SCHOOL ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETING AGENDA

Monday October 25, 2021 7:00 pm – 8:30pm

Virtual

Parent Council Attendees:

Parent Attendees: Kelly Dunn, Laura/Michael McDermott

Staff Attendees: Scott Chin, LeeAnn Morrow, Myka Hang

*Will change Kelly Dunn back to being a voting member at the next meeting.

Treasurer’s Report                                                               5 mins             Haafid

-       haven’t spent any money since last meeting

-     Balance: $11,206.10

-       funds already earmarked - need to fundraise and raise money

Committees - Discuss Ideas for each                                             20 mins           All

●     Fundraising,

○     We need new ideas for fundraising. Everyone will help with this one way or another over the course of the year.

○     Current Volunteers: Haafid, Amanda, Sabina, Kelly Dunn, Karen, Wendy, Liz, Kelly Sutherland, Marie, Heidi, Sarah

○     Past years: gingerbread houses for the holidays, dance-a-thon, movie night

○     New Ideas:

■     Love Gelato Boxes - Sabina to get more details

■     Gingerbread Houses for Holidays - Karen to follow up with Passion for Desserts.

●     Offer two options: Gingerbread Houses and (non-Christmas themed) Cookie Kits

●     Alternatively, offer kits that are representative of the House Team colours, and make it a fun challenge or contest between the House Teams

●     Option to move this up to end of November so it is not closely related to the holidays

■     Virtual Cooking Classes - These went well last year. Paula would be a great contact.

■     Consider doing 2 major asks instead of all these little things - mid-November and March. Tax receipt for anything over $20.

■     Virtual Silent Auction - need to get items now and save them up, use in Spring or if we can connect it to an event, then it can be done outside. Kelly Dunn has organized this before - she will be part of this team.

■     Virtual Movie Night - sell ind. popcorn bags

■     Outdoor Movie Night - maybe in the Spring, rent inflatable screens

●     Staff Appreciation,

○     Current Volunteers: Liz, Amanda

○     Bring in meals for Parent/Teacher nights - didn’t do that last year due to Covid. Talked about getting t-shirts, or something else to show appreciation.

○     Cannot order or send meals/coffee into the school at the moment. However:

■     Food trucks off school property may work - need to confirm. Fleet Coffee would be a great option.

●     Parent Engagement,

○     Current Volunteers: Sabina, Amanda

○     Try to get more parents involved

○     Events need to report back - how did it enhance parent engagement, etc.

■     ⅓ of families do not speak English as their first language at home

■     45 students are hybrid

■     ⅓ of families ID as non-white

■     80 students are identified

○     How can we reach out to families, esp. when English is not their first language?

○     Ideas:

■     Put together a PTA info sheet with background of who we are, our kids grades, these are the languages we speak, etc.

■     Do we need translators? Virtual and in-person? 100 families speak Cantonese;100 families speak Mandarin, but not necessarily can’t speak English, just not first language

■     Translate email blasts/newsletters.

■     Update Board picture on website - it is old. We need to send our photo for the website: “Meet some of our Board Members”...

○     Remove council members who have a concern about having their name and photos linked on public domain.

●     Communication,

○     Current Volunteers: Heidi, Amanda, Sarah

○     Need up-to-date FB messaging for parents, all of our communication - get that out to the community, a little blurb in the newsletter, etc.

●     Constitution Review,

○     Current Volunteers: Heidi, Amanda, Sarah

○     Need to update - last update was 2 or 3 years ago. Amanda to look into the updates in Google Drive

●     Sustainability

○     Current Volunteers: Wendy, Amanda, Heidi

○     Need to get this revamped, partnering with our eco teams, teachers who are taking the lead on eco-schools: healthy schools and eco schools. Parents helped

out with those.

○     Not happening right now

○     Food initiative with LeeAnn - trying to confirm grant. $5000? Maybe on hold due to Covid.

○     Ideas: Outdoor classroom, butterfly garden, Indigenous plant garden

○     Donation drives: new guidelines but should be able to collect food. Need to look into the guidelines, may need to be new items only. Food drives should be OK. (It Takes A Village FB group for clothing donations)

Update from School                                                              20 mins           Scott/Leeann

-       Family Engagement

-       Thinking about our priorities and what the data tells us; how do we engage more families in school and the parent council?

-       Gr. 4-8 school board collects data. There is a primary grade survey too. Asking about engagement, mental health, welcoming and belonging (many initiatives from the school have stemmed from this data), asking kids how we can help them, etc.

-       Need to get the word out - parents don’t know there is a council, or that they can get involved. Only 79 members on FB page.

-       Ideas:

-       Welcome Wagon for for new parents as well as during Orientation in Spring and Open House

-       Parent-to-Parent meetings - build in an intro in Scott’s weekly newsletter, and arrange a meet-and-greet a few times a year

-       In the past, Council has been present, and each class has a few parents

-       Just go out and talk to them!

-       Great ideas but how do we communicate this to the parents? Weekly newsletters? Need to come up with a strategy.

-       Don’t know readership on weekly newsletters - should we track?

-       Parent feedback re: newsletter - too long? Need to include Board messages though.

-       Jamboard: As parents, what are some things we are hoping to restart? Or start new if we didn’t do it before:

-       pizza lunch

-       house team events

-       continue on equity and inclusions in all activities

-       movie nights

-       fun fair/play day

-       clubs and sports

-       anti-bullying awareness

-       field trips

-       kindness events

-       community meetups

-       popcorn sale

-       play and choir

-       track and field,

-       musical

-       in-person parents council with drinks

-       mental health awareness of grades 7 and 8

-       jammies day

-       hot chocolate (walk to school) days

-       after-school yoga/calming

-       land acknowledgement

-       cornell-a-thon

-       Indigenous education

-       spirit days

-       wacky hair day

-       anti-bullying

-       popcorn gram/valentine’s gram

-       jersey day

-       help with reading and volunteering (parents)

-       a day in the life of (focus on understanding perspectives from other community members)

-       school clean up day

-       gardening day

-       mental health nights

-       yearbook

-       recordings and bloopers of everytime Scott chases coyotes from the field with a bull horn

-       virtual tree of diversity

-       knitting pieces to build into a quilt for senior’s home

-       Scott and LeAnn: Ask me anything virtual town halls

-       assemblies

-       math/literacy nights

-       cooking classes

-     Want parent voice and student voice

-       Spirit Wear - sourcing issue, trying to keep costs as low as possible. Does anyone know any vendors? May not get spirit wear this year.

-       Paper towel supply chain issues - asking kids to use hand sanitizer, less paper waste.

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New Business                                                                       10 mins           All

-       Haafid - YRDSB PAC - Parent Advisory Council starting next month - congrats Haafid!

 Actionable Items:

-       Scott/LeeAnn to remove Sabina and Heidi’s full name on any public forum due to safety issues related to their work and safety. Due: October 29

-       Amanda to start email groups for each committee. Due: October 28

-       Fundraising Committee:

-       Karen to get order forms for Passion for Desserts decorating kits. Due: October 29

-     Finalize fundraising strategy and form sub-committees to split up work. Due: November 29

-       Staff Appreciation Committee:

-       Confirm the dates/opportunities of when this can be done for the rest of the school year. Due: November 29

-     Decide on 3 options and associated approx. costs. Due: November 29

-       Parent Engagement Committee:

-       Come up with a strategy and 2 actions that can be executed immediately.

-       Due: November 29

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-       Communications Committee

-       All board members who are comfortable with having their photo and full name posted on the website, please send it in to Amanda by November 1st.

-     Scott/LeeAnn (or is Amanda?) to update website by November 4th.