Date: October 30, 2017

Time: 7:00pm-8:45pm

Parent Council Attendees: 

Parent Attendees: Heidi Riley, Kelly Dunn, Yu Chen

Staff Attendees: Scott Chin, Nadia MacKinnon, Shelley Hobor

1)     Welcome & Acceptance of current agenda (Amanda)

-all were in favour of the agenda

2)     Acceptance of September’s minutes (Amanda)  

-Marie accepted the minutes, Chris second the motion

3)     Update from School (Scott & Nadia)                                                                     

a)      Open House Feedback and Results from Survey

-a lot of positive feedback

-appears that people liked the sense of community

-parents enjoyed having the classrooms open

-people liked the food trucks

-food trucks give a percentage of revenue back to the school and the school made some money; enough money to feed all the staff and also made an additional $400

-ice-cream truck made the most money with regards to profit for the school

-reviewed survey results: 69% of people wanted to become more involved in the school community, 83% satisfied with communication between the school and home , (email is preferred), 51% of people have participated in fundraising events at school and would like to see funds spent on Arts & Music, Technology

-8 new parking spots created

-Kiss N’ Ride lines painted on pavement

-approximately 30-45 cars go through the Kiss n’ Ride

-staggered morning entry has been successful; traffic has improved

b)     EQAO Results

-results are on the school website

-survey is also tracking student’s attitudes along with achievement

-results for achievement are decreasing in both grade 3 and 6

-school results are similar to provincial results

-the school is focusing on improving math results; 20 teachers have committed to learning the new comprehensive math program and have it fully implemented this year

-supports for the teachers and administration (resources, training) will continue which

 develop skills in multiple areas of teaching math

-many staff have implemented many of the components of the math program

-there are guidelines around the expectations of the math program

-discussion took place about communicating the math program to parents in order to better understand the changes in the math program and how to assist their child

-planning to have a math night to review math program with parents

-members concerned about students not having some focus on basic math skills in order to be able to problem solve efficiently

-admin reiterated that teachers are in the process of learning the comprehensive math

 program and will be supplied with whatever resources and training they need with hopes that this will result in better teaching methods/ skills; admin stated that basic math skills are being taught but it may be taught in a different manner

-in the future, suggestion made about possibly surveying students attitudes more frequently

-Scott showed presentation of a session with teachers to focus on why they are teaching and what they want to accomplish; key goal is to provide a ‘yes’ environment to achieve goals

c)      Invest in Student Letter

-the letter will be sent out this week

-last year’s funds purchased 40 Chromebooks and a Macbook

-suggestion made about recurring donations from parents

d)     Setting the 3 or 4 main fundraising goals for the year (or possibly next 3 years)

-flexible learning spaces- $15, 000

-playground enhancements- $4000

-athletics $5000

-laptops/Ipads- $10,000

4)     Committee Updates                                                                        

a)     Fundraising Update & Event Dates  (Katherine)

-gingerbread house fundraiser; announcement and order form will go out in November and due back November 24th; 3 options including gingerbread house with candy, without candy or gingerbread cookies

-suggestion made about having the gingerbread houses on sale at the parent-teacher interview night

-fun fair in the spring including a silent auction; need to start looking for auction items now

-school will organize the ‘fun part’ of the fair including food trucks, bouncy castles, etc. and committee will canvas for silent auction items

b)     Parent Engagement  (Susan & Shelley)

-family math night in February

-possible movie night in the winter or spring

c)     Healthy Schools  (Marie)

-play leaders met with health nurse and will interact with kindergartens first; they will play Simon Says

-play leaders are in grade 5 and engage kindergartens and primary students in organized play activities

d)     Staff Appreciation  (Marie)

-November 23^rd, for parent-teacher night, committee will provide dinner for teachers

-there are 60 staff

e)     Yearbook Committee (Marie & Chris)

-yearbook committee has about 15 members and the consent form has been sent out       

-a lot of money can be saved if the committee can manage the template     

f)       Communication (Description and Chair to be decided)

-will discuss at next meeting

5)     Treasurer’s Report (Casandra)

-$2000 is in account to support fundraisers (operating budget)

-$50.81 cents above the operating budget       

-Scott and Cassandra will sign existing budget

-Kelly created a summary template which will be used alongside the existing template

6)     New Business

a.  Principal’s Profile

-Scott will send it out to the committee for review and feedback

b.     Other items

-Me to We has the largest amount of participants this year; school is observing a shift in

 empowering students

-Spirit Wear will have a table on November 23rd at parent teacher interview night with

 order forms, samples and sizes

7)     Motion to adjourn

-Nilu accepted motion to adjourn, Marie second the motion

If any discrepancies in these minutes please contact:

Sabina Khandaker

sabina_email@yahoo.com​