École Irvine Elementary PAC Meeting Agenda October 21, 2015 A. 7pm Board Members: Cristin Wilson (Chair), Tara Tait (co-chair), Sinead Joy (co-secretary), Rachel Loffler (co-secretary), Denice Greekas (Treasurer) Present: Ms. Birnie, Colleen Morel, Jessica McMurdo, Jennifer Godin, Lisa Ploss, Loreen Dall Andony, Tracy Harford, Liz Thomas, Brenda Hynes, Sinead Joy, Rachel Loffler, Denice Greekas, Cristin Wilson, Tara Tait, Amy Siddaway, Michelle Tack, Lisa Smith, Leanne MacGregor, Sonia Thiessen, Tonya Pankratz

Time Item 2 Welcome Cristin Wilson minutes 5 Old business and approval of last meeting’s minutes Cristin Wilson minutes  Cristin has had questions from parents regarding the Lice program.  Will send out a survey monkey to get feedback regarding parent information session on head lice.  10 Parent online payment system- Ms. Birnie and Jessica and minutes  Parent registration and set up an account by Jan Alexandra (Coop students  Set up for field trips and other events would be paid directly into the schools from district) accounts  Permission slips will be electronic  Accounts will be family set up so that as children move schools, it follows them.  Still options to pay by cheque or cash which go directly to the office.  PAC accounts will also be set up on this system  Teachers will have access to reports to see who has and who has to pay  Province wide program to simplify the accounting and form registration  Could replace the Munch a lunch in the future  Purchases made by the school or parents (eg Creative Children) could use the system.  Schools offices already use the system for their accounting.  School donations could be put in through the system. 10 Budget Presentation – signing authority and updates Denice Greekas/Tara Tait minutes  Denice – reporting on budget item  Km club freezie sales from $1303 (additional funds will bring this up to 1500$ in coins).  Popcorn money - $395.10  Signing authority – to change this authority there are procedures in place.  $8900 money from gaming – can put money aside for playground equipment etc up to 3 years.  CIBC – no update $9548.01 – 3 cheques  RBC – no update from Sept  Additional funds from Hot lunch to be added. 20 Principal’s Report – dates and events, teacher updates, computer lab info Ms. Birnie minutes  Opening conversations went very well (in place of Informal reports)  PAC organize a parent event on a specific night to create a community event  Field trip and form glitches slowed down the process. MyED had many stresses on the system as they upgraded to middle and secondary schools.  Form errors were ‘fixed’ by Nancy Hartmann in the office.  Parent volunteer forms, CRC, drivers abstract. All the forms arrive in the secretaries email box and once accepted, they are  Vetting process for driver’s abstracts and insurance forms is done by Ms Birnie. Thank you to parents who volunteered to drive – the response was overwhelming.  Student verification and emergency response forms need to be sent in ASAP.  Volleyball volunteer drivers should come in and have their forms checked to make sure everything is up to date.  The driver’s abstract of those volunteers who won’t be called upon to drive will not be kept on file.  Field trips are for the classes only, please no siblings without prior conversation with the classroom teacher.  Assemblies – staff is reviewing assembly format. The staff are looking at acknowledging what the students do every day and celebrating this regularly.  Late notice to the next assembly –  Calendar of events needs to be updated.  Announcements – student leadership making announcements about self- regulation goals and what this looks like. 30 Standing Items minutes A. Hot lunch/ treat days / munch a lunch A. Jenn Godin/Lisa Hot lunch is going well with parents participating on-line which has created reduced Ploss work load from last year as there is less money to count. There are potentially B. fewer parents participating in ordering over all compared to last year. Not sure on Jason Lapenskie numbers that have ordered for the full year at once. C. Tonya Pankratz

D. Pizza day is down 20 orders. The order total is $7893 and the cost of the meals is n/a $5000. E. Camille Gooderham Campbell Some possible explanations to changes seen are: 1. confusion over munch a lunch and the lunch lady. Lunch lady is a business and F. Tracy Harford the munch a lunch is run by the PAC. G. Tonya Pankratz 2. At present there is less information being communicated and therefore less reminders H. Michelle Tack 3. Have been some problems reported with on line ordering, but has been minimal I. Brenda Hynes/Lisa Plan: To send out she reminders regarding the differences between Munch a Ploss lunch and the Lunch lady via the liaisons J. Tonya Pankratz B. DPAC 1st meeting next week, report at the next PAC meeting C. Km Club – Day 9 of 10. This has been a great community builder. 40 volunteers in total (23 needed every day) approximately 320-330 children running every day. Appears to have been an increase in competitiveness from other years, could be attributed to the new countdown clock ($61) and use of mega phone!!! It is important that every child has their own goal, be it racing for increased number of Popsicle sticks or getting exercise and being outside.

There have been some concerns: 1. with the rough ground down the hill and risk of falls

Plan: a work order will be put in for the district to look at the ground

2. Children losing their popsicle sticks and asking for more: Plan: Parents to remind children to hold on to their sticks as the volunteers have to be fair to all, it’s a difficult decision for the volunteers to call when there are many children asking for another stick, best for every child to hold on to the ones they receive on each lap. As extra sticks will not been given outCPF D. CPF - Kerrie Turner has volunteered E. Book club - Been a big response 3 times the size as usual. Full report next meeting to see if more books need to be purchased form the PAC F. Staff Appreciation - Went really well and very much appreciated from the teachers. Mme Arvisais send a thank you card which was read out. There is now a rubber maid box full of decorations, cutlery, plates, bowls etc. for approx. 40 places if needed in the future. Will be stored in the PAC loft. G. Sports Equipment - 12 volunteers helped replenish the stocks. There is now a laminated picture of what each sports ball bag has in it. Each division had a short presentation regarding the laminated sign out system with a dry wipe pen to encourage accountability of the new and replenished equipment. The cost of replenishing the sports equipment was $702 from the PAC

Plan: Information on the purchase of this equipment through the PAC and the encouragement of the responsibilities to be sent out via the liaisons.

H. Movie Nights - The committee has decided on 3 movie nights. Friday Nov 27th more likely going to be Big Hero Six. Other dates Jan 22nd and April 22nd 2016. Movies to be confirmed I. Twitter/Facebook - Received a prize from twitter (lunch kit, journal and glass water bottle). Going to include this in baskets at the Santa breakfast.

J. Green report - 19 divisions are recycling papers and composting. The recycling bins are starting to smell to look into CUPE to pressure wash the bins. 17 of the19 divisions are recycling plastics and foil (some of these are coming home for families to do). Only batteries used in the school can be put in the schools battery recycling bins.

K. Emergency preparedness: Mr. Escueta division won the bowling. Quite a discrepancy throughout the divisions regarding the number of forms returned. Some divisions are 24 forms short. Granola bars still coming in approx. 1600, need 2000. It is important that the boxes that are donated are granola bars are peanut free. They are stored in the large emergency bin on the school grounds. The granola bars need to be replenished every year for freshness. Therefore granola bars are given out at the sports day and given to SHARE. So they are not wasted. Each division has its own emergency bag the food/water supplies are in the main emergency bin. On emergency drills bringing the key for the emergency bins is part of the drill.

Plan: Principal will follow up with teachers as this is a district mandate not a PAC initiative. Reminder to parents via the Liaisons. Extra forms at the front desk if needed L. Volunteer draw: Paul Arvisais and Jenny Stevens won $5 Starbucks card.

M. FYI Due to the changes in the PAC executive this year Cristin Wilson (chair) and Tara Tait (co-chair) will be the only people with signing authority and previous executive members will need to hand in their resignations for their previous signing authority. 15 New Items minutes A. Fund raising/ donation letter to families - Fund raising/donation letter to A. Cristin Wilson families: B. Ms. Birnie/ Sending out next week. Discussion on whether the Munch a lunch site can be used for payment. No, as it will be difficult to get the tax receipt for $25 and over Tara/Cristin donations. Some information on the letter will give suggestions for what the money C. Carol may be used for. Spence/Brenda B. Playground Fundraising - Unsure on the life expectancy of the purple Hynes playground -- it will need to be maintained with regard to the safety standards set for the school and the daycare.

C. Santa’s Breakfast - 12th December 2105 in the morning (time to be confirmed). A committee needs to be formed --request for volunteers will be sent out in the future. Some table and chairs may need to be borrowed from other schools as in the past. Request - for the care taker to assist after the event as in the past. Request for the PAC to donate $100 for supplies. The PAC does not receive any profit from this event as all goes to families of the school identified by the principal to assist with a brighter Christmas for these families. There are donations from stores.

Plan: $100 was awarded form the PAC to the Santa’s Breakfast. The PAC executives have asked that in future any requests for PAC money have a written request for the money and its use prior to the meeting.

5 Additional Items minutes A. Grade 5 Event: $7.50 per pupil was approved by the PAC. Historically, Grade 5s have had their own bank account-- now will be run separately through the PAC account with its own receipt book and will have its own section in the budget to keep track of the money. The grades 5s have their own committee and fundraising. B. Year Book: Last year the year book was complimentary with the photography company. This year, despite it being the same photographer, the year book option is no longer on offer. Options: to get a template and volunteers put the year book together onsite. Also need community pictures and ways of making sure pupil selection is even across the book.

Plan: Would parents want to buy a year book for approx. $10-$13. A survey to be sent out to assess parent interest. C. Calendar of events: Is an important communicator which parents have been used to receiving timely, to be able to plan involvement with their children at the school and organize schedules. Parents love it. The school Calendar has been a combination of PAC and school related events. At present dates are wrong and events not on it e.g. hot lunch and early dismissals. There is also an external calendar on the website which has nothing on it and an internal one which probably has something on it. To get information on both calendar the process is duplicated which may be here the problem has been. There will be the Halloween parade on 30th October in the pm

Plan: The calendar of events will be shortly conformed with PAC events and school events and sent out via liaisons The principal will use the liaisons more to get information out to parents e.g. early dismissal and pro d days. The principal would like parents to know that early dismissal days needed to be booked last year and cannot be changed. They can be used for 1. Professional- to consult to one another 2. Report to parents

Also that due to the New Curriculum, for parents to be aware that the ministry of education have given teachers mandatory 2 days of education for the new curriculum for 2016, this is provincial wide. This can be taken as 2 full days or 4 half days. The dates have not been confirmed but the school wants to work with the families of this school and surrounding schools. The dates will be coming soon as the turnaround implementation this new curriculum is fast. FYI the last curriculum change was in 2000. D. Parent education sessions (new curriculum?) Certainly interest in knowing more about the new curriculum. The lice education was also brought up with. Tracey Harford volunteered to talk about this due to her knowledge form her professional life.

Plan: To discuss further plans with the education sessions at the next PAC as not enough time to discuss in detail. E. Christmas Concert Dates: December 14 – Dress rehearsal December 15 – Morning and afternoon performances December 16 – Morning and afternoon performances

Next meeting - November 18, 2015 Meeting adjourned