Instructions for using the School Selection Template
Introduction
Premier Dalton McGuinty confirmed that the government will proceed with its
commitment to invest $200 million in 2010-11 and $300 million in 2011-12 for the
phased-in implementation of the Early Learning Program (ELP) for four-and five-yearolds.
This site selection template will assist the board in developing a prioritized list of early
learning schools to be nominated for implementation in Year 2 (2011-12).
Note on the use of the template
It has come to our attention that many boards have transitioned to Excel 2007 (or
better) for their spreadsheet tasks, while the Ministry is still using Excel 2003. The
newer versions of Excel have caused the Ministry difficulty when trying to read in the
Year 1 templates.
If your board is using Excel 2007, please open the template, then click on “Save As”
and select Excel 2003 (or Excel 2000), then use that version to work with. This will
assist us greatly in reading in your template when you send it back to us.
It is of vital importance that boards send their list of prioritized schools back to us in the
original template, as it contains hidden data to help us automate the process of reading
the submissions. Please do not delete any cells on the “School Priorities” sheet, as it will
render the spreadsheet unreadable. Thank you.
Worksheets
School Priorities Sheet
The School Priorities sheet provides a listing of data pertinent to each elementary
school offering a Junior and or Senior kindergarten program at the board. This sheet is
to be used to generate a prioritized list of schools that will participate in the second
phase of the Ministry’s Early Learning Program (ELP). If a school offering JK-K does not
appear on the list, you may add it by pressing the “Add a School” button.
Summary Report Sheet
This sheet provides a summary of prioritized schools.
Instructions
School Priorities Sheet
The School Priorities sheet is used to assign a board priority number to the schools that
will form the basis of the second year of the ELP. The sheet provides a range of data
for each school gathered from a number of Ministry data sources (e.g. SFIS, OnSIS, the
Ministry of Youth and Child Services) to assist boards in the decision making process.
Schools selected for Year 1 have also been listed on the template. Boards may not deselect a Year 1 school, but they may change the # of classes and 2010-11 forecast
enrolment.
The School Priorities sheet is divided into four sections: 1) Ministry Tombstone data, 2)
Board Analysis, 3) Capital Input Information, and 4) School Selection and Priority:
Ministry Tombstone data
City/Town: the Planning Area, from SFIS
Capacity for 2009-10 OTG: the 2009-10 “on the ground” capacity from SFIS
2009-10 JK - K ADE x 2: the 2009-10 Junior kindergarten + Senior Kindergarten
Average Daily Enrolment, multiplied by two, from the Primary Class Size website
2009-10 Grades 1 - 8 ADE: the 2009-10 Average Daily Enrolment for Grades 1
through 8, from OnSIS
Purpose built JK-K classrooms: the number of JK-K rooms expressly built for
kindergarten, from SFIS
Non-purpose space used for JK/K classrooms: the number of non-purpose rooms
used for kindergarten, calculated from SFIS
Board Analysis
Boards are asked to confirm the three columns of data in this section.
Data in these cells is preloaded, but boards are permitted to change the values.
To enter data in this section, type a “y” for yes, which will result in a check mark, or “n”
for no, which will result in an empty cell, and press enter.
Sufficient purpose-built JK/K space: This formula compares the 2009-10 JK-K
average daily enrolment (doubled, since it is now full day) with the number of
purpose built JK/K classrooms, using a loading of 26 students. This cell is
calculated by the following formula: if the 2009-10 JK - K ADE x 2 is less than 26
times the number of Purpose Built JK-K Classrooms, then there is a check mark.
There is No Licensed Child Care Centre in the school: a check in this cell means
that there is no licensed child care centre in the school, from MCYS
There is No Licensed Child Care within 2 kilometres: a check in this cell means
that there are no licensed child care centres within a radius of 2 kilometres of the
school, from MCYS
Capital Input Information
In this section, the board will clarify whether schools have a capital need to participate
in Year 2 of the ELP.
Is there a capital need?: type a “y” for yes, which will result in a check mark, or
“n” for no, which will result in an empty cell, and press enter.
Type: choose one of the four types of capital need from the drop down menu,
# of classroom additions: enter the number of classroom additions if applicable
(depends on type of capital need)
# of classroom retrofits: enter the number classrooms retrofits if applicable
(depends on type of capital need)
Brief description of scope: Provide a brief description of the scope of the capital
need.
School Selection and Priority
In this section, the board will prioritize schools to participate in year 2 of the ELP.
Following its analysis of each school, boards are to assign a priority number to schools
where the plan is to operate an Early Learning Program. To allow for flexibility in the
Ministry approval process, a sufficient number of schools must be selected to result in
the 2011-12 forecasted JK-K enrolment to equal or exceed twice the board allocation
amount.
Type of childcare in school: choose one of the three types of childcare in school
from the drop down menu.
School does not offer full time JK and/or K: type a “y” for yes, which will result in
a check mark, or “n” for no, which will result in an empty cell, and press enter
for whether each school does not offer full time JK and/or K. In other words, if
the school does not offer full time JK and/or K, type a “y” and press enter.
Priority (Select a number starting from 1): Assign a priority number to schools in
which the plan is to operate an Early Learning Program for Year 2 of the ELP. 1
denotes the highest priority.
# of planned ELP classes: Once a priority number is assigned, this cell will be
highlighted in yellow, requiring boards to fill it in. Boards may change the
planned number of classes for their Year 1 schools.
2011-12 JK - K Forecast for Year 1 schools: These cells will be highlighted in
purple for the Year 1 schools, and will contain the 2010-11 forecast enrolment
sent to the Ministry in the Year 1 template. Boards are asked to update the data
with Year 2 (2011-12) forecast enrolment. Boards should enter the Year 2
forecast enrolment for their Year 1 schools.
2011-12 Historical (pre-ELP) JK - K Forecast for Year 2 schools: Once a priority
number is assigned, this cell will be highlighted in yellow, requiring boards to fill
it in. This cell requires boards to forecast 2011-12 JK-K enrolment for Year 2
schools based on pre-ELP, historical enrolment in JK-K.
2011-12 Incremental forecast enrolment in Year 2 due to ELP: Once a priority
number is assigned, this cell will be highlighted in yellow, requiring boards to fill
it in. This cell requires boards to forecast 2011-12 JK-K enrolment for Year 2
schools due to ELP.
Summary Report
The Summary Report lists in priority order, the schools chosen to be a part of Early
Learning – Year 2, plus repeats the board’s selection strategy rationale.
The Summary Report also provides a Comments/Outstanding Issues space for boards
to provide an overview of their consultation process and any outstanding issues.
Validating the Submission
When the board has completed the analysis and data entry, they should click on the
“Validate Submission” button on the School Priorities sheet. Any errors will be displayed
and must be corrected before submitting the data to the Ministry.
Submission Information
The board’s list of prioritized Early Learning – Year 2 schools must be submitted by
March 19, 2010. Please email the completed spreadsheet to [email protected].
For assistance with this template, please contact the Ministry Finance Officer or
Education Office for your board.
For technical assistance, please contact Tim Gallivan at [email protected] or
via phone at 416-314-0642