Forest Glade Public School Council Minutes
September 26, 2017 at 6:00 p.m.
1. Call to Order, Attendance & Introductions –5:55 p.m.
-Sandy Minato, Rachel Peterson, Dawna Munro, Cyndi Lafond Kershaw, Krista Regehr
2. Election
Cyndi self-nominated herself for Chair, while Krista self-nominated herself for Secretary. Protocal requires appointment of positions from the school principal. Sandy appointed Cyndi Parent Council Chair and Krista Parent Council Secretary with carrying motions from Rachel and Dawna.
3. Review of Minutes
Sandy posted the minutes from last minute quickly; Krista will email minutes to all Parent Council members and Sandy will continue to post them on the school website
Classroom Signage – haven’t received answer from VistaPrint yet; Tom mentioned it would be quicker to purchase signs. 16” x 20” is a foam core, one-sided sign with a discounted cost of $7 per sign; hoping signs would be doubled signed which would require printing twice as many signs and constructing them into double sided ones; 12” x 18” is a plastic corrugated, 2-sided sign with a a discounted cost of $4.90; Sandy would prefer to keep cost of signs low with a new school build in the future; Sandy will give Krista the number of signs needed within a few days; Krista and Tom will work on getting proofs ready
Child Minding – Sandy just sent out an email to the staff; Cyndi wants to post an advertisement at the high school; any high school students that volunteer for the child minding will earn volunteer hours
Safe Payment – invoice is in and cheque requisition is ready to go
iPad Cover – Rachel will give Beth her iPad cover and an order will be put in for one for Rachel
Playground Lines – Karl was hoping for a variety of colours; website provided by Rob only has 2 colours which we already have; Rachel told Karl to go purchase paint so she will follow up with that; Cyndi is trying to get contact information for painter that has done other schools to come paint lines at Forest Glade; Karl did paint soccer lines in the field for the soccer teams
4. Principal & Vice Principal Updates
Enrolment - stayed steady so there was only minor, internal shifting to address large classes at the PLC; all the classes for grades 4 thru 8 are on the larger side; enrolment throughout the board is up by 600 kids
Meet the Teacher – will be hosted tomorrow, Tuesday, September 26 from 5:30 to 7 p.m.; families will meet in the gym at the main site for a half hour (max) presentation of school rules, codes of conduct, etc along with a brief Edsby introduction presention; teachers will be in their classrooms from 6-7 p.m. to meet with parents
Personal Device Policy – children shouldn’t be using their own devices without adult supervision; any inappropriate use should be reported to teachers to be dealt with
Spirit Wear – Jen Yoker will be organizing it; should be happening soon
Book Fair – will be held around November
Courtesy Ride – Sandy will talk with the super-intendant during her meeting with him in mid-October
EQAO – school scores are not what was hoped for; the results are not an accurate picture of what the school and students are accomplishing; results include students that are special needs, exempt or English is their second language; when compared to the Catholic board, the public board has more students that have special needs or English as their second language; our school board is in the minority of having separate Gains classrooms with other boards having Gains students fully integrated into the school; school is going to continue focusing on math and reading going forward; results also don’t take into account personal success of students (i.e. overcoming behavioural issues, etc); our school demographic is very diverse which also affects the results; the government is looking to revisit EQAO, as well as the curriculum and report cards
5. Teacher / E.C.E. / Community Rep. Report
Dawna Munro has joined Parent Council (yay!). She has nothing to report
Cyndi will talk to Liz and Daniela again; seems that they are willing to continue with Parent Council with our meeting days changing
6. Bookkeeping Report
Current Balance - $3,704.69 but with outstanding expenses it’s closer to $2.800
Outstanding Expenses – payment for the popcorn machine and safe are ready to be processed; the shade tent is still not paid; Sandy will look into when she charged it to her visa
Insurance – notices are mailed out so we should be receiving it soon
Account Balances – there were discrepancies in the account balances between Parent Council’s last report and beginning of the year report; Krista suggested making sure our accounts “balance” at the end of each school year; expenses were posted but paperwork was not shared with Parent Council; Cyndi and Krista requested that Sandy and Rachel make copies of cheque requests along with the supporting invoice(s) for Parent Council records
Float vs Advance – Cyndi put in a cheque request so Parent Council could have a float in the safe; floats are not allowed, however we can put in a request for an advance; put in a cheque request for how much is needed (estimated) which will be written to either Cyndi or Krista and then cashed; once items have been purchased, receipts and any remaining cash need to be returned.
7. Chair’s Report
GECPIC –haven’t met yet; met over the summer to work on the by-laws which have been approved and will be distributed to schools soon
Board Meeting – Cyndi is the GECPIC representative; the board is optimistic about Forest Glade getting a newly built school; remaining open concept schools (Roseville and Sandwich-West) will be assessed to see what is required to make them closed classroom schools; GECPIC will soon be an elected position to encourage committed, positive people to be involved; hoping to move towards a more collaborative GECPIC where schools share partnerships, information, resources, etc.; Mme Miceli’s class was part of a video focusing on successful & unique classrooms; Cyndi is hoping to get a copy of the video; Queen Elizabeth is getting a bus bay with shared costs with the nearby Catholic school
Boo Hoo to Yahoo – turn out was ok; about 10-12 families came, with 6 signing up for Parent Council; having the staff come out was wonderful
Mindfulness Event – Cyndi is excited to have a presenter already lined up; Cyndi to forward contact information to Rachel
Glow N Go – currently collecting water bottles to use a lanterns with water and glow sticks; hoping to have a few activities set up (glow paint in spray guns, glow chalk, painting station); hoping to hold an art auction later in the year and sell off art done at other functions; hoping this will be a more social event
Youth Centre – sent a letter of thanks for the pizza that was donated after math night
Saidat Workshops – could be used as a Parents Reaching Out grant event; Dawna recommended it for the younger kids; beat boxing / graffiti artist would be cool for the older kids
8. Fundraising
Food Days – hoping to pilot pre-determined, pre-paid lunch days in the new year; school needs to host a few pizza days to raise funds for more technology for the reading programs; will aim to host them before the end of the year
School-Raised Funds – purchased replacement computers for the Gains rooms, along with some screens and a projector
Coles – Forest Glade was adopted by Coles to help raise funds for books for our library; hoping to have a student write a story for the website contest which could lead to winning more money in books for the school; Rachel is hoping to meet with Amy on Tuesday to get more information
Chocolate Bars – to be hosted in December; a limit of 2 boxes per family at once will be enforced this year
9. New or Outstanding Business / Open Discussion
Soccer Tournament – will discuss in May
Staff Meeting – is held at the Main Site in the library; next meeting is Tuesday, October 10 at 3:35 p.m. (approx.), Sandy has a few speakers lined up to speak but will let Parent Council present first; Parent Council meeting will be held immediately after staff meeting; future meetings will be held on the 2nd Tuesday of every month at 5:00 p.m.
Math Night – week before March break would be ideal for the Yokes; possibly hold Skate Night in December; Cyndi will call Forest Glade Arena to check on availabilities for rental
Parent Council Supplies – Krista will email Sandy the list of supplies; Sandy thinks they can provide most of the supplies, with the exception of the thumb drive
10. Adjournment
Meeting Adjourned –7:20 p.m.
Date of Next Meeting –October 10, 2017 @ 5:00 p.m