Parent Council Meeting
Thursday, October 16, 2014 @ 7:30pm
Introduction & welcome from Mr. Glazier, Introduction of all the people at the meeting.
Attendees – Terri Burns, Shawna McNichol, Jean Serumaga, Stephanie Simpson, Nieve Lomas, Laura
Stephenson, Maria Negas, Mr. Glazier, Lisa Wright, Sarah VanDyk, Carol Adams, Shirley Gelinas, Cathy
Sawarin, Lisa Santandrea, Manuela Buren, Stacy Craig, Rose Esposito
Opening Prayer
Opening prayer led by Mr. Glazier and accompanied by meeting attendees
Minutes from the September Meeting were reviewed and passed with the following amendments.
Adjustments made to Sept 2014 Minutes
Treasurer’s Report – Ministry of Education only supplies a certain amount of technology to the school
but it is only a base amount. The rest needs to be supplied by the school/parent council.
Milk Fridge - $56.00 charge is only for the shipping of the fridge, the actual cost of the fridge is $600. An
invoice will be sent to the school for the fridge.
Chair’s Report
Director’s Presentation – They are working on changing the vision & mission statement. They discussed
ideas on what to include in the statements. They would like to keep the word “Catholic” in the vision &
the mission statement.
Treasure’s Report
All the numbers in the budget are estimated based on last year’s final numbers. These can be increased
or decreased.
There is an increase in hot lunch sales because of the extra JK/SK students that are ordering hot lunch
and we started the hot lunch program earlier this year.
Parent Communication – last year this amount was used for the parent back to school mail outs. We
could apply for a grant to cover some of these costs.
Grants - Someone from council can apply to the school board for the grants that are available. There is a
base amount of $500
Mabel’s Labels – So far, we have made $157.40. A cheque will be sent out for this amount. People are
still able to buy labels and have it included as part of our fundraiser.
Fundscript – A chair is still required for this fundraiser. The chair would be responsible for sending out
information to our school community letting them know what fundscript is & to answer any emails that
come from this fundraiser.
Meet the Teacher Night – We made a profit from this event of $337.95. Normally, this has been a loss
for us. It is not a fundraising event for parent council. This is a social event.
Spirit Wear - Samples of the spirit wear will be shown in the display case. The campaign will last 2 weeks
starting Mon. Oct. 27th until Fri. Nov. 7th. There is a 4 week turnaround before the items arrive back to
the school. A flyer will be printed and handed out to the students. It will indicate the colours of the
items on the flyer. A copy of the flyer will also be posted on our facebook page.
Bank Charges – We have switched from RBC to BMO. There are no fees for monthly banking. The bank
fee was for a purchase package for cheques & a cheque stamp. There will be fees incurred if/when we
have NSF cheques.
Terry Fox Run apples – Apples weren’t purchased this year because they would usually go bad before
they were used. They were not a necessity so it was cut out of the budget. Are we able to get them
donated?
Pancake Day – The pancake mix is usually donated to the school by parents. We should look at Krusteez
from Costco. They sometimes offer donations for school pancake days. Maple syrup is donated to the
school.
Graduation Reception – This is set at zero because Parent Council is not taking care of it. It should be
taken care of through the school with a Grad committee that is set up and they will have a budget to
follow.
Retirement – We had 4 teachers retire last year so gifts were made for them. Money doesn’t have to be
spent if we have no retirees and can be moved to another section.
Teacher Wish List – is created so we can see what the teacher’s need for their classrooms.
Field Trips – We would like to set a limit of $10 / child for the school year. This amount is used to
subsidize the cost of the field trips
Technology – This is used to purchase smart boards or other technological equipment that is needed in
the classrooms
Athletics – Whatever tournaments our school teams participate in, we need to pay a registration fee
Playground – We should set aside some of our fundraising money for the playground equipment this
year. We have had the equipment since 1996. We should have another assessment & report done on it
so we can see what needs to be taken care of sooner than later.
Classroom Expenses - $100 / teacher. These costs are for teachers that spend money out of their own
pocket to add to their classroom. A concern that arises is “Do items that are bought stay in the
classroom or do they go with the teacher?” Are we able to set up parameters for this? The teachers are
able to submit a receipt for these items & they will be reimbursed. Core resources are given to the
classrooms. Are we able to ask the parents for additional resources? If they are given a list of things
that the classroom needs, would the parents be willing to help out? Or are we taxing the parents all the
time asking them to donate for all the fundraisers and then donate items to the classroom?
How about the ECE’s & EA’s that are in the classrooms? Do we need to set aside money for them for
classroom expenses? This would be an additional $900. How about Mrs. Parent & Mrs. Thomas? Mrs.
Thomas spends a lot of money for the library out of her own pocket.
Websites for all the teachers. If we were to support the teachers to create websites, they could use this
as a communication tool with the parents. Would this fall under a Parent Outreach grant?
T-shirts for the VIP program – The amount for the t-shirts has been paid in full by the parent council. It
is not a subsidized amount. Should Parent Council be subsidizing it?
Grad Awards – A budget needs to be created along with a Grad committee to organize graduation. An
amount will be set aside to pay for the graduation awards by the Parent Council. The school is
responsible for the mass and the awards ceremony. The dance is not covered by the school or Parent
Council as per the LDCSB policy. Any additional funds for graduation will go through the school not the
Parent Council.
Terri Burns put forward a motion that we can revisit & reassess the budget as needed. Nieve Lomas
seconded the motion.
Principal’s Report
Healthy & Safe Schools Committee
Street Traffic Concerns – we are looking into the Walking School Bus program again. Also, we will need
to look at traffic flow & see what can be done. This has to be done with the community
Brescia College Nutrition Students – Lee Anne Berkely will be meeting with our Healthy School
Committee. They are looking into grants that can be applied to the school so they can do cooking with
kids programs. There is a program called “Let’s Get Cooking” that they are looking into. Mrs. Elgie has
applied for this program.
London Middlesex Gardening Club – We can plant a garden with them. A grant can be applied for that
will go towards the garden.
The milk fridge has arrived so the milk program will start in November. There is a glitch with the
program. There was no service charge added to the orders at this time. The milk will be distributed to
the classes.
Academic Achievement
Belonging Goal – Create a positive attitude/environment for parents/teachers/students
EQAO (Education Quality Accountability Office) Results – this measures Gr 3, 6, 9 & 10 students
in reading, writing & math
Grade 3 results - 55 % in reading, 65 % in writing, and 58 % in math
Some students have achieved level 3 or 4 in testing so over ½ of the students meet criteria
Grade 6 results - 80% in reading, 83% in writing, and 54% in math
There is going to be a bigger focus on math this year with hopes that this will increase our grades in
EQAO testing.
If we can get the students to communicate their answers more or expanding their answers more, the
results will go up
If the students had answered 1 -5 more questions more correctly, the scores would have been higher
and would have been higher than board average
A concern that came up is the teachers/school realizes that the students can do the work that is being
tested but are the questions worded awkwardly? Are they able to decipher what the test questions are
looking for?
Students are increasing in their results from grade 3 to grade 6
PD Day – They looked over the EQAO results & looked at the tests to see what questions were answered
incorrectly and looked over what the EQAO answer sheet said
Focus on math – reasoning, (explaining using info provided, justifying answers, communication thinking)
The principal meets with the teachers as divisions to discuss student achievement and consistent high
yield practices
Trillium foundation – approves the resources that are used in the classrooms. Our school board uses
Nelson textbooks/workbooks.
An idea presented would be to have an information night explaining what EQAO is to the parents of
Grade 3 & Grade 6 students. Most parents don’t know what it is. Maybe the teachers can start
explaining at end of grade 2 what it will be. If they could send the math book home during the Grade 3
year so we can see as parents what our children are learning. The EQAO test should be a review of what
they have learned throughout the year. Not that they have to learn new things two weeks before the
test is scheduled for. The tests are spread out over 6 days in 2 weeks. We can look up on EQAO for
samples of what the tests will be like. In March, the students can start doing practice tests & questions
so they can see what it entails with the hopes that it will relieve some of their stress with this testing.
Can we also add math curriculum questions to our newsletters?
Upcoming Network Events
Lamontagne – Is still running until October 17th.
Hallowe’en Dance – Scheduled for Friday, Oct 24th from 7-10
Spirit Wear – Scheduled to run from Mon. Oct. 27th until Fri. Nov. 7th. There is a 4 week turnaround
before the items will be brought to the school
Hot Lunch is ongoing. So far, it has been going well.
Parish News
Family Movie Night is being held at Holy Family. It is on Wed. Oct. 22nd from 6:30 – 8pm. They will be
showing the movie “Frozen”. They are looking for donations of juice boxes & snacks.
They are looking for cooks for the Lifeteen mass & Confirmation meetings
There is a Tree sale at Mother Theresa Secondary School on Sat. Oct. 18th.
On October 28th, there will be a Remembrance mass for anyone that has lost someone throughout the
year
CWL Bazaar – Sat. Nov 1st from 9am – 2pm
Next Meeting – Thurs. Nov. 20th at 7pm