John Young School Council Meeting, 30 November 2005, Minutes

Council Attendee’s: Michelle Wright, Chair; Amy Harrington, Vice Chair; Ann Kurikshuk-Nemec, Secretary; Christine Anderson, Treasurer; Michael Beavington, OCASC Rep, Karen Holzhuter, Ex-Officio Chair.

School Staff:  Michael Malek, Principal; Suzie Robertson, Vice Principal; Diane Lockhart, School Administrator .

Teachers: Genevieve Gauthier-King (Junior Teacher Rep); Suzanne Denney (Primary Teacher Rep).

Parent Volunteers:  Liz MacMaster,  Kathy Downs

1. Welcome and Introduction to new council, M. Wright : Chair presented new structure of Council; Michelle Wright is now Chair; Michael Beavington going to OCASC Rep;  Davina Lalonde has stepped down; Amy Harrington will be Vice-Chair; Christine and Ann remain as Treasurer and Secretary; Karen Holzhuter is present as Past-Chair.

2.  Approval of 26 Oct, 2005 minutes, Approval of agenda: Last meeting’s minutes were accepted and the current agenda was accepted. Motioned by C. Anderson and seconded by A. Harrington.

3.  Fund Raising Committee Report.

a)       Fall Fundraiser, M. Wright:  Orders just came in 29 Nov and parents should pick up their orders at the parent-teacher interviews. Total sales were $7457, our profit is $3363: down from last year because we didn’t sell cookie dough this time and our numbers are down.

b)       Halloween cake raffle, L. MacMaster: went well, held in room 1, 88 cakes, a record number, raised $706.15. 

c)       T-Shirt fundraiser, K. Downs: profit of $437.23, sold 85 shirts; will set up table at book fair.  Grad shirts? Timing of sales? M. Malek said he will put an announcement in the December and January School newsletter, so people will know about it.  Team shirts? About $10 each, need 40 shirts.  Use profit from school shirts to buy team shirts? They will be pinney’s made out of nylon material.   BBQ: Haven’t got the total for our food sales yet, will check on it.  M. Malek, should we book now?  Go ahead and book for last week in May and maybe 3^rd week of September.

d)       Book Fair, L. MacMaster:  Ongoing, sales are $1145 so far.  Doing well, total amount will be reported later.

e)       Gingerbread Shop, M. Wright: Dec 7 & 8 in room 1. 

f)        Food Days, C. Ouellette: Absent.

g)       General Store, C. Ouellette:  Absent.

4.  Treasurer’s Report, C. Anderson:

         Handed out a Summary report and fund raising profit/loss on each.  We’ve broken even generally.  The general store is almost out of the hole, only down by $246.  We’ve been carrying a hefty negative on the General Store for a very long time, so this is pretty good.   Bank balance is $17,144 with outstanding cheques coming in and going out.   To pay out: 55% for Fall Fundraiser, November’s Milk Days, December’s Milk and Food Days. Fundraising in, no profit on Book Fair as the money goes back into buying more books.  We will make a small profit on Gingerbread Shop. After cheques go in and out, we will have approximately $7,600 that is not designated.

5.  Principal/Vice Principal’s Report, M. Malek/S. Robertson:

       S. Robertson- what’s on right now: Gymnastics for juniors, Recorder’s for Gr 1-6, Computer club Gr 5/6, Chess club Gr 1-6, Volleyball Gr 4-6; coming up, Computer Club for different grade; Learn to Play Assoc. flyers went home for 3 programs at lunchtime (start week of Dec 12 for 6 weeks). 

       M. Malek- 01 Dec is first ‘Early Release Day’, of on 3 this year sanctioned by the Board.  We have a Literacy Coach (Lori Lowes) coming in to speak to our Staff about ‘balanced literacy’ school-wide.  Teachers K-6 will have the same training and we’re started with ‘read aloud’.  Set 2 goals, looking at shared reading and guided reading in the classrooms.  

         - Dec 1 & 2, parent interviews, lots of appts, teachers are very busy. 

         - JY ‘Family McDonalds Night’, Wed 14 Dec, 4-8:00pm, Hazeldean Rd McD’s.  20% of purchases come back to the school, which will go to buying new library books. Get coupons which are given when you make the purchase.  We raised $300 last year.  We may do one per term.  Nutrition concerns-they have revised their menus, make better choices.

         - Holiday concerts- for JK/SK classes Monday 19 Dec, one session in the morning, one in the afternoon.  Dec 23 is for Gr 1-6.

         - ‘Roots of Empathy’ project:  Mrs. McLaughlin’s class is continuing to participate.

                - Angela Victoria, had a baby in the fall and has volunteered to be the ‘family’ this year. 

         - Holiday food drive: Ms. Hay is taking care 1-14 Dec, collecting food items and tallying/tabulating as part of math class and delivering to Kanata Food Cupboard.

         - Gifted screening and identification for kids in Gr 3, take place week of Jan 16-20; packages will be sent home in December.

         - memo from Glen Stevenson, Principal of Spec Ed: classes 2006-2007, requesting school Council/community input: system class placements, deadline for input should be mid-January; details available Monday 5 Dec at special Board meeting.  They do have a list of recommendations for next year, as far as class being relocated or closing (because not viable).  No changes for English gifted classes.  Changes at Henry Munro Middle School, class will only have 8 students.

6. Teacher’s Report, G. Gauthier-King, S. Denney:

         -G. Gauthier-King: Field trips: Gr 3 to MacSkimming Outdoor Ed Ctr, 8 Dec; social studies program, pioneering. It is a subsidized field trip.  Traditional ‘Medieval Christmas Feast’ takes place 20 Dec for Gr 4’s, in the gym.  Gr 3’s are going to have Pioneer Christmas on 21 Dec.  Holiday sing-song on 22 Dec.  French Book Fair has been booked for 30 & 31 March 2006, will assemble a ‘wish list’ for French books.

         -S. Denney: presented wish list: primary and junior requests together;

                                                - badminton nets, racquets and birdies, $140;

                                                - lunchtime monitors, $200 for one in Dec and another one at end of yr;

                                                - 4 CD players and jack boxes (for multi-headphone plug-in) $440;

                                                - big books, $400, for 10 big books average cost $40, not including taxes and shipping;

                                                - French comic books, $150

                                                - DVD/VCR for SSU, $125

                                                - Social Studies French text books, $500, Gr 3 & 4

                                                Total: $1955.

         -C. Anderson asked about needing money for upcoming Cultural Events; M. Malek said they would check and report back.

         -MOTION to give a cheque for $2100 by M. Wright, seconded by M. Beavington.

7. Ottawa Carleton Association of School Councils (OCASC)

         - M. Beavington gave a hand-out covering topics at 17 Nov meeting: Lice Policy, Healthy Living Policy, etc.

         - Balanced School Day concept: existing day is usually 80-90 min slots of teaching + two 15 min recesses + 1 hr lunch.  In the BSD, there is 100 min of teaching + two 45 min slot breaks.  Being piloted by 4 schools in the board.

                - Mr. Malek said that it was discussed last year but due to other big changes at the school, it was not a good time to consider it.

                -pros: reduces transition time of putting on snow pants and stuff; early start to school day; at one school it was observed that the students had better concentration, easier to focus on one task with less impact from transition; allowed for more clubs; more time for special classes; decreased playground incidents.

                -cons: activities that take a full hour can’t be done; need to work with parents as to what an appropriate meal size would be (lunch divided into two).

         -Gender balanced learning: a pilot program in GR 7 & 8 (GR 8 last yr) at Stephen Leacock to address the different learning styles of boys and girls with regards to math and reading.

                -studies show girls perform just as well in math as boys, but the girls have the perception that this is not true; girls are put in a segregated class, although they do not have an increased ability in math, they feel better about themselves; it may help girls approach future opportunities better such as engineering or sciences.

                - studies show boys have problems with reading; boys tend not to like the ‘classics’ used in literature classes because the classics tend to favour a female audience.  In the segregated class the boys can pick more appropriate novels.

                - M. Malek, JY is doing this with regards to helping boys read.  Judy Emms had a project, run at the Board level.

                      -We looked at our numbers for last year and saw that the larger portion of our junior grades, on the English side, were males.                                      -

                      - We looked at types of books that would capture their interest and the librarian (Julie Aranoff) purchased them with the recommendations of Mary Cox (an expert in literacy and gender).  Ms. Cox came in to talk to the teachers and gave them some instruction.

                      - S. Denney relayed that this project surveyed the students and parents regarding their attitudes, before, during and after the project.  Project was data driven.

         -One School System:

                - Didn’t have meeting for parental input, but have to vote at the January Board meeting;    

                - M. Beavington moved to have a motion to vote or abstain from voting at the next board meeting

                - A. Harrington, MOTION to abstain; not an issue for KIS or OCASC.  We don’t have enough info, it is a legislative issue:  A. Nemec seconded the motion.  No info from the ‘other’ side of what was presented on the One School System so a meeting for parents would have been perceived as supporting the One School System rather than a discussion about the whole issue.

                - C. Anderson asked why Council is being rushed to a vote; A. Harrington replied that the people at the OCASC meeting were expected to vote then and they put it over to the meeting in January. M. Beavington, for political pressure.

-Ontario Municipal Board ruling:

         - from an article in the Kanata Kourier-Standard, 465 hectares have been approved to be turned into medium and low density housing, which equates to approx 4500 homes (Peggy Feltmate).

                -community consultation will be in 2006 and infrastructure in place before 2008.  Neighbouring communities will have input before construction begins in 2008.

         -Planning, affecting the school board: Mike Carson, Supt of Facilities stated that we are in the beginning stages of a comprehensive capital plan.  They are establishing an advisory Cttee with proposed recommendations by the summer. Consultation will be in the spring and fall and final approval in fall 2006.

         -they will be focusing on community schools rather than bussing to more homogenous schools, good news for us

         -there is a very active school council involvement and we should participate too

         -we need to ask Peggy Feltmate where this construction will take place, M. Wright will contact her.                       

8.  New Business.

      -K. Downs: asked if there are any extra agendas? S. Robertson, no.

                      -brought to our attention that there is a program run by the Ottawa Senators, which raises funds for literacy; schools that participate get a free pair of Senators tickets to raffle off.  Some players come in and read, great for motivating boys.  Also get a tape with public service announcements by the players and Lyndon Slewidge singing national anthem (bilingual).  M. Malek will pass on the info.

      -M. Wright: in Carolyn’s absence I’ll report that Food Days are going well.

                         -General Store: -running low on some stuff, needs to buy some items

                                                      -we need a report of what is in the store and promote the items at events.

                                                      - M. Wright made a MOTION to give Carolyn Oullette $30, seconded by M. Beavington.

9.  Next meeting and adjournment.

                - next meeting will be 25 Jan 2006.

                -MOTION to adjourn made by M. Wright and seconded A. Harrington.

Minutes prepared by Ann Kurikshuk-Nemec