MINUTES St. Luke Nepean Catholic Elementary School Parent Council Minutes October 11, 2016 The meeting was called to order by Krista McMurchy at 6:30pm.

In attendance (Voting Members) Krista McMurchy Lisa Brennan Jen Hodgson Ash Rennie Christine Downs Steven Boucher

In attendance (Non Voting Members) Chris Risto Cindy Bissonnette Natalie Boucher Kara Potter Sandra Rodrigues Monique Stuyt Melinda Peasley

Approval of Agenda Remove “Approval of minutes from June 2016 meeting” as those minutes have been lost. If anyone has any notes from last June’s meeting, please forward. st

Move “Parish Report” to #5 on agenda so Melinda can go to the 1 Communion Meeting. Motioned to approve with modifications by: Steve Boucher Seconded by: Ash Rennie Outcome: Approved

Approval of Previous Minutes Motioned by: Jen Hodgson Seconded by: Christine Downs Outcome: Approved

Parish Report 1. 2.

3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Mass times are Saturday at 5pm and Sunday at 9:30am First Communion Meetings are at St. Monica Parish Hall @ 7:30pm: th a. Tuesday, October 11 for St. Benedict, St. Luke and St. Monica Schools th b. Wednesday, October 12 for MPB, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Schools th c. Saturday, October 15 @ 10am open to everyone st F3 Youth Group Grades 7-12, Friday, October 21 at 7:30pm @ St. Monica Parish Hall th Parish Potluck Supper on Saturday, November 12 in the atrium of St. Joseph HS after the 5pm Mass. Bring your favourite dish to share. th Healing Mass – Tuesday, November 15 at 7pm @ St. Monica Church Enrolment weekend for registered First Communion candidates is October 22/23 at both Masses. If away, simply see the priest at next attended Mass to receive necklace. th First Communion Sheets start on the weekend of October 29/30 .

Business Arising from Previous Meeting None

Chairperson/Vice-Chair Report Pizza Update – orders are at par with last year and we have 38 pizzas/week (up from 36 last year). Profits for Term 1 are $3624 and for the Full Year are $4602 for a total to date of $8226.50. Term 2 comes up in February and we expect approximately $3500 in profit for a total projected profit for the year of $11,726. Last year we made total of $11,000 in profit for pizza. Subway Update – no numbers yet as the orders are still being processed. First Subway day is this Friday. Per Student Allotment  Steve B and Chris R had discussed last year the possibility of doing a per-student allotment for the year instead of having to approve each amount from the teachers as it comes in throughout the year. You break down the profits, divide by the number of students we have, and each class will get that amount based on their number of students and teachers will know that they have that amount from Council to spend. 

If we look at pizza profits alone, we are looking at approximately $19/student. As soon as Subway profits come in, we will adjust this number accordingly.

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If teachers don’t use the total amount allotted to their class, they must return unused portions

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Money to be used for educational items/enhancing student learning – field trips, MASC presentation, Scientists in the School, art project in the classrooms, etc. No concerns for items that teachers will use money for as it all has to be pre-approved by Chris before teachers can go ahead.

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Teachers will know their budget beforehand so they don’t have to go back and forth with Council looking for approval and don’t have to wait for approval on time sensitive items. They can also combine their funds with other classes for items that are more expensive that they want to take part in.

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DE will not be part of the allotment as they have their own funding.

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It was proposed that Council write one cheque to the school and Chris would break it down amongst the teachers and manage each teacher’s “account” as they spend the money. The accountability would all be online. Christine expressed concerns that it would be difficult to track, and receipts would definitely need to be collected in order to be able to back all expenditures up if we are ever audited.

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Chris has done this in others schools so has experience with implementing a program like this. He has spoken to teachers about it and they are supportive of the idea. They will not have to feel guilty about leaving money in the account, they will not have to be apprehensive about asking for money for things as well. He would ask teachers to stay within the budget they are allotted and not ask for anything above and beyond that. It would make it easier to evenly distribute the funds and it’s done at the beginning of the year. A lot of schools do it this way. As our school grows, it’s harder to be able to keep track of evenly distributing the funds to each class throughout the year as the requests come in.

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Christine will play with the numbers and try to figure out the process in terms of receipts, etc to make sure it’s all accountable. Any questions and concerns should be sent by email and we will vote on this at the November meeting.

Voting – Krista wants us to do voting at the table, not by email if it’s at all avoidable. It’s always better to be able to have a discussion about issues/items. Adjustments can be done by email and questions should be brought up by email. Just to clarify, the Spooktacular is not a yearly commitment, just for this year and then we will review it for next year. Constitution – meeting to take place in November with the Committee (Krista McMurchy, Steve Boucher, Lisa Brennan, Sonia Pavone) to finish the changes to the Constitution.

Treasurer’s Report  

There is still an outstanding popcorn cheque to be cashed. PRO Grant extra money has not been cashed.

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One outstanding cheque not cashed from last year’s teacher’s cheques. Updated commitments to include Halloween HST rebate cheque money still to come from Chris Teacher donations still to be done in Cash this year. 21 full time teachers, 7 half time teachers. $100 for each full time, and $50 for each half time teacher for a total of $2450 (we allotted $2500 in the budget). A checklist will be created with each teacher’s name and they will need to sign it to confirm they received the cash. Motion to give teachers cash instead of cheques: Krista McMurchy Seconded by: Steve Boucher Outcome: Approved

Teacher’s Report  

Thank you for the teacher donations – very much appreciated! Re: the Halloween wreath idea requested by the Spooktacular committee, it’s a great idea but the timing is off. Right now, they are gathering data for Progress Reports and still getting to know the kids, which is keeping the teachers very busy. Perhaps for next year, let us know in September and we could possibly find time to fit it in.

Principal’s Report       

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New VP – Cindy Bissonnette who will be half time VP (pm) and half time Grade 3 (am) th New French teacher for Grade 3 coming October 24 . Brand new Grade 2 class moving into Mme Tanguay’s classroom. Mrs. Sunderland will take the 2’s from the 2/3 class and the 1/2 class. That will make two Grade 2’s, three Grade 3’s with 61 students total in Grade 3. Registrations are still coming in but we are at 435 students. Sample jerseys – we are getting new jerseys for the school and we discussed different colours/logo options with a sample shirt brought in Learning Commons – they are putting a rush on getting the Smart Boards up; WE Do sets; Lego stations; Robotics stations; ordered Oz Bots; Michelle Sherwin to prepare a presentation to go through this stuff with us so we know what the kids can do with it; teacher choice for what kids do when they are in the Learning Commons (books and/or stations) Let’s Talk Science program with Ottawa U – each teacher has been enrolled in this program run by Master’s Students who come to the school and do a “Scientist in the School”-type program with the kids. Great feedback from other teachers in other schools. Could save us money on Scientists in the School if it’s as good as that program. Request for us to pre-allocate for Primaries/Kinders as we do for the Juniors with the 67’s game. If we break down the money it looks like this – primaries (165 kids), juniors (165 kids); divide juniors by $1000 pre-allocated funds = $6.06 each; would be the same for the primaries = $6.06 each; kinders 105 students x $6; I would like to reciprocate for every student in the school, outside of the pre-allocated per student amount and make it a yearly commitment. o Motion to approve $990 and $630 yearly commitment for Primaries and Kinders respectively for Luv to Groove – Krista McMurchy o Seconder – Steve Boucher o Outcome – Approved Showed video presentation on Deep Learning – a system that is now Board-wide; has been running for 3 years, slowly making it’s way into all schools. Very well received by teachers who already have ideas of things the students can do for deep learning. An example of this would be the Joyful Jewelry program from last year. Google has all the information you want/need, what is important is what you do with that information. It’s getting our kids ready for the future and getting st a job in the 21 Century.

Catholic School Parent Association Report (CSPA) We need someone to volunteer to go to the CSPA meetings (7:30pm-9:30pm at OCSB) in November, January, February, April, May as we have no official CSPA rep on Council this year rd

November 23 – Indigenous education at OCSB th January 25 - Kindergarten nd February 22 – Safe school updates / School Climate Surveys nd March 22 – TBD th April 26 – Learning Technology Updates – resources available to students and parents th May 24 – Social Emotional Learning Updates 3

Nicki Dunlop ESL/ELD Intake and Assessment Resource Teacher FWC Halimah Shaw MLO Family Welcome Centre Presentation -for new families from near and afar -help families with simple things such as indoor shoes, to info about parent council, workshops and help with navigating the school system -have found the CSPA postcard an easy resource -help with translation -help support new immigrant families -not all newcomers are literate, even translated forms are unable to be read by some newcomers; keep in mind when passing on written information -2 years ago OCSB created a panel of newcomer parents to talk to newcomer parents -asked questions about how to better support, best resources, (see handout) -any student who is 6 months or less new to ON and home language is not English, is referred to FWC Things to keep in mind when planning events: -in other countries school and home are separate, explain parent engagement -host workshops or parents nights to focus on common problems, look for what connects people -can use PRO and PIC to host newcomer events -coffee social after school drop off, less formal than council meetings, allows for connecting and helping newcomers feel welcome. MLO can help spread word David Leach – OCSB Superintendent of Finance and Administration From the Board -173 new teachers hired -57 admin hired -400 more students enrolled than budgeted for -OCSB has seen a higher increase in enrolment than other boards -OSTA added extra staff to handle increased calls in September -found good utilization of online help as well th -school bus safety awareness on Aug 28 saw around 2000 participants -walking school bus routes are being maintained at Chapel Hill, Convent Glen and St Gabriel's -St Benedict is now open -St Francis Xavier's addition is in progress -Sept 13 board meeting has all infrastructure details in the online agenda -new board theme “Sent to be the Good News” -summer programs saw 10,000 students between summer school, camps and international language programs th -EQAO results are in the Sept 13 agenda available online -Gr 6 math scores as a board are still on the decline, but higher than the Provincial average -Province has released a new math strategy, which OCSB will be utilizing -school cash online has seen a board adoption of 63%, with the highest school at 95% -with gov't grants, OCSB has 30 million for the 2016-2017 year for school condition improvement to use; Province granted permission to carry over unused funds from last year as grant added significantly to budget -all grant and allocations are listed in the Sept 13 agenda -Nov board meeting, recommendations for condition improvement for the coming year will be brought forward th -Oct 4 school council financial report due Upcoming Presentations -Dr Stuart Shanker Nov 3 at St Paul Highschool -Dr Jean Clinton Nov 15 at Frank Ryan th

School Council Boot Camp Nov 7 , currently looking like the East End, CSPA will update location th CSPA Executive elections held at Oct meeting. If interested, come to the Oct 26 General meeting, where vote takes place OAPCE meeting has been pushed to November. CSPA is currently a member of OAPCE, and thus, needs representation from each school. To make matters easy, each Council's CSPA rep will also hold the role of

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OAPCE rep and report any information from them to their respective councils. PRO grant list is out Next meeting, Denise Andre will attend, exec elections and a Commissioning

New Business Updates

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Popcorn – starting Friday, October 14 ; pricing is the same ($2/bag) and the cost is the same which gives us profit of a little over $1 per bag; 2 parent volunteers per Friday; new spreadsheet created to keep track of bags sold and monies collected; 6 Grade 6’s dedicated to volunteer for the year for consistency PRO Grant – last year we agreed to partner with SEAS school to host a presentation with speaker Paul rd Davis (Internet Security/Safety, Cyberbulling, etc) to be held on May 3 , 2017 @ St. Joe’s High School th

Year End Event - projected date is June 15 – Krista and Steve getting quotes from carnival companies and food trucks to get the jump on getting the information and booking things in advance Fundraising - one student driven fundraising event ideas (we can have one major and one minor): Poinsettias – made $1050 last year with this fundraiser Almonds – doesn’t fit with the healthy schools Fresh From Farm – working with local farmers in the area to sell bags of carrots/potatoes; 50% to the school, 50% back to the farmer; usually done before Thanksgiving; great for involving the community Shop & Drop / White Elephant Sale – not a student driven, but will look at doing this before Christmas Recyclables made into bricks to use as firestarters; glass bottles plants (kids make them and sell them) st

Vessey’s Bulbs – 50% back to us; Spring orders due by May 1 ; no commitment on our part; Gift Cards Stationary supplies/wrapping paper/cards, etc Fundraise for: updating the garden in front of the school; a buddy bench for the school Halloween Spooktacular       

Committee meeting last Wednesday Will have a DJ on one side of the gym; games; colouring pages; candy jar raffles; haunted house in the maker space; monster racing with monsters from the monster contest; possibly face painting High school volunteers Snacks will be available; pre-selling pizza Krista going to local businesses for donations for prizes Getting decorations donated from the community Chris to send by syneremail and posters to be put up in the school

Santa Parade        

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Parade is November 20 Float theme is The Grinch who Stole Christmas and also tie in with a Catholic theme with singing of regular Christmas Carols, being together as a community On the application form, if we win the bursary, we indicated that we would use the money for the maker space room and a buddy bench The trailer is reserved Asking the community for a Grinch to use on the float So far, none of the money in the budget has been used There will be a craft night for the float and anyone who comes to participate in the craft night will get to go on the float There will be a notice sent out to the parent community to get other volunteers/kids involved other than the regulars who do it every year to encourage other kids to be able to be on the float and other families to get involved 5

Parking Lot Issues to be brought to the next meeting 

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Next Meeting

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Tuesday, November 8 at 6:30pm Motion to adjourn was made at 8:46pm by Krista McMurchy and seconded by Steve Boucher and was passed unanimously.

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