St. Monica Catholic School Council News
Issue 6, June 2007
“Connecting Parents and Guardians with the School Community…”
It has been a great year and we are pleased to
share some highlights from St. Monica School
Council with you. We were fortunate to have a
wonderful team of motivated members on the
Council in 2006/2007!
THANK YOU to all of our members who attended
meetings and committed their time and efforts to
enhance Council initiatives this year. There were
many returning members and some new faces.
Through the year, we welcomed parents to our
meetings who contributed ideas and added value
to our efforts.
School Council 2006/07
A special thank you also to the staff and teachers,
especially Ms. Bajada and Ms. Malcolm for
supporting our activities and initiatives!
The Link Newsletter
This year we wanted to encourage communication
between the parents and guardians of our
students and the School Council. So, The Link
was created. The newsletter concept, design and
content were developed by Luana Felato, with
Evangeline Moffat and Ms. McNamara as
newsletter editors.
Luana Felato
Evangeline Moffat
Sandra Marrello
Sharon Chambers
Domenic Rutigliano
Phil Sequeira
Adelia Valentine
Maura Smith
Kim McNamara
Co-Chair
Co-Chair
Secretary
Treasurer
Parish Rep. / OAPCE
Rep.
Community Rep.
Teacher Rep.
Vice Principal
Principal
There were six issues printed and distributed this
year. Thank you to Ms. McNamara for always
posting our information on the web site for us:
http://w3.dpcdsb.org/MONIC/School+Council/.
Article contributions by Evangeline Moffat,
Domenic Rutigliano and Sherry TremaynePengelly were greatly appreciated.
We hope that the newsletter has been a useful
way for you to keep up-to-date with the Council
activities in the school community.
Chocolate Fundraiser
Lunch Moms Program
Thank you for helping us to raise almost $9,500
during our Fall Chocolate Fundraiser! Your
support enhances the education of every student
at St. Monica School.
In December 2006, Ms. McNamara introduced a
new lunch program to our students from Lunch
Moms Inc. Starting in January 2007, children
who ordered enjoyed the delicious and nutritious
hot or cold lunches every Tuesday. Feedback
from parents and teachers has been wonderful!
New Lawn Sign
A portion of the sales also went back to the school
to support St. Monica students’ learning
environment and activities. We hope the program
will continue in the 2007/2008 year.
Thanks to efforts of Ms. McNamara and Phil
Sequeira, St. Monica School had a new lawn sign
installed in February 2007. The new sign has
been a great way to keep our parents and
guardians informed about special events,
meetings and announcements.
This joint project was funded through your
generous fundraising efforts, St. Monica School
and a grant from the Ontario Ministry of
Education.
New Council E-mail
St. Monica School Council now has an e-mail
address available for the parents and guardians of
St. Monica’s students. If you have any questions
or concerns that can be addressed by the Council,
please feel free to send us a message at
council4parents@yahoo.ca.
Financial Support
Spirit Clothing
St. Monica School’s new clothing line was
launched in 2007. The Spirit Wear clothing was
showcased in a fashion show in February. Our
student models had fun wearing the clothing and
brought our school spirit to life!
Thank you to Evangeline Moffat for organizing the
clothing line for St. Monica School! We also
appreciated the efforts of Sherry TremaynePengelly for sorting and distributing the clothing.
Special thanks also to Luana Felato and Joanne
Sequeira for facilitating the returns and backorders.
We hope to continue the Spirit Wear in the
2007/2008 year!
The School Council was pleased to provide
St. Monica School with funds to support ongoing
programs such as library/Snuggle Up books,
PALS program, Anti-bullying presentations,
sacramental pins, Teacher Appreciation luncheon,
play days/park clean-up, Grade 8 Graduation
refreshments, classroom extras for teachers,
charitable donations and our new team uniforms.
Special thanks to Mr. Schmidt for choosing and
organizing our new team uniforms! Detailed
allocations are available upon request.
Campbell’s Labels
During the summer, save the full label from
Campbell’s soup cans and the UPC code from
900ml Broth boxes and Goldfish cracker boxes for
our 2007/2008 collection. Each label earns at
least one point towards FREE merchandise for
our school from the Labels for Education
Program. Don’t forget to include your child’s
name on each bundle of labels too!
Internet Safety Seminar
Funding for this program was provided by the Parents Reaching Out
Grant from the Ministry of Education.
On May 2, 2007, St. Monica School Council
presented a FREE Internet safety seminar for
parents conducted by Constable Brenda
Pennington from the Internet Child Exploitation
Unit of Peel Regional Police.
Refreshments were catered from Café Ti Amo in
Brampton and FREE child care was provided.
Four lucky participants went home with some
great door prizes!
Thank you to all of the parents and guardians who
joined us for the informative evening. We had
excellent attendance with interesting questions
and positive feedback.
Thanks to the Planning Committee - Kim
McNamara, Maura Smith, Luana Felato, Phil
Sequeira, Domenic Rutigliano, Evangeline Moffat
and Carrol Byran - for helping to make this event
a success! Our child-care students were great!
We would also like to thank Council members
Sharon Chambers and Sandra Marello for their
support and assistance with the event. Last, but
not least, thank you to Adelia Valentine who did a
wonderful job of preparing the library for our
seminar – complete with table cloths and flowers!
The presentation was educational and
interesting. Peel Regional Police and Ontario
Provincial Police offer these tips on how
parents can protect their children from being
exploited and/or becoming victims of abuse on
the Internet:
1. Maintain open lines of communication
between parent and child.
2. Never, under any circumstances, reveal
personal information.
3. Never, agree to meet, in person, an
individual met on the Internet.
4. Teach your child to stop immediately if they
see or read anything that upsets them.
5. Locate the Internet access computer in a
high traffic area of the home.
6. Restrict access to the Internet when there is
no supervision available.
7. Be sensitive to the actions of your child on
the Internet including the potential for
addiction.
8. Monitor long distance telephone bills for
unknown telephone numbers.
9. Consider drafting a contract with your child
for the privilege of using the Internet. To
view a sample contract go to
www.cyberwise.ca – click on Parents and
look for Internet Agreement under
Resource of the Day.
10. Select a family-friendly Internet Service
Provider.
11. Acquire software to assist in protection from
the Internet.
12. Parents should take a course on use of the
Internet or have their child teach them.
Make it a family activity.
Reference: Peel Regional Police, Ontario Provincial Police.
Protecting Youth on the Internet – Cyberproofed: Internet
Safety Series. www.peelpolice.on.ca.
INTERNET SAFETY RESOURCES
** Not to be considered endorsements by
PEEL REGIONAL POLICE
Report Child Pornography:
Canadian Initiative through Child Find
www.cybertip.ca
Legislation/Gov’t Initiatives/Lobbying:
National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre
www.ncecc.ca
Canadians Against Sexual Exploitation
www.4case.ca
Internet Safety:
Media releases/safety tips/Cyberproofed?
www.peelpolice.on.ca
New educational downloads/contracts
www.internet101.ca
Advertising & hate/stats
www.media-awareness.ca
Online activities by age group/contracts
www.bewebaware.ca
Safe chat/support environment for kids with
disabilities www.abilityonline.org
Book ‘Staying Safe in a Wired World’ by former
OPP investigator Rob Nickel – includes FREE
monitoring software & Proceeds go to Child Find Ontario.
www.cyber-safety.com
INTERNET SAFETY RESOURCES
** Not to be considered endorsements by
PEEL REGIONAL POLICE
Bullying:
www.kidshelpphone.ca 1-800-668-6868
www.cyberbullying.ca
Canadian Initiative for the Prevention of Bullying
www.cipb.ca
Slang Terms & Acronyms:
http://www.noslang.com/dictionary/l
Spam: www.spamhaus.org
Filtering/Blocking Software Sites:
Kid Innovation Canada
www.kidinnovation.ca
Cyber Sentinel www.cybersentinel.com
Monitoring Software:
Spector www.spectorsoft.com
Hoopaa – Polynesian means ‘Take control’
www.hoopaa.com
Firewall Software:
Norton Internet Security www.symantec.com
Zone Alarm www.zonealarm.com
Anti-virus Software:
Bit Defender www.bitdefender.com
Kaspersky www.kaspersky.com
Spyware/Aware Software
Spyware Be Gone
www.spywarebegone.com
McAfee Anti-Spyware www.mcafee.com
**Note: These sites are NOT endorsed by Peel
Regional Police. Use at your own risk**
If you have any questions about Internet safety,
please feel free to contact:
Constable Brenda Pennington #1479
Internet Child Exploitation Unit
Education Officer
905-453-3311 x3489
brenda.pennington@peelpolice.on.ca
Cyber-bullying is serious
In the era of advancing technology, school yard
bullying has been taken to a new level. A bully is
someone who says or does things intentionally to
hurt or harm another person. With the Internet,
bullying is now becoming a larger problem.
School yard issues are continuing at home
through the use of e-mail, cell phones and chat
rooms. “Cyber-bullies” threaten or tell lies about a
person in the cyber-community, thinking that they
are anonymous. The bullying may then continue
at school and can have a major impact on your
child’s personality, self esteem and school
performance.
Establishing an open line of communication with
your children encourages them to tell you about
any bullying issues. Both parent, child and school
can then work together to find a solution.
Farewell & Congrats!
St. Monica School Council would like to say a
fond farewell to Ms. McNamara who will be
retiring to begin a new endeavour teaching in
Malaysia. Ms. McNamara has been very
supportive of School Council initiatives and we
have appreciated her enthusiasm and contribution
to our School Council over the past few years.
We will miss her and wish her all the best!
We would like to congratulate Ms. Smith who will
be our new principal at St. Monica! We have had
the pleasure of working closely with Ms. Smith
through Council and look forward to many more
successful years ahead!
Next Council – Join us!
Why not consider joining the Council for the
2007/2008 year? Feel free to talk to any of this
year’s Council members for insight. Nomination
forms will be distributed in September 2007. Help
us to enhance student life at St. Monica!
Have a wonderful summer!
Written by:
Editors:
Luana Felato, Council Co-Chair
Evangeline Moffat, Council Co-Chair
Kim McNamara, Principal