École Heather Park Elementary Parent Advisory Council

Here are the minutes of the general PAC meeting held on May 16, 2013.

Ecole Heather Park Elementary Parent Advisory Council (PAC)
General Meeting – Minutes for
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Computer Room

Attendance: 9 Parents, 1 guests: Mr. Fleck

1. Called to order – 7:15pm
2. Welcome and Introductions
3. Administrative Matters
• Reviewed PAC definition, Roberts Rules of Order, format of motions parking lot’, minutes etc
4. Approval of Minutes
• Minutes for April 18, 2013 were reviewed
• MOTION: Cindy moved to approve the minutes . Seconded by Jane . Carried.
5. New Business
• Discussion – is there an ability to put other things in the school ground for little kids, such as hopscotch in front of school – is it possible to draw on fire lane area? – Steve to look into
6. Treasurer’s Report
• Pamela unable to attend. Financial reports from March and April were distributed.
7. Safety Update
• Floating garbage can
• Fire inspection & drill – only 20% of walls should be covered with papers, will be looked at more for Fall
• Discussion of gravel in front area, risk for kids who skid out and fall on gravel, lots of scrapes – Tami and Bev to check on whether or not more gravel can be removed
• The school will be putting a large new sign at the entrance to the bus loop with a few more specifics about not entering.
• People who park on striped lines in parking lot – some people are quite abusive
• Our parking and bus loop could be much worse, realistically
• Drainage has improved
• Discussion regarding fence and city
• Have come a long way
• Can we practice an outside/inside drill (example, bear outside). The school is planning to hold an intruder drill (Mr. Fleck with funny wig, kids will be warned). That will be an inside/out drill. This will be publicized to parents before it happens.
8. Positive Behavior Support
• There was a discussion at a meeting earlier this evening which all parents were invited to. The discussion topic was female relationship aggression
• Just taking down Heather Park – “hot or not” website
• Updated smart phone policy – 4th time this year. Any students with a phone in view may have it confiscated by school staff.
• Discussion of challenge videos online
9. DPAC update
• BCCPAC update on conference and AGM, conference materials on www.sd57dpac.ca
• DPAC AGM and elections have recently been held and Executive is quite similar composition to last year’s
  Prince George conference being planned for October, want to have social emotional learning component in it
10. Principal Update
• Can’t provide much of an update on class composition/teachers next year as things are still in flux. – 2 teachers have indicated they will be leaving, 2 teachers will be returning, staff are also looking at postings which are quite active in June.
• Mrs. T-Allen will be retiring at the end of this year
• Explorations program – will require some different teaching skills
• Expecting moves in June
• Might know by last PAC meeting of the year what the teacher/class set up will look like.
• Explorations – grades 4 to 7 – elementary style electives and remediation program. October 15th to end of March, will do 3 six week programs. Will be academic enrichment (science and heritage fair, robotics), academic remediation, hockey, lifestyle, art, tech ed, other elective options.
• Hockey program is now full.
• Concern expressed – a Report card writing day is the same week as Sports day. This requires parents to take two days off in a week – can we look at having these in separate weeks next year? Scheduling can be difficult for a school this size.
• Report card writing days have been directed not to be on a Monday or Friday, as they might be perceived as being time off for teachers. However, pro-D days are scheduled for Mondays/Friday.
11. Other Business
• Possibility of adding staff forum to agenda
• Review of upcoming events
• Sports Day Concession – volunteers for Quebec field trip have offered to do the concession this year as a fundraiser if, and only if, PAC volunteers not interested in running it. Suggestion of having a fuller discussion over this sort of policy in the fall as individual group fundraisers will likely come up again in the future.
• MOTION: Cindy moved to have the Quebec field trip volunteers run the sports day concession for this year, seconded by Gina. Parents with children going to Quebec field trip abstained from vote. Motion Carried.
• Action: add to agenda for policy for discussion in September
12. Playground
• There is an engineering plan for the grounds – one is a terraced plan, with retaining wall on far bank – would be difficult with new playgrounds. Where real engineering part comes in is where there is flooding and erosion, between blacktop and the fence. Plan was to pull fencing back, and draw new line about 10-15 meters in.
• Suggestion of having an open space planner come and facilitate a discussion with parents around what they would like to see around the grounds, a holistic approach.
• MOTION Gina moved that we hold meeting in September with open space planner to facilitate a discussion regarding a holistic approach to the school grounds, including the playgrounds, but not restricted to playgrounds – Seconded by Sarah. Carried.
• Ask Steve to talk to teachers to facilitate kids doing some planning around what they would like in the schoolgrounds, Gina to put together survey for students
• Would want to invite Barry Beppel.

Meeting Adjourned 8:47 pm. Next PAC meeting, including Elections for Executive, will be Thursday June 20 at 7:00

Here are the minutes of the general PAC meeting held on April 18, 2013.

École Heather Park Elementary Parent Advisory Council (PAC) Meeting
Minutes for Wednesday, April 18, 2013
Computer Room
Attendance: 13 Parents, 4 guests

1. Call to order: 7:05 PM
2. Welcome and Introductions
3. Administrative Matters
• Reviewed standard admin procedures for PAC meetings including posting of minutes on PAC website, Roberts Rules of Order, format of MOTIONs , ‘parked’ items, invitation for additions to agenda, etc.
4. Approval of Minutes
• Minutes of March, 2013 meeting were reviewed
• Two corrections: Total student enrollment should be 560, not 619. Also, PACs can apply to DPAC’s for funding, not BCCPAC
• Motion: Approve as corrected by Cindy. Seconded by Jane. Carried
5. New Business
• Hot Lunch –Raised the idea of purchasing an online Hot Lunch ordering program for 2013/14 Hot lunches. The software costs about $350, and would allow families the option of viewing, ordering and purchasing hot lunches online instead of through paper and cash. Paper forms and cash would still be an option to accommodate families without credit cards/internet. This would be a timesaving option for the PAC. It was suggested that collecting paper forms for multiple hot lunches (ie 2-3 months in one form) could also help save volunteer time. PG Web Design may also have a similar program. This was tabled for a future meeting.
• Canadian Parents for French – Patricia asked about initiating a Canadian Parents for French Chapter in Prince George. Patricia has been directly involved in the association in previous years and there are a number of benefits to being part of the organization. A PG group would also be open to all French schools (DP Todd, LDB, ECHE etc). Patricia will look into this further and find out more information, so we can look at moving forward with this.
6. Treasurers Report
• Treasurers Report was prepared for the meeting but we are unable to distribute it due to printer issues.
• Final profits from the Raffle were $14,100. This has been transferred to the Playground Account
• Motion: PAC to provide $164 to Strong Start for Ruggles the Clown and Magician on June 6. Moved by Tammy, Seconded by Sarah, Carried
7. Safety Report.
• The frost is now gone, and the school is looking at installing improved signage for Disabled Parking, Entrance to the Bus loop, and Speed restrictions.
8. Positive Behavior Support.
• There will be two main themes for the remainder of the year. The Primary students will be focussing on “Celebrate Me” (looking at positive ways to celebrate positive things) and the Intermediates will focus on “Relationships” (constructive, positive, respectful etc.)
9. Mathletics
• Dawn Proctor runs the Mathletics program at the school and came to give parents an update. All students have a password and an account to the online Mathletics program Mathletics.ca The website provides interactive and fun reinforcement of math skills learned in the classroom. This year all K-7 students at Heather Park have access and approximately 1/3 of these students are using it regularly at home and school. This was a pilot project to see if the program was effective, and how well it was used. Because there is a cost for each student, the school is looking at where the best returns were on the investment. Next year the Mathletics program will likely be focussed on the Grade 2-5 students as this was the highest use group. A number of successes have been observed through the Mathletics site, including a 41% increase in comprehensive of Math facts since the beginning of the year. There is a Mathletics club Tuesday at lunch. There is also an app for iphones and Adroids. Razkids is also a reading program associated with the site. Steve and Dawn will discuss how to best encourage use in the last 2.5 month of school. PAC was very appreciative of Dawn’s work on the program and the school’s investment in the program and was very happy to provide support if it was requested.
10. District Parent Advisory Committee (DPAC)
• Sarah provided an update from DPAC. The AGM will be held May 8th. We are still looking for a Heather Park rep on DPAC. BCCPAC meeting is scheduled for May 3-5.
11. Principal’s Form: Positive Behaviour Support
• Steve Fleck spoke about the new Explorations and Hockey Programs planned for 2013/14. Two afternoons a week, students will have the option of joining Hockey Academy, or participating in an Exploration Session (90 minutes per session). There will be 3 consecutive 6 week Exploration Sessions and students will be able to preregister for 3 different ones, based on their choices (eg Outdoor Ed, Foods, textiles, Robotics, Cooking, Music, Computers etc. These are all to be confirmed). Remedial Math and Writing/Reading will also be options. Grade 4 and 5 English and French, will be grouped together and Grade 6 and 7 English and French will be grouped together for these sessions.
• Hockey Academy will be free in 2013/14 and will be considered a “class” with a qualified teacher. There is room for 30 Grade 4 or 5 students and 30 Grade 6 or 7 students.
• Classroom teachers will focus on core academic subjects
• More information on all this will be available at the upcoming evening meeting on Hockey Academy and Explorations
12. Teacher’s Forum
• No teachers were present
13. Cultural Days
• A cultural awareness day is being planned for May 16. The intent of the day is to increase awareness and appreciation of culture and cultural differences. Some cultural performances as well as a cultural snack are being planned. The Immigration Ministry is also providing funding. PAC was very supportive and appreciative of the work that goes into this, and volunteered to provide assistance if needed.
14. Open Business / Parked Items
• none

Adjourned 8:35 PM – Next Meeting: Thursday May 16 at 7:00, Computer Room