Date: January 29, 2018

Time: 7:00pm-8:45pm

Parent Council Attendees: 

Parent Attendees: Heidi Riley, Kelly Dunn

Staff Attendees: 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)  

- Susan accepted the minutes, Sabina second the motion

3)    Committee Updates                                                                        

a)    Fundraising Update & Event Planning  (Katherine/ Marie/ Amanda)

Dance-A-Thon:

-dance-a-thon will be on February 23^rd

-a letter was sent out to parents inquiring about any community members who could donate prizes; to date, no one has come forward with donations

-the letter also included how the funds will be used

-cash, cheque and cash online will be all be accepted

-DJ will cost $800 and has been booked for the dance-a-thon

-Sue reached out to the DJ from last year and is waiting to hear back from him

-$400 has been allocated to prizes

-$100 towards pizza for the classroom that raises the most amount of funds

-$40 for iTunes gift cards

-$100 towards pizza for those individuals helping out the day of the dance-a-thon

-council will also need to purchase juice boxes, glow bands, popcorn kernels, popcorn bags, sour keys

-discussion took place about pre-ordering a kit containing all of the items (juice, popcorn, glowband, one sour key)

-may still sell items/kit the day of the dance-a-thon

-members of council can supervise students for gathering pre-orders during recess

-there will no longer be prizes for students raising the 2^nd and 3^rd most amount of funds but there will still be a prize for the student who raises the most amount of money

-suggested prizes include a top prize to be an Insta camera and film and prize draws: $100- projector, $50- Google home mini, $25- jelly bean dispenser, $10- emoji speaker

-suggestion made about having a visual for students so they can see where their name is being entered for the draws (ex. have boxes)

-suggestion made to add a draw for every $10 raised, along with the existing draw amounts

-email needs to be sent out to council in order to vote on $1800 being spent for the Dance-a-thon

b)    Parent Engagement  (Susan)

-The Amazing Math Race was very well received by the community

-there was a very good turnout

-from the pro-grant money, $700 was used

-the remainder of the pro-grant money, in the amount of $200, will be spent on another math night for parents to review the curriculum; tentatively scheduled for March 22nd

c)    Healthy Schools  (Marie)

-‘winter walk day’ will occur on February 7^th and hot chocolate will be served

-Amanda and Susan will assist students with serving the hot chocolate

-communication will be sent out about the ‘winter walk day’ and bringing mugs for the hot chocolate

-council will also purchase some paper cups (not styrofoam as it’s not environmentally friendly)

d)    Yearbook Committee (Marie)

-Karen brought some samples of yearbooks

-the yearbooks will be softcover as hardcovers are more expensive

-students/ teachers will be doing the layout, so the cost would just be for printing; cost is approximately $15.00

-parent council will assist with the work involved with the page layouts

-council would like to increase the number of pages in the yearbook from last year (last year there was about 60 pages)

-committee will need to set parameters for the yearbook (number of pages for each class, etc.)

-there wasn’t enough council members to vote on the yearbook vendor; there are two vendors to choose from (Commerce Press vs. Maarcle Press)

-Amanda will send out an email to vote on the vendor for the yearbook

e)    Constitution Review  (Cassandra/ Amanda)

-a copy of the most recent constitution was emailed to council for review prior to the council meeting

-the copy on file is from 2014/2015

-Cassandra commented that the methods of communication should include 1:1 meetings and texts

-Cassandra reviewed with members that professional conduct should always be practiced when communicating with each other

-discussion took place about amending communication of sub-committees to better reflect current practices

-discussion took place about informing parents at the beginning of the year how funds were spent the previous year

-communication of parent council meeting date should be on the outside board but there wasn’t enough space this month

-the record keeping for treasurer needs to be updated in the constitution as the current practice involves collaboration with the school admin

-those who signed up for the constitution review committee will make amendments/ revisions to the constitution for next council meeting

4)    Treasurer’s Report (Kelly)

-$1362 was raised from the gingerbread fundraiser and the funds have not been designated yet; a vote will be needed to allocate these funds

-the allocation of funds from the gingerbread fundraiser towards ‘Arts’ in the Treasurer’s Report will have to very clarified at the next meeting

-$245.25 was raised from the QSP fundraiser and those funds will go towards technology

5)    Update From School (Nadia/ Shelley)

- there will be a winter walk day and dance-a-thon

-first winter elective/ activities occurred last week and there will be a second day of winter

activities in February

-the Amazing Math Race went very well and there was a very good turnout of students and parents

-there will be a 2^nd math night “Math Myth Busters” geared towards informing parents about the math curriculum to be held April 5^th; discussion took place about having supervision for children during the math night

-students are having a longer recess by eating snacks during class time; this has worked well by allowing kids to be out longer during recess and offering them 30 minutes for outdoor physical activity

-there are several clubs taking place which include the chess club, bracelet making club, drawing club, etc.

-the school hosted 6 tournaments, as well as attending tournaments at other schools

-every Wednesday in February will be ‘spirit day’

-there will be a ‘backwards day’ this week

-there will be a spring musical

-in April and May, there will be a music Monday event

-there will be a film festival on April 26^th

-May 3^rd will be ‘welcoming of kindergartens’

-arts night will be on April 30^th (school council meeting will need to be rescheduled for a different day)

-grade ones are skating every Wednesday

-the school is continuing with professional learning; the focus has shifted to math and working with teachers on this topic once a week

-on February 14^th report cards will be sent out

6)    New Business (All)

-discussion took place about changing the February council meeting to March 5^th.

-the council meeting on April 30^th will need to be rescheduled as the school will be having an ‘arts night’ that evening

-some members of council noticed that there were a few days when the sidewalks leading up to the south side of the school and along the school weren’t shoveled; this was raised as a concern as it is a safety issue

-Nadia acknowledged that those sidewalks should have been shoveled

7)   Motion to adjourn

- Cassandra accepted motion to adjourn, Marie second the motion

If any discrepancies in these minutes please contact:

Sabina Khandaker

sabina_email@yahoo.com​