Salem PS Council Minutes – September 20, 2022
Salem PS Council Minutes
September 20, 2022
Start 6:33pm
Attendees: Natasha Skerritt, Ashley Switzer, Courtney Ecclestone, Lauren Shelby, Thomas Samson, Tasha Lake, Dhru Patel, Vanessa Cordes
Welcome
Elections:
Co -Chair, Lauren Shelby
Co -Chair, Thomas Samson
Secretary, Vanessa Cordes
Treasurer, Courtney Ecclestone
Fundraising, Andrea Catteau, Lisa Wyatt, and Johanna Hilditch
Yearbook, Vicki Scott Reid
Principals Report: (Natasha Skerritt)
- Welcome to all of you that have come out to School Council this evening. For those of you that I don’t know well I look forward to getting to know you more. This is my fourth year at Salem as a principal.
- Great start to the year. We did not have any reorganization this year which has allowed our students to settle into their new classes quickly.
- We had our first whole school assembly on September 7th in person in our gym. During this assembly I read a story to the whole school. This year’s character education book is called “A Friend like You!”. One of the main themes in the book is that “good friends teach you about yourself and challenge us to be better.” Throughout the year we will be focusing on a variety of aspects of being a good friend.
- We have lots of new staff here at Salem this year and everyone seems to be settling in really well. Mrs. Marson, Mrs Sandiland, Mrs Seifried, Mr Becke, Ms Vaughan, and Mrs Deitrich have all joined our team. We were also lucky to be able to re-hire, Ms. Rowe, and Ms. Bibb in long term occasional positions for the year.. They are loving Salem!
- We have about 269 students in the building this year.
- We are still awaiting the arrival of our 4th portable. We have been told we can expect it in November. In the meantime the grade 3 class is settled into the Learning Commons.
- Arrival and Dismissal is still a really busy time of day at and around the school. The township completed a traffic survey and it was found that upgrades to our crossing are warranted. I was able to speak to the Managing Director of Infrastructure Services in Centre Wellington to see what the plans for improvement were. He explained to me that we are not looking at a crossing guard as there is a lot of difficulty with hiring as well as with reliability. Instead they are looking at putting into a new cross walk with a push button for pedestrians. The push bottom would activate flashing lights and motorists would be required to stop when the lights are flashing. This still needs to go to budget with council which will happen following the election. He did let me know that the earliest we would likely have this in place would be next September. In the meantime they are going to increase the signage and markings on the road and this should happen in the next month or so. We are also continuing to brainstorm other ways that we can improve safety for students.
- There are lots of amazing things happening at Salem. Sports for our Junior students have begun with Soccer and Cross Country being the first few sports of the year. We had an awesome display in the fair this past weekend. Hopefully lots of people were able to pop by and check it out.
- Our school choir will soon get underway. They have already been booked to sing OCanada on January 29th at 2:00.
- Mrs Doerr is excited to get the book exchange underway next week.
- Picture Day is happening Thursday Sept 29. This will also be class picture day as well as individual pictures.
- Orange Shirt day donations will be online starting next week. We were able to purchase Every Child Matters buttons for the whole school. Donations will go towards covering the cost of the buttons with proceeds being donated to Every Child Matters.
- Pizza – We have had a bit of a challenge finding a pizza company able to make us pizza this year. We are currently working with Vitos in Elora to set up a day. We are looking at the possibility of pizza on Mondays. They aren’t able to start until the end of October so in October you should see information coming home about this.
- Currently Salem Spirit Wear is available for purchase on school cash online until October 14th. There is a sizing guide on our school website if you are looking for additional information.
- Subway is also currently available for purchase. Subway day will be on Fridays. September 30th is the first day and it will run till November 18th.
- Open House – Pizza orders are due tomorrow – Wednesday September 21. Open house will run from 5-7 with pizza arriving at 5:00 and the school open from 5:30 – 7:00 for families to visit classes.
- 5 Things emails are one way that we as a school communicate. Hopefully these are helpful to all families. If anyone is not receiving the emails they should contact the office and we will help to figure out why this is happening.
- Student Census – encourage all to complete so that we have enough data that is representative of our school population
- Pottery to Go / Arts event will be happening again this year. Stay tuned for more information.
Treasurer Report: (Natasha Skerritt)
SC – General Account = 498.89 (This account will pay for our school council insurance.)
SC – Nutrition Program = 6304.94
SC – Parent Engagement = 430.81
SC – Playground = 4364.12
SC – Playground Maintenance = 1114.10 (Swing repair still to be completed and paid for.)
Fundraising:
Fundraising plan for the 2022/2023 school year is as follows, with funds intended to go towards future playground upgrades (one large structure or multiple smaller structures) as well as outdoor equipment (balls ect), and supporting students who can afford trips as well as reducing the cost of bussing for student trips.
JD Sweid (Formerly Elmira Poultry): Will run in the new year approx. February or March while weather is still cold enough to accommodate chicken storage for outdoor afterschool pickup.
- Discussed running a fall chicken fundraiser dependent on scheduling but decided that due to possible nice weather we would not go ahead at this time with this.
- Macmillans or Mothers Pantry will be added to the chicken fundraiser to accommodate anyone not interested in chicken. They will run simultaneously..
Raise the Dough: The Domino’s Pizza Raise the Dough fundraiser was a great success for our school last year! We intend to run it again this year once in the fall and once in the spring.
Mabels Labels: This fundraiser is ongoing for Salem Public School families to purchase at their leisure throughout the year. Great for labeling all the things!
Fundscrip: This is a new fundraiser for Salem Public School this year. It is a gift card purchasing fundraiser where every gift card purchased the school will receive funds. The gift cards will come to the school to be distributed to families who purchased. This will run and be distributed in time for the holiday season.
- The school has not heard back from the Canada Post grant that was applied for last year.
- Fundraising funds will also offset bus fees for fieldtrips this year/ support students in affordability of fieldtrips and events.
- Potentially looking at some sort of holiday season event
- for fundraising, council members will meet outside of council to discuss this (ideas were a holiday concert/dance/movie night). More to come.
Other/ New Business:
- A reminder to go out to families that if anyone is still owing for the cost of the 2022/2023 agendas to please check their School Cash online. We still have an outstanding balance of approx. $500 for the 2022/2023 student agendas (grades 1-6).
- We have secured Pottery To Go this year for the children to participate in, more to come on this. Scheduled to happen at some point this fall, with the intent for the finished craft to go home before the holidays.
- Tax receipts are available for any local businesses who are so generous as to donate to the school.
Next Council Meeting November 15, 2022
End 8:07pm
Categories: School Council News