ROBERT MUNSCH PUBLIC SCHOOL – PARENT COUNCIL

April 27th2017 Meeting Minutes

In Attendance: Jonathan Mitchell, Elaine Hunter, Jen Bolton, Sian McLean,Courtney Mackinnon, Karen Miles, Melodie Howard, Rhonda Pogue, Tanya Lewis, Greg Collins, Crystal Mott, Kim Cresswell, Janet Denney, Pam Dubois

Land acknowledgment

  • Reading; Elaine

Minutes from last meeting

  • Everyone has reviewed the minutes, no changes requested. CONSENSUS they are passed

Admin report; Mr. Collins

  • Upcoming - Welcome to FDK Thursday May 4 6:30-7:30
  • Parent night for families and guardians
  • FDK- called Year 1 and Year 2
  • Opportunity for families to come
  • Kids come May 25 for time during the day
  • 70-75 kids coming in to the Year 1 program
  • June 16th school BBQ and movie
  • Mrs. White’s last day on Friday April 28th
  • EQAO will be starting May 23rd for 6 days - try not to have appt on these days. We hold the tests in the morning.
  • Mrs.Cresswell - Mental health (EQAO) - if your child has severe anxiety or extenuating circumstance they may ask for a withdrawal

Safe Schools

  • Anti-bullying -Jon Shep
  • Spoke with council at MAPS they have declined to go further with this at this time
  • Building collaborative cultures here
  • Stress of inappropriate use of social media impacts staff, families and relationships
  • Older students at MAPS - they use social media more
  • We want to teach to prevent our students from using technology inappropriately and to model for families appropriate use of social media
  • We have to strive to hear other perspectives as hard as it may be
  • Maybe we write a joint letter with council and school to send home to families in the fall outlining expectations
  • Our students are blank slates when using social media. They learn from behaviour what they see.
  • Maybe our schools can have a joint meeting about social media in the fall.

Mental Health Night

  • Our goal is for parents to be more aware of mental health stigmas, breakdown barriers, develop an understanding
  • There is some confusion of what the programming will look like for our students and staff
  • Let’s go ahead with the night. If fulfills the pro-grant requirements.
  • Need to find out if they will:
  • Do the night only?
  • Can they do the day in June for the kids?
  • Can we have flexibility with Community Class?
  • What does it look like for June?
  • Planned activities for kids
  • Worry doll
  • Mindful moments
  • Movements & breathing
  • Drama
  • Role playing
  • Literacy
  • Milton’s secret
  • Company will come up with a schedule
  • Night - will have movie, need lots of plugs
  • Affirmative for the night
  • Maybe parents can have a refresher note to go home the day students have their session

Staff Update

  • Shared the whole school Blue Spruce voting day
  • Can parents have a list of books and information? Mrs. Mott will send it home in library bags after the grade 3 trip
  • Outdoor Learning update - review voting process
  • How can we share these learning and collection of student voice opportunities with our families?
  • Possible end of year learning letter

Grade 3 “Graduation”

  • Will there be any plans to help transition our grade 3s out? Mr.Collins spoke with the principal at MAPS today
  • How does placement work? We get MAPS tentative organization and our staff organize the placements.
  • Some concerns with the transition from one school to another.
  • Can we have reading buddies with MAPS? May help with the transition.
  • We may need to have more meet-greets and visits for our Grade 3s as we go along.
  • MAPS will have a June BBQ and invite Grade 3s.

Treasury Report

  • $23,546.89
  • Need to pay May and June pizza and milk
  • Mrs. Williams is coming ...if she is super busy then we can get it taken off in September

Updates

  • Pizza update- Jen cannot take care of pizza for now
  • Mel/Jonathan will take over pizza and milk orders
  • We approach Mike about taking over going to take over pizza once things are settled
  • 5 sessions with 2 calendar months at a time for the new pizza orders 2017/18 school year
  • All 5 sessions will be posted at one time. You can pay for only one session or all sessions
  • When it closes the report can be downloaded. Janet Keall asked, can we pick and choose dates? No, for the session.
  • Are the 2017-2018 dates available? On YRDSB website. Get it prepared for September startup

School Clothing / Rhonda Pogue - Update and ideas

  • We want students to help pick the logo.
  • We have the original one. Collect other ideas
  • Possible idea for voting: On our June night have a vote for which one.
  • It can get mocked up from there and see what it looks like. Once we get the winning one and get the mock up, we can decide on clothing options.
  • Present it to sell at the Meet the Teacher night in October 2017
  • Vote in the library week prior and reveal at the June BBQ

Staff Y/E Appreciation

  • June 2nd - PA day
  • Will send email

KICKS

  • Starting May 17th
  • One week - May 31st - will not be having it
  • If it is raining, we will do Thursday

On behalf of Tanya

  • Parent council events in the evening/ Saturdays
  • Fundraising, anti-bullying
  • How do we get this information?
  • Rhonda will email Elaine and Elaine will dig deeper
  • PEAC is a group of parents - Parent, Engagement, Advisory Committee

Other Items

  • Mrs. Cresswell - Desks with bicycles to be housed in the library for common use
  • Will school council consider supporting purchasing something like this to be housed in the library to collect data of impact?
  • How do we ensure that kids don’t feel left out when others get things that they don’t but want?
  • We, as a staff, are on multiple journeys. How do we teach that fair doesn’t mean equal?
  • The Snoezlan room has become a very useful tool.
  • There is a mental health network that has evolved with staff looking at responsive and reflective learning environments for all.
  • Some kids who do need it don’t want to be different.
  • We have come from a paradigm of learning where you come in and sit down and learn.
  • We sometimes teach our kids to fail, are we catering to our kids?

Next Meeting May 25th 7pm