Minutes
Lord Tennyson PAC Meeting
October 4, 2011
1.
Meeting called to order at 7 pm, by Chair Tracy Rowland and seconded by co-chair Jane
Gardiner. Co-Chair Eric Rallison, Co-Secretaries Fiona Davis Brown and Susan Hynes, Borja Fisher
Brown, Steve Mulligan, Aniko Kovacs, Mari Laurenciano, Kyle Beauliv, Christine Bowden, Mme
Lavoie and Mme Valerie were in attendance, as well as several parents.
2.
Additions to Agenda
Kyle asked to include Communications as an agenda item. It was requested that parking be added
as a discussion item. It was also requested that the item on fundraising ideas be moved up after
the Treasurer’s report.
3.
Principal/ Vice-principal Report
Mme Lavoie announced that Mme. Valerie is Acting Vice Principal until a decision is made
regarding hiring of the position.
Madame Lavoie advised that the 100th anniversary party was a wonderful celebration. She gave
kudos to Kyle and all the other parents who worked hard to put it all together.
Both the cross country team and the soccer team are going strong.
Mme. Lavoie advised that Mme. Valerie is leading the Global Group on a big outing. Mme. Valerie
advised that she will be taking 30 students to WE Day next Thursday, which is a big show for Feed
the Children. This event will provide the children with a sense of social responsibility. One of the
key speakers will be Mikhail Gorbachev. Once the students get back to school they will work on a
social issue of their choosing.
Mme. Lavoie advised that there are still three classes that do not have a class parents. She noted
that given the current teacher action, these individuals are very important in helping to get
information out to parents. Currently, if there is paper to be distributed, Mme. Lavoie and Mme.
Valerie have to distribute to all the classes by hand. One of the attendees asked who manages the
list of class parents. Mme. Lavoie advised that she maintains the list of class parents.
3.
Treasurer Report
Co-Chair Jane Gardiner provided the financial update and introduced Mari as the new PAC
Treasurer. Jane reported that last year the PAC spent $5,000 more than it brought in, $2,000 of
which was due to cost overruns on the school mural. There was, however, a starting surplus in
September 2010 of approximately $5,000. The cost overruns were also due to the purchase in
2010/11 of items such as smart boards and LCD projectors, which had been approved from the
prior year’s budget.
For this year, the casino fund will provide $8,000 in funding. It is estimated that the PAC will have
to raise $14,000 in order to be able to continue to assist the school with purchasing needed
equipment such as computers, sports and science equipment.
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Jane advised that, to date, the Kick Start program (the new direct appeal fundraiser) has raised
$3,000. The campaign will be extended given that there are not yet class parents in each of the
classes to assist in distributing information on the program.
A question was raised regarding how the PAC determines the items that it will fund. Borja advised
that the Planning Council each year identifies the school fundraising goals. The current goal is
“engaging students through the use of computers”. $5000 has been budgeted again this year for
this school goal. Various programs are in the budget, which was distributed at the June 2011 AGM.
Borja recommended that parents get involved in the PAC in order to be a part of the decisions
being made with respect to funding. She noted that PAC fundraising is key to ensure that the
school has adequate computer, sciences, arts and physical education materials and equipment.
4.
Fundraising
Borja Fisher Brown provided an overview of the three key fundraising activities that take place
each year in the school. The first is the Grade 6 fundraising for the Quebec trip which is taken in
Grade 7. Quebec 2013 is currently raising funds for their trip next year.
The second is fundraising undertaken by the PAC. Examples of PAC fundraising events include the
Math-a-thon/Spell-a-thon, the Kickstart program and school spirit fundraisers such as the
Halloween Howl and Winterfest. The third key area of fundraising is the Global Group fundraising.
Christine Bowden advised that as PAC Fundraising Coordinator she is focused on coming up with
other fundraising ideas. She noted that they are trying to come up with one fundraising idea per
month. They advised that the vendor cards will start in November, in time for Winterfest and
Christmas. They may be purchased by cash or cheque, PayPal will no longer be an option.
Purdy’s Chocolates will also be sold again this year. The PAC receives 25% of the sales through
this fundraising initiative. Other possible ideas were discussed.
Concerns were raised that there might be too many fundraisers, which results in donor fatigue.
The idea for this year was to see how much money is raised through the Kickstart program, as this
is the first year for this program. The more money raised through this program the fewer the
other fundraising events that would be needed to meet the PAC targets.
Christine asked that if anyone had any other ideas for fundraising to email her directly.
5.
Tennyson’s 100th Anniversary
Kyle gave an overview of the 100th anniversary celebrations. She noted that 170 people paid,
however, as she needed to encourage people to volunteer, anyone who volunteered entered for
free. There were 150 volunteers and 20 VP’s attended. As not enough people attended, the
anniversary party had a loss of about $1,000.
Kyle noted that more people need to help to support the school and more people need to get
involved.
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Tracy thanked Kyle for all of her hard work putting the 100th Anniversary celebrations together
and thanked everyone who came out to support. Tracy presented Kyle with a token of
appreciation for all of her efforts and hard work.
6.
Halloween Howl Update
This is the 25th anniversary of the Halloween Howl. Borja and Ward Stirrat gave an overview of
the work undertaken to date to get ready for the Halloween Howl. Volunteers are needed and
anyone who can help out should volunteer. October 27th will be set up and the Howl will be on
October 28th. Volunteers are particularly needed to work on the Haunted House and also to take
on the Coordinators roles. Borja and Ward advised that it will be their last year running the Howl.
7.
Communications
Kyle asked that this item be added to the meeting agenda. She noted that the PAC needs to do a
better job getting the message out to parents. She noted that here are too many emails and there
is trouble getting the message out on events.
It was noted that any relevant communication needs to be included in the school newsletter. Mme.
Lavoie noted that currently the newsletter gets distributed through the class parents; however, as
noted earlier there are still classes without a class parent. It was recommended that maybe it
would be best for the school newsletter to be distributed by Mme. Lavoie to be sure that it is read
by parents. Mme. Lavoie said that she would look into pulling together a master list of sending out
one email with the school newsletter.
The idea of a PAC Communications Committee was raised. Ward noted that a past priority for the
PAC was purchasing a big sign outside the school to post notices of upcoming events. Jane noted
that this purchase has been budgeted for this year. Ward also noted the clear communications
take a lot of work and requires training and oversight to ensure consistency.
8. Parking
One of the parents noted that recently there was a traffic person in front of the school ticketing
cars and that the person was quite aggressive. Mme. Lavoie noted that she and others from the
Vancouver School Board had met with a representative from the City of Vancouver regarding the
larking restrictions. Given that West 10th is both a residential and bike route, the City would not
consider changing the parking restrictions.
Mme. Lavoie also reminded people to drive slowly and in a clockwise direction around the school
when dropping off. There have been cases of aggressive drivers.
9. Future Meetings
Tracy announced the PAC meeting dates for this school year as follows: November 8th, January
10th, March 6th, April 3rd, May 1st and June 5th (AGM). The meetings will start at 7pm and will be
held in the school library. The next meeting is November 8, 2011 at 7pm. All parents are welcome.
Tracy asked that if parents have ideas for special presentations/guest speakers for future PAC
meetings to please contact Doni Gratton.
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With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:40 pm.
Minutes respectfully submitted by Susan Hynes
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