BC, Tamara Taggart, President of Down Syndrome BC, and Tracy Humphreys, Executive Director of BCCPAC and past ED of BCEdAccess, and our moderator, Patti Bacchus, IPE/BC Board member. Don’t worry if you weren’t able to attend; you can watch a video of the forum and read all about it.

Events, News, Updates

We hope to see you on March 6th

You’re Invited…

The Institute for Public Education/BC is pleased to invite you to our upcoming forum:

Inclusionary practices in BC schools: Are we making progress?

IPE/BC director, Patti Bacchus, will be moderating a panel discussion featuring:

Hilary Thomson, President, Inclusion BC, Region: Lower Mainland/Fraser Valley
Tamara Taggart, President, Down Syndrome BC
Tracy Humphreys, Executive Director, BCCPAC and former Executive Director of BCEdAccess

When: March 6^th, 7:00 pm.

Where: Room 2200, SFU Harbour Centre, Downtown Campus

515 West Hastings, Vancouver, BC

Click the links below for directions:

–travelling by public transit

-travelling by car.

–parking nearby.

Online access to the forum

If you’re not able to attend in person, we hope you’ll join us by Zoom. Please contact us to request the link.

IPE/BC Annual General Meeting

The IPE/BC AGM will follow the forum. Everyone is welcome to stay for the meeting and learn more about our work.

AGM Agenda

Welcome and introduction of IPE Directors
Annual Report
Financial Report
Election of Directors
Adoption of amendments to the constitution

6.Feedback from participants

Please don’t hesitate to contact us with your questions or suggestions.

Hope to see you on March 6^th!

Events, News

Teacher Shortages and Institutional Responses

IPE/BC Forum, March 7, 2024

We’re very grateful to Dr. Dan Laitsch, Dean, Faculty of Education, SFU, for speaking to our recent forum about the serious teacher shortage and for engaging our many participants online and in person in a discussion of the causes and solutions. Dan stressed the importance of a comprehensive systemic response to each of the hurdles to recruiting and retaining teacher candidates and practising teachers. We’re pleased to report that his presentation inspired IPE/BC to form a working committee to highlight the issues, research the solutions, and advocate for positive changes.

We invite you to take a few minutes to read the report on this forum here.

Events, Updates

Upcoming Forum and AGM

The Institute for Public Education/BC will be holding a forum on the teacher shortage in conjunction with its AGM. We’d be very pleased to see you there. Please don’t hesitate to share this information to others interested in quality, inclusive, accessible public education.

Keynote address: Teacher Shortage, Teacher Supply, Teacher Demand, or Teacher Employment, ensuring access to high quality teachers for BC students.

We’re delighted to have Dr. Dan Laitsch, Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University, as our keynote speaker. Dan is a former IPE/BC Board member and Chair of IPE/BC and has been the president of the Confederation of University Faculty Associations, British Columbia, a long serving Director on the SFU Faculty Association (SFUFA) and former Treasurer and President of the association. A researcher with the SFU Centre for the Study of Educational Leadership and Policy, his primary teaching area is Educational Leadership. He co-edits the open access peer reviewed International Journal of Policy and Leadership (www.ijepl.org ) and is active in the American Educational Research Association SIG on Research Use. Dr. Laitsch’s research examines the use and misuse of research in policy and practice; the impact of neoliberal policies on educational systems; and the role of motivation within organizational and policy change efforts

Date: March 7, 2024

Time: 7:00 to 9:00 pm

Location: Segal Building, 500 Granville Street, Vancouver

See below for directions to the venue and instructions on how to participate online if you’re not able to attend in person.

Programme

The meeting will begin with a territorial acknowledgement and reflection, followed by the keynote address. Following a short break for informal conversations, the AGM, with the presentation of our annual report, discussion of current initiatives, and appointment of directors will take place.

Directions to the venue

The Segal Centre, at 500 Granville Street, is readily accessible by bus, Canada Line and Skytrain. It is just two blocks from Waterfront Station.

If you’re travelling by car, two of the closest parking lots are the Imperial Parking garage at 450 West Cordova St and the Diamond Parking garage at 443 Seymour St..

Participating online

If you’re not able to attend in person but want to join in online, please email us at info@publicedbc.ca and we’ll be happy to send you the link.

Events, Updates

Stretched to the Limit – IPE/BC Forum, March 2

IPE/BC is pleased to be hosting a forum, Stretched to the Limit, in conjunction with its AGM on March 2, 2023 from 5:00-8:00 pm in the CN Strategy Room, Room 2800 in the Segal Building, 500 Granville St. Vancouver. We’ll be hearing from:

Annabree Fairweather, Executive Director, CUFA/BC

Andrée Gacoin, Director of Information, Research, and International Solidarity, BCTF

Tracy Humphries, Executive Director, BC EdAccess

Discussant- Dan Laitsch, IPE/BC Chairperson

“Public sector services in Canada, like health care, are making headlines across the country for a crisis in service delivery. Millions of Canadians cannot find a family doctor, many can’t access critical surgeries and treatments due to lengthening waitlists, and the professionals entrusted with our care are experiencing burnout and leaving the profession in high numbers. These challenges are unfolding, even as health care takes up a larger percentage of GDP than ever before, reaching a high of 13.8% in 2020.

Education is on the verge of a similar crisis. The teacher shortage is reaching crisis proportions, universities are crumbling, and provincial governments are treating educators as if they are the problem rather than partners in revitalization. Investment in K-12 education in BC is at historic lows, just 1.6% of GDP in 2019, half what it was in 1982. This panel will bring together senior leaders in the education sector to discuss the looming crisis facing our sector, as well as help us begin to explore what our hopes and dreams for a revitalized education sector could look like.”

We’d love to have you attend to join in the discussion, network with others committed to quality, inclusive, accessible public schools, and share your hopes and dreams for public education in BC.

Click here for more information.

Events

THINK TANK: Privatization and Public Education

On December 7th, IPE/BC (with the support of Your Education Matters) held a Think Tank to discuss the wide range of issues around privatization in public education in British Columbia. IPE/BC Fellows, teachers, researchers, and community leaders came together to consider what issues to address and how strategically to do so. Joel French, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta, started the conversation with a keynote address, Anti-private and Pro-public Advocacy in K-12 education: Lessons from Alberta.

IPE/BC will be considering the many ideas generating in moving forward with its strategic goal of supporting the public in public education.

Events

IPE/BC Fellows on privatization and distributed learning

On Saturday, September 22, 2018, Larry Kuehn and Liz Blackwood will be participating in a forum, Public Education: Championing Lasting Change, sponsored by First Call and Your Education Matters.

Their presentation…

Privatization and Distributed Learning in BC: Impacts on Educational Opportunities for Special Needs Students

With parental dissatisfaction with learning opportunities for their special needs children many are turning to private, for-profit schools that offer education primarily through distance strategies. There is a conflation of issues here including privatization and the appropriateness of distributed learning strategies that need to be more public and better understood to facilitate change.

Events

IPE/BC presents workshop at Advocacy Works 2.0

On Saturday, April 21st IPE/BC Fellows Larry Kuehn, E. Wayne Ross and Sandra Mathison presented a workshop titled, “The Many Faces of Privatization in Education.” Speaking to activist parents and teachers, the panel outlined both obvious and more hidden ways that privatization occurs in public education and what the consequences are.

Events

JOIN US: Vancouver School Board Election All Candidate Forum on October 2nd

October 2, 2017 7:30 -9:30 pm

Trout Lake Community Centre, Grandview Room
3360 Victoria Dr, Vancouver

Candidates running in the by-election for Vancouver School Board will be available for a question and answer session about their vision for the future of Vancouver schools.

Parents, teachers, media are invited to participate.

Update: Thanks to all the candidates who participated and to the parents and community members who enriched the conversation with thoughtful questions.