Farley Mowat Public School Parent Council Meeting Minutes February 18, 2009 1. Welcome – meeting called to order at 6:45pm a. January minutes approved by Leigh P. and seconded by David G. 2. Pass the Baton for Parkinsons a. Presentation by Shelby Hayter who suffers from Parkinsons disease who helped design and facilitate the event. b. Purpose is to raise money and awareness for Parkinsons c. 25 school visits have been made to date d. Goal is to teach children courage and hope by teaching them what it is like to live with Parkinsons e. Ms. Hayter leads exercises that mirror what she goes through. f. Event will be 2 days, the 1 st day Shelby speaks to kids about her story. She then passes the baton to a doctor who explains details about the disease. The doctor then passes the baton to a researcher to explain latest research on the disease. The baton is then passed onto the kids who are asked to meet in the gym the following day. On the 2 nd day classes rotate for 15 minutes into the gym. They do running and exercises relating to mobility affected by Parkinsons. The kids pass the baton onto the next class. g. Donations are accepted but the focus is on education. h. A handout is given to show where the money goes and a report is given on how much was made. i. Assemblies will take place on April 28 th and exercises on the 29 th. 3. Teacher’s Report/Vice Principal’s Report a. Kindergarten news i. The kindergarten winter concert took place January 22 nd and was a huge success. ii. The kinder winter play day was enjoyed as well. b. Primary news i. Lots of excitement surrounded the Hundreds Day and Valentine’s Day celebrations. The English grade ones ran rotations for activities but all classes had special activities planned. ii. The safety presentations (topic; walking to school safely) held on Jan 26th were well received and worthwhile. iii. Primary winter play day is planned for February 25 th with an alternate date of Feb 26 th should the weather not cooperate. c. Junior news i. The spelling bee finals took place on February 23 rd and 26th. The event was very exciting and the participants very focused and supportive of one another. We ended up with four students who made it to the last round on the Monday; Bufan W., Srijan W.,
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Vithyan P. and Megan M.. Megan came out on top and completed a written test but she did not make it to the next level. ii. The girls’ tier 1 volleyball team played in their tournament on Feb 12th. The boys’ tier 1 team play this Thursday. iii. The tier 2 volleyball tournaments will take place here at Farley Mowat with the boy’s team playing on March 9 th and the girls on the 10th. Both tournaments run from 11:00am till 4:00pm. iv. The French Public Speaking event took place on Feb 12 th. Our EFI winner was Kaiwen H. from Miss Renton’s grade 6 and our Core French winner was Shobana V. from Mrs. Favell’s grade 6. These two students will represent Farley Mowat in the regional French Speaking Competition to be held at Cedarview M.S. on Feb 25 th. v. English Public speaking will be coming up in late April. vi. Adrian Harewood from CBC will visit Mr. Newton’s grade five class tomorrow at 8:00am. He is a prominent local citizen and it will be very exciting to have him visit. vii. All grades have been enjoying the skating rink the past few weeks. Bully Boy Comic Book Launch will take place on Feb 27 th. It will start with a classroom reading of the text and related activities from 8-10am. After the break, students will attend an assembly in the library at 10:45am. Mrs. Cinkant’s, Mrs. Cappell’s, Mr. Hodgins’ and Mme Mersereau’s classes will be participating. Our next Wolf Pack assembly takes place on Friday, Feb 27th at 1:10pm. All are welcome. Hollywood Central 2009 is scheduled for March 12 th. The daytime performance will take place at 10:45am and the evening performance at 7:00pm. Ms. Cinkant’s class as well as two grade 6 students will be entered into the OCDSB dance and drama festival in May. More on that to come. Congratulations and thank you for a wonderful Family Dance on Feb 12 th. Special thanks to the organizing team and the volunteers. The dance was enjoyable for all. We will continue with efforts to collect donations for the Education Foundation’s Toonie Tuesday. Families within our school community have benefited directly through the Students in Crisis Fund. A flyer will go home with the next newsletter.
4. Support Staff Report a. There are currently 99 children registered in kindergarten. b. A survey has been sent home to JK’s on preferences for program choice for next year. c. The elementary transfer period is Feb 17 th to 27th. Students must be registered at their home school first then apply for a transfer. d. Adrienne Clarkson is our new feeder school for Middle French Immersion. Information will be sent to our grade 3 english students. e. Patsy Agard will be in tomorrow to meet with the grade 6’s.
f. Office staff will be completing cpr and first aid courses soon. 5. Principal’s Report a. Congratulations to everyone for the Valentine Friendship dance. b. Thanks to Leigh for adjusting the pizza order on snow day to avoid waste. c. Mrs. Reade had a baby girl, all are doing well. d. We are now in the transfer period; as our official transfer cap is 0, transfers will not be accepted unless there are significant compassionate reasons. e. Our initial projection for September from the planning department is 801. This will likely change. f. This year we have remained much more stable through the year in terms of population, so a smaller increase compared to the previous two years is anticipated. g. In terms of planning for increases there are many options such as more portables, new schools, extension to existing school, adjusting boundaries. h. There has been no talk regarding all day kindergarten from the government. Inquiries should be directed to our local mpp. i. Our building is doing well however we have had problems with ice in the yard. Some sections have been closed from time to time depending on the conditions. j. Kiss n’ Ride update i. Thanks to Jay for preparing a short handout for us to use for the drivers, this will also go into the next newsletter. ii. Rodney Pitchers from the City will be dropping off more information this week on the city’s program. iii. Morning drop off is going really smoothly now and is much improved. k. Teachers are now working the term 2 report cards, which will go out the week after March break l. HOWL team – will be working on refining our school improvement plan m. Next wolf pack assembly is February 27th at 1:10pm n. Read a thon is beginning o. Tutoring groups are underway with 7 groups continuing until the end of May. p. $3900 library funding received from the ministry; we will be focusing on French language materials. 6. Budget Update a. $95,088.53 spent to date on supplies, books, office etc. b. We have $1,440.60 committed. c. Budget is $110,763 with $2158 for clerical, $2490 for education assistants, $65822 for replacement teachers, and $39,918 for school budget. d. We received a large budget cut when we opened and we are still catching up.
e. Also adding portables caused us to go over budget in order to make them equal to indoor classrooms. Items purchased for portables stay with the school if the portable is no longer needed, however they would be redistributed to other schools if we don’t need them. f. We have $14,234.31 available except that most of the replacement teacher budget has already been used. g. We will be in a deficit this year. h. Essential small items are still being purchased but otherwise no new spending. i. Adjustments made will alleviate some deficit based on actual numbers. j. Things like read a thon and school council money makes a big difference. k. The board is replacing walkie talkies for all schools, they are also taking over our cel phone costs and will be providing blackberries for the principal and vice principal. 7. Old Business. a. PRO grant approved, we will have a nutritionist come to speak to parents. We are looking for volunteers to help organize. There will be different talks for children in K-grade 1 and grades 2-6 to represent their different nutritional needs. There will be a 1 hour talk followed by q and a. b. Kiss n’ Ride discussion will be diverted to next meeting c. New Start Time Discussion i. Change in time difficult for daycare. ii. The switch is based on bussing and realigning both school boards iii. Parents from Mary Honeywell have expressed concerns that the last express bus leaves Barrhaven at 8:30am; also before and after school daycare issues; staffing at schools a concern that staff may leave for schools with earlier hours. iv. Parents from Berrigan are concerned about close start times with the high school and having the children mingle. v. It is important for parents to express their concerns and come up with possible solutions. vi. Concern on the affect those later starts for our community has for many who work downtown. vii. Can OC Transpo be involved to adjust express service to reflect changes? d. New Start Time Discussion i. Most feedback is in favour of starting before Labour Day. e. Lunch Program Update and Snow Day Policy i. Orders are being processed for March 2 nd start ii. Order form went much smoother this time iii. 1st lunch program raised $5,050. iv. 2nd lunch program anticipating the same amount. v. Looking at deciding on new options for next year 1. lunch lady program is all done online and school is sent a cheque
2. yummy mummies is another option 3. look for feedback from other schools vi. What do we do in terms of lunch program on a snow day 1. For pizza days we can adjust order based on attendance 2. Subway days can’t be adjusted so any leftovers can be sent to a shelter. f. Dance Update and Treasury Update i. 73 families prebought tickets with another 64 purchasing at the door, estimated 500 people attended. ii. Expenses were under $400 with water and juice being donated. iii. We raised $1,819.30, which will all go to teachers to spend as they wish. iv. Proposed that we add to make the total $2,000. Consensus reached by council. v. Wish list from last year; $125 for banner in progress, we saved $750 from last year. vi. The Sens raffle raised $469 for the musical 8. New Business a. Mayfair purpose – literacy b. Allocation of funds Items to spend money on with current council funds Department Item Michelle McEvoy Cultural Performance – Latin American music with pan fluters, 2 shows Primary team Puddle Questions (math resource) 3 Books Primary team Class French dictionaries – 3 per class (6 classes) Primary team 2-3 Educational Fr games Junior team 6 AIM dvd’s for core French Junior team 4G memory sticks to sign out to any class using computer lab – Try to source a better price General Area carpets to replace foam in classrooms 8x10 General Hooks and Shelves outside office/gym General Air conditioners for portables – 2 units TOTAL
Amount $800
$154 $540 $100 $149.16 $650
$500 $350 $2000 $5243.16
Items Deferred Department Primary team Junior team
Item Personal dictionaries $2.75 each Classroom libraries
Junior team
Gym balls 24 gator skins and 30 soccer balls
Library
Funding for more Library books
General
Drinks for art show
Amount $1550 – Possibly from Mayfair to be determined Money raised from read a thon, Mayfair and money allocated from the dance if teachers would like $488.40 (gator) $556.60 (soccer) Hot Dog Lunch funds and money Joanne Favell has received (?) Deferred until after Mayfair. Received $3900 from board and will receive money from read-a-thon Teachers to look into having them donated, if not council will revisit.
Consensus reached on all items. 1.can we approach local businesses for donations for additional air conditioners. 2. For class supplies purchased at the beginning of the year suggested that perhaps we could make a donation to classes instead of providing specific supplies. The problem is that this creates issues on reporting and accountability. Mrs. Brush will speak with staff on not making excessive lists and to be consistent at each grade level. 3. Wendy’s Night will take place over two nights on April 21 st and 22nd .
Meeting adjourned at 9:00pm. In attendance: Judy-Anne B., Andrea C., Jay D., Elizabeth G., David G., Ning H., Sharon J., Deepthi K., Anna L., Michelle M., Kim M., Jodie O., Leigh P., Jennifer R., Priyanka S., Tricia S., Dhaval S., Ilana S.