Wednesday December 8, 2010
Lab Room 2023
Attendance: 26 parents
1. Call to Order: 7:00pm
-welcome & introductions
2. Minutes
-reviewed
-Motion: Sarah motions to accept the minutes, 2nd by Leeann
-carried
3. Agenda
-reviewed agenda
-Sarah asks to add on DPAC update
4. Admin Matters
-review the parking lot for upcoming ideas
-we will have a brief executive mtg afterwards to action all items
5. Teacher Liaison
-Steve introduces the 3 teachers present: Wendy Girard (English), Rebecca Dougherty (French), Kelly Dunn (French)
-teachers will be at future PAC mtgs and it will be on a rotating basis
-Kelly thanks all teachers for their hard work these past 4 months
-Kelly Dunn spoke about the French Immersion meeting; overall goal is to make the school truly dual track
-set to start homework club for intermediate students on Tues/Thurs will be about 45mins
-will celebrate Carnival this year, would like to look at some traditional food at concession at that time
-looking on getting some of the signage from Austin Road
-also looking at a French Immersion link on the website
-there will be a class for parents of primary students on how to support their children in French immersion
-also thinking about having a monthly French immersion assembly
-there is access thru SD57 continuing education for a class called Rosetta Stone to help parents with children in Fr Immersion
6. Treasurer’s Report
-review smartboard funds from AR PAC
-review hot lunch & movie night funds
-review gaming grants from previous & current accounts
-Motion: Leeann to motion that we pay for 2 $500 bursaries & 2 $500 scholarships each year up to & including 2016 for a total of $12,000 with the money entrusted to us by the previous Heather Park Middle School PAC. 2nd by Sarah
-carried
7. Funding requests
-review Christmas celebration event
-Motion: Lesley motions to spend up to $500 for crafts, food & beverage supplies for the Christmas celebration event. 2nd by Karen
-carried
-discuss sing-a-long assembly
-Motion: Lesley motions to spend up to $300 on oranges for the students at the Christmas sing-a-long. 2nd by Tina
-carried
-discussion on improving website
-Motion: Motion: that the PAC pay up to $75 for web hosting for 2 years from Dream Host.
8. Principal’s Report
-highlights: generating activities/programs inside the building, appreciate the hot lunch, primary recess group has started with Donna, Steve is handling the 4-7 activities in the gym, is finding the school is increasingly becoming a community, have newspaper club & leadership programs going, reports are coming in; very high quality, safety committee is meeting weekly with Steve, appears that SD57 is in support of moving 2 playgrounds, Brian Pepper & John McClay would like to come to next PAC mtg, had a full fire drill today, very happy with the students & school community
-Q: Can we include all kindergarten students in fire drill
-A: will change the days (and now also time) to include all students, or as many as possible
-Q: Are there still requests for students to come in, do we have space?
-A: there is room for students, and there have been some requests, there were 6 new students accepted last week, but some grades have maybe only one spot available. We are also looking at having 2 Korean students for 2 months.
-Q: Is there an opportunity for the PAC to use and utilize the leadership students?
-A: Steve would love to see that, maybe concession, we could approach the teachers. It would be great for the students.
-Q: Do you need helpers for the sing-a-long?
-A: That would be great
-there is a primary rotating craft day on Thursday from right after recess till 2pm
9. Subgroups
Food (Leeann)
-concession is not running yet, looking for someone to help co-ordinate
-maybe break concession into houses
-hot lunch went well and was appreciated, next one is in February
Dance & Activities (Yvonne)
-movie night was great, made a little money, about 85 people
-will be coming up with a schedule for the rest of the year to be approved by administration
Fundraising (Lesley)
-will look at a raffle in January-February
-will do a Purdy’s Easter fundraiser
-a spring summer fundraiser, Mother’s day baskets?
Playground (Sarah)
-SD57 is looking at the cost of moving playgrounds
-SD57 seemed to have indicated that as PAC’s have already paid for them previously, board feels that they should pay to move them
-survey results are online
-have been contacted by newspaper
-discussion on crown land to the north
-Motion: Sarah motions that the playground committee and the PAC executive start the process for a License of Occupation for the area of Crown land north of the school. The committee would ask for a letter of support from the city and the school district, review liability issues, and proceed with an application if support is received.
-2nd by Andrew
-is there space to make areas level
-problem at this point is cost
-concern on new land would be a bigger area to supervise
-discussion on subject
-carried
Recess (Kelly)
-need a few more lunchtime volunteers on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday
-Please contact Donna
Safety & Traffic (Jim)
-there is a new safety email, all concerns should go there
-fire drill went well today
-discussion on safestart, trying to make it more effective, request a note to teachers to let them know that it is going on and need attendance fast, also a note to parents as well
-discussion on the visitor parking lot nightmare
-review an alternative drop off loop
-requests for gates in bus lane
-look at presenting to SD57
-please send all feedback to safety email
10. Progress
-safety, big issue, is making some headway
-recess, with Donna making a dent would like to see it more long-term
-playgrounds, looks good but have not had a yes yet
-did have a mtg with Mr. McClay, his response is can’t help us yet
-Mr. Pepper is coming to us at January 12th mtg
-definitely seeing some improvement in safety now that it is more formalized & documented
11. DPAC
-had a workshop on the weekend, will have another one
-looking at capacity issues in PG
-look at policy 5119, needs comments by January 6th
12. Adjourn: 8:40pm
-Next meeting January 12, 2011 @ 7:00pm