November 25, 2014 SAC Meeting
Staff Attendees: Beverly O’ Brien, John Kyriazis
Community Attendees: Louise Rossi-Chan, Jo-Anne Gould, Louise Rossi-Chan, David Darling, Sara Tropea, Niki Rudzik, Rosalie Fine, Keith Gould, Liz Lundy, Claudia Filici McMullan, Agnes Pietersma, Andrew McDonald, Aron McGrath, Tracey Arsenault, Eileen Buchhotz, Teresita Link, Jane Sanders
Regrets: Jen Gibson, Kimberley McQuay
PreMeeting SAC Executive/School Administration Discussion:
GENERAL MEETING
Treasurer’s Report
Principal’s Report
Academics
Extracurricular
Subcommittee Updates
Santa’s Breakfast (Claudia Filici-McMullan) - will be happening on Saturday, more volunteers are needed for both set up/ tear down/ and during the event. There will be 25 art pieces available at the auction, photos with Santa, children’s marketplace, crafts with Rebellion Gallery, Lego demonstration, carolling, bake sale
Outdoor Ping Pong Table (Andrew McDonald) - an attempt to bring a ping pong table to the outdoor space at Duke (made of concrete). One table is already located at Orchard Park, another at Fairmount Park. This is a fun, social and accessible activity. Suggested location - between the basketball courts and the daycare storage space. The table is concrete and the net is steel - it is made to withstand the elements of our climate. It can be played by students and members of the community year round. Equipment could be purchased by SAC or by teachers from their discretionary funds. There is general support from the SAC executive, but to move forward we need approval from the principal and then the board. It will cost 4000$ but a donor will pay half. So we are looking at 2000$ plus the cost of equipment.
Sara - thinks that this should not be done out of context of discussion from larger playground space ie. playground for Kindies
Aron - says this is just to see if there is general support before Andrew moves forward
Ms. O'Brien - says this needs to be looked at from a risk management perspective and ideas should come organically from kids and staff, not outsiders. If there are already tables in the community people can use them at other spaces,
Claudia - asked if kids at Bowmore play with it
Andrew - met with the VP at Bowmore who said the kids do regularly play with it
Ms. O’Brien - said the pitch needs to go to the board first to approve the table, ideally it should come from the Rotary Club (who is proposing the table)
David - mentioned that a ping pong table is inclusive and kids of all levels of ability can play on it (even children in wheelchairs)
Andrew - said he has had many informal discussions with members of school community and has found widespread support for this option which is different from basketball, soccer or other “rough” sports
Agnes - said this is something that the kids would really enjoy, she would invest in her own paddles to make use of the tables
Ms. O'Brien - says location would need to be studied by board people
Teresita - says this issue pitches school needs against each other (big kids vs little kids)
Ms. O’Brien - says there needs to be staff buy-in
Andrew - not sure if this is worth any more time/energy/effort he will need to digest this and get back to the team, it might not be worth the energy to talk to the risk management team at the TDSB
Sara - asked if we could wait until January for the “Playground Committee” to address this. Andrew senses that the donor who is willing to provide money towards to the table might no longer be willing give money.
Andrew - believes there was plenty of due diligence done (parents, teachers, students) and he believes this is something that people would want. He will move forward with risk management and business development at the TDSB and then come back to the school to review
TDSB Partnership (Keith) - all programs that run in our school at lunch (ie, Mad Science) need to be partners. We have put together an application to form our own partnership with the TDSB which would allow the SAC to administer their own programs such as LEGO. This will allow the SAC to deliver these programs at less cost to participants. The upside of this is that it will cost less for programs, it will require SAC to have the volunteer base to run the programs. Keith will keep everyone up to date as this application move to the board for approval.
Community Attendees: Louise Rossi-Chan, Jo-Anne Gould, Louise Rossi-Chan, David Darling, Sara Tropea, Niki Rudzik, Rosalie Fine, Keith Gould, Liz Lundy, Claudia Filici McMullan, Agnes Pietersma, Andrew McDonald, Aron McGrath, Tracey Arsenault, Eileen Buchhotz, Teresita Link, Jane Sanders
Regrets: Jen Gibson, Kimberley McQuay
PreMeeting SAC Executive/School Administration Discussion:
- Ms O’Brien raised a concern about the number of events parents are being asked to attend and fundraisers they are asked to participate in. She has received complaints from some parents. David explained that people can pick and choose what events they chose to attend. Beverly raised the idea that perhaps we should have one less event (ie. Movie Night) in the month in December. Perhaps next year the SAC calendar should be merged with school calendar and we should work as a team to make sure the SAC calendar and school calendar are better aligned. Aron explained that the SAC calendar was given to the school administration and was approved. David proposed that we meet regularly regularly and review the calendar for potential roadblocks. Aron requested that the school calendar be sent out to everyone on the SAC executive so we can review
- Beverly raised the concern regarding SAC pizza lunch and we might lose our ECOSCHOOLS status due to the amount of recycling that is created. David mentioned less than one recycling bin was filled and had some questions that he will discuss with Mr. Darkhor John will forward Mr. Darkhor’s address to David for further discussion.
GENERAL MEETING
Treasurer’s Report
- $16 000 is available to spend (SAC has given the go ahead for listening centers, teacher enrichment fund, primary books, 300$ has been given for ice hockey rental, money given for french science kits, earphones for IPADs will be purchased)
- pizza lunch has raised $6000
- the fundraising spreadsheet will be updated and posted on the school website
- Louise will not be running to be Treasurer next year, if anyone is interested in the position they should let her know, it would be beneficial to shadow her for at least a few months
Principal’s Report
Academics
- school has just completed second Professional Learning Community
- there was a half day school walk through with Danish Politicians and high level TDSB delegates, it was a good day of learning for all participants.
- focus on the Learning Skills on the progress reports, the board places a particularly high importance on self regulation
- the focus continues to be on Guided Reading and the 3 part math lesson in all classrooms
- early entry french immersion night for SK parents is taking place 6-7 in staff room on Nov 26
Extracurricular
- the SAC has taken on the “Giving Tree” for donations for a family Christmas, other great contributions include the Diwali and Remembrance Day celebrations, adoption month - Ms. O’Brien thanked the parents who spearheaded these celebrations (Maureen, Aron, Claudia)
- carolling in the last week of December (notice will come home)
- all the boilers broke last week, when this happens they monitor the temperature in the rooms and water temperature. If necessary, the building would be closed if it became too cold. Currently, one boiler is working and the other is being repaired.
- SH Armstrong gym has sections of roof that collapsed. it is the responsibility of the city and was repaired right away. They also need to repair the floor in that gym
- the lost and found was cleaned up - thanks to Nikki
- new front doors will be installed in December
- 4 new trees will be planted, 2 in the back in of the school and 2 in the kinde area (these are courtesy of the Evergreen Grant)
- we will likely not have any work done on the Kindie space beyond expanding the fence next year
- we will work on building a team of stakeholders to talk about the use of outdoor space
- a call for all interested parties will be made when the committee is formed to plan the outdoor space
- the buzzer system is working well right now from the school perspective
- David raised a concern that many people were waiting to be buzzed in at Remembrance Day during assembly time, Ms. O’Brien will look into that and ensure people are always manning the door
- Automated message system is now in action
- new kitchen assistant starting: Shannon Miller
Subcommittee Updates
Santa’s Breakfast (Claudia Filici-McMullan) - will be happening on Saturday, more volunteers are needed for both set up/ tear down/ and during the event. There will be 25 art pieces available at the auction, photos with Santa, children’s marketplace, crafts with Rebellion Gallery, Lego demonstration, carolling, bake sale
Outdoor Ping Pong Table (Andrew McDonald) - an attempt to bring a ping pong table to the outdoor space at Duke (made of concrete). One table is already located at Orchard Park, another at Fairmount Park. This is a fun, social and accessible activity. Suggested location - between the basketball courts and the daycare storage space. The table is concrete and the net is steel - it is made to withstand the elements of our climate. It can be played by students and members of the community year round. Equipment could be purchased by SAC or by teachers from their discretionary funds. There is general support from the SAC executive, but to move forward we need approval from the principal and then the board. It will cost 4000$ but a donor will pay half. So we are looking at 2000$ plus the cost of equipment.
Sara - thinks that this should not be done out of context of discussion from larger playground space ie. playground for Kindies
Aron - says this is just to see if there is general support before Andrew moves forward
Ms. O'Brien - says this needs to be looked at from a risk management perspective and ideas should come organically from kids and staff, not outsiders. If there are already tables in the community people can use them at other spaces,
Claudia - asked if kids at Bowmore play with it
Andrew - met with the VP at Bowmore who said the kids do regularly play with it
Ms. O’Brien - said the pitch needs to go to the board first to approve the table, ideally it should come from the Rotary Club (who is proposing the table)
David - mentioned that a ping pong table is inclusive and kids of all levels of ability can play on it (even children in wheelchairs)
Andrew - said he has had many informal discussions with members of school community and has found widespread support for this option which is different from basketball, soccer or other “rough” sports
Agnes - said this is something that the kids would really enjoy, she would invest in her own paddles to make use of the tables
Ms. O'Brien - says location would need to be studied by board people
Teresita - says this issue pitches school needs against each other (big kids vs little kids)
Ms. O’Brien - says there needs to be staff buy-in
Andrew - not sure if this is worth any more time/energy/effort he will need to digest this and get back to the team, it might not be worth the energy to talk to the risk management team at the TDSB
Sara - asked if we could wait until January for the “Playground Committee” to address this. Andrew senses that the donor who is willing to provide money towards to the table might no longer be willing give money.
Andrew - believes there was plenty of due diligence done (parents, teachers, students) and he believes this is something that people would want. He will move forward with risk management and business development at the TDSB and then come back to the school to review
- for more details about the proposed ping-pong table, please see Andrew McDonalds proposal
TDSB Partnership (Keith) - all programs that run in our school at lunch (ie, Mad Science) need to be partners. We have put together an application to form our own partnership with the TDSB which would allow the SAC to administer their own programs such as LEGO. This will allow the SAC to deliver these programs at less cost to participants. The upside of this is that it will cost less for programs, it will require SAC to have the volunteer base to run the programs. Keith will keep everyone up to date as this application move to the board for approval.