Mutchmor Public School Council Meeting Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Present: Isabelle Flannigan (Principal); Christopher Wereley (Vice-principal); Dana Reid; Jeremy Thompson; Kylie Taggart; Kathy Cowan; Mike Zureik; Joanne Gallop; Sheri Segal Glick; Sarah Wilton; Lisa Hamilton; Heather Watson; Kiersten Love; Sam Harris; Adrienne Annan; Ariane Casey; Mike Todd
Minutes from last meeting in June Approved by Mike Todd and seconded by Mike Zureik
Election of new council members With several members resigning posts (many thanks for all your hard work in past years!), a number of new members volunteered to take on new roles. The following people were unanimously approved by the people present at the meeting:
Co-chairs – Adrienne Annan & Sheri Segal Glick Secretary - Joanne Gallop Treasurer - Kate Binnie OCASC representative – Dana Reid & Lisa Hamilton Community representative – Jeremy Thompson NEW Engagement Coordinator – Heather Watson
The Engagement Coordinator will be responsible for managing the council’s communication/web properties including Twitter, Facebook and electronic ordering applications (pizza, for e.g.)
Co-Chair update Anna Wilkinson and Mike Todd, last year’s co-chairs, will have a hand over meeting with Adrienne and Sheri. Mike will prepare the annual Report for 2015/2016.
Principal’s report School has started smoothly. There are 23 classes and approximately 70 students in each grade for a total of 528 students. There are 44 staff on board. Routines are established and teachers are digging into the curriculum.
EQAO scores are in. Grade three results were the same as in previous years. Grade six results were also the same with the exception of math, which are higher this year. Mme Flannigan is reviewing the information and will go through the results with the staff on Friday October 7 (PD day). Also on that day, the teaching team will map out the school learning plan for the year.
Annual Bullying Prevention plan. Mutchmor staff will review the existing plan and discuss additions for this year. The students completed a survey in 2015 and parents were surveyed earlier in 2016. Overall, the information that was gathered was positive. Mme Flannigan will review it at the next council meeting.
Joanna Courtney, current staff rep, is going on maternity leave, so Principal Flannigan is working on replacing her for this year.
There will be a new School Well-being Plan. It’s an initiative that the staff will develop in the coming months.
Items from last year:
The floor in the old part of the school was fixed and painted over the summer.
There is new lighting is coming in – waiting on delivery.
The application for a crossing guard at Bank and Fifth has been turned down by the city. Council is looking to take this further as it is felt that the intersection really needs a guard. Dana pointed out CHEO looks at injuries at intersections across the city – might be helpful information for us to make a case. Mike suggested that perhaps the education committee at the GCA might support us. He will reach out to Tim Hore to see what our next steps may be.
Mme Flannigan also pointed out that there is a great traffic calming/pedestrian crossing at Hopewell – which would be a nice set up to replicate on Fourth Avenue, where most drop offs are happening.
Principal Flannigan assures us that Mutchmor does not have cockroaches.
The grade six classes last year collected money for the end of year trip. There was some left over, and the students have donated it to council ($168).
There was a question about the school board’s gifted program review. Mme Flannigan will look into what is happening and report back to council on the particulars.
Mme Flannigan is planning to send out an email every Friday to keep parents informed of school happenings. The idea is to have the students take responsibility as much as possible – i.e. listening to announcements and getting the info that is relevant to them – the email is a backup.
School report Run club is in progress. It’s for Grade three and up – MWF. Students who want to participate in the meet must attend practices (Missing or late no more than three times.) It’s expected that well over 100 students will participate in the meet on October 21.
Terry Fox – taking place on Friday, September 30. Assembly after attendance and run in the community. Friday, September 30 is also Orange Shirt day. This is a nation-wide event meant to foster discussion on residential schools amongst students in Canada. Soccer tryouts are the week of October 3. Mr. Chapman and Mr. Walker. Tournament is October 13. (Grade 4 – 6)
There will be a Philanthropy club this year. Run by Tracy Smith and Mr Lemelin. Details to follow.
Picture day will be on Thursday, October 20. IEPs will be sent home with students on October 21.
Treasurer’s report Mike Zureik circulated the draft budget and council discussed.
The playground structure in the junior yard will expire in 2020. The city/board will decommission it and not replace it. There is a need to build additional revenue to put toward the playground fund. We’re expecting that it will cost approximately $150K. We will put a placeholder in the budget and plan what/how to raise these funds. (One idea – renting the space in the school yard for the garage sale.)
Goal for the Fun Fair should be to break even. That committee can look into ways to make this happen.
Draft budget – needs to be approved by October council meeting. Mike Z will attend next month for this transition. Draft budget available to parents. Contact [email protected].
Logistics – need to update signing authority so that more people on exec can signs cheques. (All cheques must have two signatures). Requires a trip to the Credit Union on Isabella.
Committee Reports All committees will be happy to have more volunteers
Book sale Kylie Taggart reports for the book sale committee. They are always looking for new volunteers to sit on this committee. It kicks off in January.
Fun fair Kiersten Love reports for this committee. Due to funding issues they may need to look at strategy for this coming year.
Outreach Kylie Taggart, Kathy Cowan, Zoe Langevin, Liz Laguire
Playground Right now, this is a fundraising issue. In future years, we will need to establish this committee so it can hit the ground running – with things such as grants. Worst case scenario is 2020. Could stretch to longer.
Whole Foods has a $2K grant to schools who want to put in an edible garden. Application deadline is November 15, 2016. Mme Flannigan will bring it up at the next staff meeting. Would need a staff person to be involved. Other business OCASC has a seminar on how to run a student council, which takes place on November 19. Chairs will receive notices from OCASC moving forward.
Next meeting: Wednesday, October 26, 2016 at 7:00 in the Mutchmor staff room