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School Council Minutes

Tuesday, April 4th, 2023

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Attendance

Opening: The fourth, full meeting of the 2022-2023 James Robinson PS School Council was called to order at 6.30 pm on April 4th, 2023 by chairperson Erin Stokes in the James Robinson Library, and virtually, over Google Meet

Approval of February Minutes

The minutes of the previous meeting were unanimously approved as distributed over email

Approval of April Agenda

The agenda was unanimously approved as distributed over email

Agenda

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Agenda Item: Welcome and Land Acknowledgment Presenter: Jenn Brosz

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Agenda Item: Chair’s report (5 mins) Presenter: Erin Stokes

Discussion: 

• Shoutouts:

• Thank you to those observing Ramadan for being here; we acknowledge that any time you need to leave is fine. 

• Thank you to the FFN Team and volunteers

• We got a lot of positive verbal feedback, but not many exit surveys in google form

• Asking Council Members to please fill out survey

• Received around 17 feedback forms, will need data for the PRO Grant review/feedback, so please encourage other people to complete the survey as well

• Believe we raised $426.71, but this figure will be analysed with Julie

• Thank you to Parvis for the Terra Cotta Fundraiser. We raised $994 and it was an amazing event

• Thank you to Danielle and Mylisa for running such a successful staff appreciation event - we got a lot of great feedback

• Info items: 

• Email sent out re: the selection of a Director; please fill in the survey

• Right now we have an interim director - please consider filling out the survey to have your voice heard

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Agenda Item: Voting Items (15 mins) Presenter: Erin, Julie

Discussion: 

• Constitution (Erin - 8 min)

• A reminder that we can rework and look at the wording of anything that we approve or table, as we have to review the Constitution annually

Motion 1: Should Community Members be voting members on Council?

1. Open discussion or comments

• Ahead of the meeting, most were in favour, some were not

• Jenn: Would they have to attend a minimum of meetings to vote, like parent/guardian members? Yes

1. Consensus reached or vote between two options (yes or no)

• Yes: 10

• No: 0

Motion to change the constitution to allow community members to vote was passed unanimously.

Motion 2: Do you approve of the new language for the Community Representative position in the Constitution?

• Open discussion or comments regarding the following:

• Open discussion or comments regarding the following:

• Based on the current wording, Jeanette will not qualify as a Community Member; she doesn’t live within our catchment area; *Do we want to make a provision for people like her? 

• Current wording: The number of Community Representatives shall be a maximum of two (2) (no minimum requirement).  Community Representatives must live within our serviced community and have skills and/or experience that adds value to Council and JRPS. 

• Prior to their appointment to Council, proposed Community Representatives need to explain their intended contributions to the newly elected/acclaimed parent/guardian Members of Council.  Then parent/guardian Members of Council can vote on said community members’ inclusion as Community Representatives, based on the above criteria.  Upon appointment, Community Representatives are considered Members of Council and will have voting privileges.

•  Could say:  “Community Members must have skills and/or experience that adds value to Council and JRPS... 

• Some discussion:

• Heather: We need to remove the individual from the rule and consider what it would mean to allow any community representative to vote

• Julie: Could we make a point to allow for an exception to the rule - add wording to the constitution 

• Arsalan: Agrees with the need for exception

• New wording (suggested by Julie): Exceptions to the criteria may be considered with the agreement of the newly elected/acclaimed JRPS members of council 

• Consensus reached or vote between two options

• Yes: 10

• No: 0

Motion to amend the wording of the constitution to allow for exceptions passed unanimously.

Motion 3: Do you approve of the overall acceptance of the Constitution?

1. Open discussion or comments 

2. Vote 

Yes: 10

No: 0

Motion to accept the constitution passed unanimously.

Motion 4: The current line items in our School Council account are restrictive when it comes to spending and moving funds around.  Do you approve of Julie’s proposal to simplify our time items? (5 min - Julie)

1. Julie explained her proposal:  

• Idea is to streamline the accounts

• There are many line items in the budget - and we inherited this system

• Wanted to eliminate some lines, but Winnie could not do it until the end of the year.  Some need to be closed off:

1. Eliminating the playground account as agreed last year (because it’s closed out), 

2. Eliminating the Fun Fair and Fall Fest accounts and combining with the General account, 

3. Keeping the Sub/Lunch (we can see what it’s generating and then move the funds over to the general account at the end of the year) and Eco Classroom line (because it’s an existing float for maintenance, as we’re  

1. Open discussion or comments

• Erin: Was discovered during FFN that the many lines of the budget made it difficult to move money/write cheques. Erin then asked Julie to come up with a simplified system

• Heather: We’re also responsible for playground repair, so having that as a separate line may make sense

• Erin: Anything we run goes into our account (we don’t run Mother’s Deli/pizza)

• Jeanette: What is the plan for the playground? Long-term? We may be eligible for a special plan for retaining funding. We have about 10 years until it needs to be replaced (if we save $2500/year - Jeanette has a chart with the expenses)

• Erin: Question for Scott re: carrying money over - how much can we keep year over year, and can we earmark it

• Scott: We will discuss a way to raise $$, create a pot for repairs, consider another big campaign, or apply to the board for funds (matching funds)

• Add to the agenda for June: We will look at how much we have at the end of the year and how much we should be saving for repairs moving forward/ how much to keep in the pot

• Scott: Subs/lunches should also be in the general account 

• Julie: but it’s a bit of a false item as it’s constantly changing and it can make us think we have more money than we actually do

• Dan: Question: what is the benefit of consolidating the line items - isn’t it helpful to itemize money?

• Julie: We don’t have a huge amount of money and so we end up shuffling funds around too much. The treasurer can still generate reports and information from the accounts and all of the detailed information is still there

1. Vote to approve:

Yes: 10

No: 0

Motion to streamline the accounting by having line items for only: General, Lunch, Playground was passed unanimously.

Motion 5: Do we agree to gift our unsold Terra Cotta cookies from Family Fun Night to the Grads for them to sell? (2 min - Erin)

1. Open discussion or comments

• Grads are selling cookies to raise funds for their graduation

• Julie: we would be gifting $327.87 in cookie value

• Erin will dole them out slowly to the grad sales committee

2. Vote

Yes: 10 

No: 0

Motion to donate leftover Council Terra cookies to the grad committee was passed unanimously.

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Agenda Item: Upcoming Projects (10 mins) Presenter: Erin

Discussion:  

• Fun Fair Subcommittee: Looking at Thursday April 12th for first meeting 6:30 online  -Erin will send out message

• Lots of group meetings are probably not necessary, we should be able to communicate over email and have smaller meetings 

• Subcommittee so far: Jenn, Jeanette, Arsalan, Sarah K, Scott, Erin, Mylisia, Julie, Haley, Sandy

• Would like to put together another subcommittee to create an end of year survey to parents

• Welcome to Kindergarten event May 18th, 6-7:30

• Would anyone like to join Erin at this event? (Arsalan and Julie are joining)

• Erin to send a Slide from council for Scott to use during the virtual Kindergarten event

• Would be a good chance to promote our Label Fundraiser

• Pamphlet: tips and tricks for new families: Erin will create a doc for members to give input

• What is School Council

• Family Ambassadors Section

• OPAL section

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Agenda Item: Principal’s Report (30 mins) Presenter: Scott Chin        

Discussion: 

• There’s a lot going on in the school - so many clubs and activities and the school is really coming to life

• Music concert in June - more info coming soon. It’ll be with the new string instruments

• A contingency of JRPS students playing at Markville Pops at the beginning of May

• Autism Awareness month - fundraising every Wed during April

• Traffic update

• Had a quick meeting to share with the town and the board to explain what has been happening. A rep came to observe a rainy day.  They observed that there is no safe place to drop off. Trustee and MP supportive, and waiting to see what comes of that support. 

• Signage is not enough - we need a safe and viable place to drop kids off. 

• Scott will continue to advocate with the board

• Arsalan: suggesting speed bumps to reduce speed (would increase safety, but wouldn’t solve the drop off location issue)

• Julie/Scott: Enforcement could be a stop-gap measure

• Heather: What about a group like a “Safety Patrol” with kids or staff 

• Georgia: Cannot have children out there - Scott agrees it’s a non-starter

• Scott: we have a temporary plan in place, and we’re making slow inroads with the signage/bylaws and planning. Approaching it from different angles. 

• Jeanette: Do we have access to the Police Auxillary (volunteers in uniform)

• Scott will look into this

• New School and Upcoming Development

• New school is supposed to open in 2026, but no new buildings in that area will add to our population at JRPS. Any new buildings will be going to Milliken Mills or other areas.

• Link Website: Unnamed Markham 5 new school

• End of Year Calendar

• Grad Trip and Graduation:

•  3 day trip to Lake st.George at a reasonable price, only 30 mins by car

• Trying for 100% inclusion, and we received a subsidy and a grant for it from the board. 

• Typically a grade 7 trip, but the grade 8s haven’t had the chance to go anywhere over the last few years 

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Agenda Item: Treasurer’s Report (5 mins) Presenter: Julie Wong

Discussion:  

Closing balance is: $10,357.89 (Treasurer’s Report included at the bottom of the minutes)

• Revenue from lunches is a lot lower than previous term, will examine

• Estimated revenue for the year for sub lunches is $3000

• FFN: After we receive the PRO Grant, looks like we netted $1400, Erin’s account doesn’t match, so Erin and Julie will reconcile the numbers

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Agenda Item: Fundraising Report (5 mins) Presenter: Arsalan

Discussion: 

• Would like to provide labels at this time when Kindergarten students are registering, summer camps starting, etc

• Label fundraiser options: Oliver’s, Loveable, Mabels

• Recommends Olivers Labels because it has a feature that allows an ongoing fundraiser for coming years

• Comes with a lost and found tags

• The info comes in booklets that Oliver’s provides and can be easily distributed

• All companies offer 20% back to the school

• They require that there is an office admin to monitor. They need to sign up and then we can distribute info 

• Scott: Winnie would be the administrator

• Erin: will touch base with Arsalan and Winnie to coordinate ASAP

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Agenda Item: OPAL Coordinator Report (10 mins)             Presenter: Jeanette McLellan

Discussion: 

• OPAL 

• Giving appreciation for the staff at JRPS

• Not a lot to report from OPAL - gardens and inventory on the radar in the coming months

• OPAL suggested having the bunker open during the Fun Night, as well as running family events in the sand pit

• Garden(s): Food and Office

• Family gardening survey  - 6/8 new volunteers can come on the weekend, so it’s looking like we’ll have a regular weekend maintenance crew!

• Maintenance Plan coming - Scott: aware that the yard needs a bit more attention - it’s the responsibility of the maintenance crew. 

Jeanette and Scott to meet to discuss a maintenance plan

• Student reporting - use the Instagram/Erin’s group

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Agenda Item: School Council Forum (5 mins) Presenter: Sarah A.      

Discussion: 

• Tabled until next Council meeting

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Agenda Item: Other Business (5 mins) Presenter: Erin Stokes      

Discussion: 

• Nothing raised

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Meeting Adjourned:  8:03pm

Next Meeting: Wednesday April 12th, 2023 6:15-7:30pm (Fun Fair Sucommittee)

Next General School Council meeting: Monday June 5th, 2023 6:30-8pm

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Chair’s Long-Range Plan for the Year

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