GCVI SCHOOL COUNCIL MINUTES
January 13, 2016
Attendance: Present: John Borthwick, Lorraine Brown, Kim Costigan (Secretary), Anilda Guri (CoChair), Iris Lambert, Cynthia Logie, Seonaid Munro, Pauline Nelson-Smikle, Julie Prendergast
(Principal), Julie Reed (Staff), Carolanne Reid, Dirk Steinke (Co-Chair), Marni Struyk, Tricia Taylor,
Felicita Varghese, Jeni Vaughan (Vice-Principal), Lillian Waldie-Lawson, Alicia Yon (Student Senate),
Lynda Zytner
Guests: Brian Cluff – Co-op Teacher, Katie Gad – CELP & Headwaters Teacher, Kelly McCullough –
LAUNCH Learning Teacher
Senate Report: Alicia reported that the focus for January is to help take a bit of the stress out of
exam week by organizing some Disney movie inspired events. Some of the events included showing
the Lion King movie, playing a ‘Name-That-Tune’ game, having a Disney dress up day this week and
handing out hot chocolate to the students. We wish all of the students luck during exam week!
Staff Report: Julie Reed (see attached)
Principal Report: The exam schedule and exam week details are on the school website. Students
should have brought their own schedule home already. Study week/ Moratorium starts on Jan. 14
and Jan. 21 respectively. All exams are a minimum of 1 hr. to a maximum of 2.5hrs. Students will
write their exams in their regular classroom and are to bring all of their belongings with them to
the classroom due to the limited amount of time they have to go to their lockers. If school buses are
cancelled due to inclement weather all exams will be bumped ahead by one day. The last day to
submit any outstanding work or assignments is Jan. 21. Please see the school website for details.
Report cards will be coming out on Feb. 12.
Gael Awards: Each semester, teachers choose one or two students in their class to receive this
award. They are not necessarily students with the highest grades or the most popular in the class,
but they are students that demonstrate leadership, perseverance, collaboration, etc. The certificates
are presented in the classroom.
‘Pizza & a Pathway’ is an event designed to help the students understand their course selection
process, the paths that they can choose, and the steps to get there. Often students don’t ask
questions to find out about this so this is designed to help get the word out and assist students in
their choices. The event will happen on Jan. 20 & 22 and students have to sign up to attend. Pizza
lunch is provided.
Safe & Inclusive Committee: (Lillian Waldie-Lawson) A checklist is being created that will enable
them to ensure that the schools are following the safe and inclusive best-practices. Various groups
are being invited to participate and the groups will do a theme each month in the school. So far
there has been good participation.
Guest Speakers:
Brian Cluff – Co-op Teacher gave us information about the Co-op Program
http://www.ugdsb.on.ca/gcvi/dept/article.aspx?id=54907 and the International Students Travel
Program (Brian.Cluff@ugdsb.on.ca)
Kelly McCullough –gave us information about the LAUNCH program (Gr.9)
https://www.ugdsb.on.ca/gcvi/files/courses/LAUNCH.pdf and spoke about MADE (Gr. 10, 11, 12)
also known as Urban Arts program http://urbanartsguelph.wix.com/made
Katie Gad – CELP (Gr.10) & Headwaters (Gr.12) (www.ugdsb.on.ca/celp) discussed those programs
as well as the DaVinci (Gr. 11) http://www.thedavinciprogram.ca/the-program.html
Council Business: Due to time constraints we were not able to discuss the council business topics
so we have moved them to our next meeting in February.
Dates to Remember: (corrected)
Final Date to submit assignments
Grade 9 EQAO-Math
Semester 1 exams
PA Day
Semester 2 classes start
School Council meeting
Semester 1 reports go home
Family Day holiday
Deadline for Gr. 9-12 option sheets
Next meeting:
February 10, 2016
Jan. 21
Jan. 21 & 22
Jan. 28 – Feb. 3
Feb. 4
Feb. 5
Feb. 10
Feb. 12
Feb. 15
Feb. 17
Library