St. James Catholic High School

October 23, 2012, 7pm

Parent Council Meeting Minutes

In attendance:

Sally Akroyd-Bombino (co-chair)

Frances Palermo (co-chair)

Patti

Titian

Greg

Nancy

Tim Yawney

Absent:

John & Susan

Viviana

Rita

Tamara

Welcome and Opening Prayer

Rotating secretary, Nancy Brooker to take notes for today’s meeting.

Student’s Report presented by Casey Schnurr, Student Council President.
Student Council is trying to get the community more involved. Last Friday, had a BBQ at the football game, and buyout was sold-out. 100 students from Gr 7/8 Fergus and another school came to see the game.
“Halloweek” coming up. Different Halloween activities all week long.
One of the council members will come to each Parent Council meeting for future updates.
Principal’s Report – Mr. Yawney

Friday Buyout
Last Thursday, Grade 9/12 Civvies Day because they raised the most money for Terry Fox. Grade 10/11 could bring in 3 cans of food or $3 towards Guatemala trip. Raised 1,000 lbs. of food for the Guelph Food Bank! ½ of the proceeds of the $3 buyout going towards helping some students who are trying to buy 50 goats for Africa.
Friday buyout was a success. Fergus 7/8s came(~100 students) + 300 students bought out.
Attendance on the football field was excellent, all the buyouts showed up. We had a significant number of students who skipped; regardless the day was a huge success.
Buyout was capped at 300 kids plus 100 Gr 7/8s to keep the crowd manageable.
Considering trying it for a basketball game next time.
Transition Planning
20 promotional banners purchased
Nov 7th is “Take your Kid to Work Day”. County kids (gr 8) coming in that morning, city kids in the afternoon to look at optional courses such as Specialist High Skills Majors (SHSM), transportation, construction, dance, music, guitar, our football course and other technology courses.
$500 available from the Ministry per student for SHSM program. Students get a polo shirt, short sleeve and long sleeve shirts.
Moved Gr8 parent info night to end of November (before Christmas craziness, and avoiding mid-winter weather issues.)
Need 250 of the Grade 8s to come to St. James.

Retreat programs offered for every grade level.
Pastoral team (adult faith development for staff)
All Grade 10 Applied English is now in Semester 1 to get the kids ready for the literacy test.
Every department is submitting goals; all nine departments will submit goals on Catholicity and academics.
Building improvements
Mr. Yawney talked to Rae Walton re: scoreboard, looks like it will be a 16X4 and will get done this year.
The main office will be re-done (community members will be supporting this)
Outdoor classroom working on:
Lighting
Security camera
Benches, likely will be landscape stones around the perimeter of the outdoor area. Discussed need for some type of padding to sit on.
Greenhouse is still on the burner. Working with the city because lots of criteria to meet and decisions to make (i.e. soil samples, cement platform with rebar or foundation). Need a sprinkler system. Needs to be connected to the building somehow. Doors need frosted glass. Lots to think about.
New TV in Phat Hall. Needs to be hooked up. Reads solar panels on the roof and shows what they are collecting every day, and money to be made by selling back to the grid.

Chair’s Comments – Sally Bombino and Francis Palermo

Staff Breakfast tentatively scheduled for December 7/12. Parent council contributes food, sets up and cleans. Starts around 8am. Will talk about this more at next meeting.
School newsletter submission needs to be in to Mr. Yawney by Monday. Sally will work something up.
Sally works for the Wellington Catholic District School Board on a supply basis providing admin support in the offices. Sally will let us know if there is a conflict in any of our discussions, and will step back if required.
CPIC (Catholic Parent Involvement Committee)- Patti will go to the Nov 1 meeting, needs someone to go with her. Vivianna will continue to be CPIC rep for St. James. There are 2 more meetings (Dec 3 and March 7). Vivianna would like someone to go with her. They are usually around 7pm.
Objectives for 2012/2013 council
Electronic newsletter to keep parents in the loop, but not much of a budget. Funds are available from the Parent Engagement Fund. Perhaps a staff member, or IT person at St. James could help?
Educate parents re: what’s available in the school. Perhaps bring in speakers @ parent council meetings (i.e. school nurse, coop coordinator, guidance, SHSM)
Work on promoting the school more, especially to the country kids.
Mr. Yawney discussed the Parent Information night, and current strategies for promoting the school. Parent Info night will be in smaller groups of parents, making it more comfortable for them to ask questions. From Sept – Dec, these are some of the events:
Sept-Dec Kasey and student council went to open houses at schools
Mrs. Cummings (Chaplain) and Mr. Yates (Guidance) went to all Grade 8 classes
Grades 8s are coming Nov 7th. Want to bring them in early and more often.
Parent Info night earlier this year. Grade 9s will go to the Gr 8 classes to talk.
Football spirit day attended by Gr 8s
All Gr 8s got St. James T-shirts

Pool of 33 kids in Fergus, need parent advocates in that area. It was suggested that Mr. Yawney and Kasey go to mass in Fergus and speak. Frances will talk to Dino (Gr8 teacher in Fergus) to get ideas and touch base with Mr. Yawney.

Discussed First Light Theatre (Nov 20/21) presentation of “War”. They are a professional theatre company in Guelph. Want the parents to see what their children are watching. $10/person for evening session might be disincentive to come. Have $2,000 in parent engagement fund. Council discussed subsidizing the event.

Nancy Brooker motioned we subsidize up to $600 for the night, seconded by Francis Palermo, carried.

We toured parts of the school
Hospitality Room
Chapel, built by the construction students at Bishop Mac
Developmentally Delayed Room, have 12 kids in there now. Will have close to 20 in 2 years. Also hosts the breakfast club (Food & Friends … 30-50 kids daily!)

Meeting adjourned.