School Council Meeting Minutes – January 10, 2024

Posted January 24, 2024

James McQueen School Council Meeting Minutes – January 10th, 2024

  • Welcome

In Attendance: Deanne Prins, Lija Tovell, Amy Shields, Bronwyn Tolmie, Seanna Murphy, Erin Longworth, Shelby Isaacs, Corey Saunders

  • Land Acknowledgement
  • Principal’s Report 

We have had a great first couple of days back since the winter break! 

  • Sincerest thanks to our James McQueen community for their generosity in donating gift cards prior to the break. We were able to provide a wonderful Christmas to three of our families.
  • We were thrilled to welcome families to our Carol Sings the week before the break. It was a full house and good to be together as a community.
  • Students learned about the many celebrations taking place in December which included, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, and Christmas
  • In December, we welcomed FI planning teacher Kierstin Lee to James McQueen who is currently filling in for Mme terHaar. 

In the next couple of months we look forward to:

  • On January 17, we will be having a guest speaker and UG student, Amaya James, sharing her book “Afro No” with classes.
  • Planning a Winter celebration for families in February.  Details to follow.
  • Pottery-to-Go the week of February 5.  All students will be painting a fish.  Thanks to School Council and a private donor, this will be fully funded for students.
  • January 26 is a PD day. Teachers will be writing report cards.
  • Parents will be accessing Term 1 Report Cards online and further details will be sent out.  Reports will be available online beginning February 15.
  • Kindness Day Dance taking place during the school day on February 14, organized by our staff.
  • Continuing with yogurt, break club, pizza, and milk days.  Thanks to Ange Billings for organizing our Food and Friends program, including yogurt days and a big thanks to the many parent volunteers and corporate volunteers from Ecclestone financial who help out on yogurt days.  Thank you also to Mrs. Mackenzie for organizing our pizza and milk days and adding BarBurrito to the list.  We’ll be trialing this Feb. 6.

As a staff, we are continuing to focus on literacy and numeracy.  We are fortunate to have been given significant support from the board to close gaps in reading.  We had an Early Reading Teacher in the fall half time supporting Gr. 1 and 2 students. We also had a math support teacher working with our gr. 3 students..  We now have a full time Early Reading Teacher for the next 10 weeks supporting students in grades 1 and 2 in both French and English.  We also have Emma Whittaker, one of our parents, who has started as our Reading Tutor in both French and English.  This position is 1:1 and continues until mid May.

A big thank you to Council for the purchase of 5 new ipads that went straight into a Gr. 1 FI class who had no updated ipads.  Merci beaucoup!

Kindergarten Registration has opened and 44 JKs have signed up already.

  1. Author Visit

Eric Walters is coming May 8th in the morning.  Full fee is $678. Council approved covering this cost.  

  1. Black Heritage Month event

Baba Williams will be coming (in April) for drumming sessions (3 sessions = total of $1485).  We will apply for a grant for $1000 through the Parent Involvement Committee (PRO grant).  Council approved covering the balance.  If the grant is not covered, we will charge $4 per student to cover the cost. 

  1. Treasurer’s Report 

$78 out for food bank donation, $518 coming in from School Swag.  $1000 out for the mud kitchens that CWDHS built.  Current balance is $7400 (plus some in the Upper Grand Learning foundation).

  • Upcoming Movie Nights: 

Thursday, February 29th: Clifford The Big Red Dog

Tuesday, March 5th: The Lego Movie

Deanne will send out a Google Form for people to submit attendance; Popcorn will be donated; Donations will be accepted for the “Live Free” campaign.  

  • Spring Fling Planning

To do: Bronwyn will be the contact person for donations; Seanna will draft a “save the date” advertisement; Lija will find space for donations to be received.  Other schools have done online bidding for silent auctions; Amy will contact someone who knows the system to help us set it up.  

Bronwyn is cleaning up the list of potential donors.  When finished, people can sign up for who they want to contact about donations.  

Shelby will ask a contact at the high school about making pancakes.  Seanna to ask for GF supplies.  

Committees are: Volunteers (Lija); Food (Amy); Silent Auction (Bronwyn); Games (Erin)

 

Categories: School Council