Robert Munsch Public School Parent Council

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