School Council June 2016 Minutes
Westminster Woods P.S. School Council June 6, 2016 Meeting
Date Monday, June 6, 2016
Present: Laura, Melanie, Cherise, Tiffany, Diane, Ange, Dawn, Sara Furnival, SaraMontague, Melissa McEachern, Lulu, Akiko, Lucy, Donna, and Heather
Welcome
Meeting called to order at 6:45 p.m. by Laura. Review and acceptance of past minutes. Motion to accept the minutes of May’s meeting by Ange, seconded by Melanie
Sara Montague presented a slideshow on an alternate format for junior sports next year. We are considering developing an intramural sports program that focuses on skill and concept development for primary and junior students. This may mean a team is not picked to go represent the school at a tournament, but it will be more inclusive and more students will be able to participate. There is no consensus yet, but the main goals are as follows:
● increase participation
● increase skill and concept development
● increase opportunity for social skills development through sport
● increase continuity from primary to junior to intermediate
● increase opportunity for leadership within the context of sport/physical activity
● increase flexibility for sports, skills, seasons (align with 7/8)
Sara Furnival presented about the Summer Reading Program 2016 that launched today. There are two ways to participate:1. Join online buzz by contributing to UGDSB’s Summer Reading TwitterFest 2016 using the hashtags #wmwreads and #ugdsbreads2. Fill out a digital ballot when you finish a book this summer. The goal is to create an online community of Westminster Woods readers. Families can:1. Post a picture of their summer reading stack. 2. Tweet about a book they just finished. 3. Post about their favourite summer reading spot.
The logo contest for the summer reading fest began today. Students can submit a logo and one will be chosen and included in the blog post.The digital ballot will be submitted using Google Form. The ballot will ask for the student’s name, book title, author, number of pages in the book, genre, and a star rating for how much the student liked the book. Students’ name will remain private. Students who participate will have their name entered into a draw in September. The number of pages will be tallied for everyone who participates and submits a ballot.
Sara also thanked parent council for helping support the purchase of video conferencing software and equipment, Apple Tv/Chrome Cast. Video conferencing with students has already taken place, and our students are quickly becoming experts and have already started giving tutorials to classes in other schools.
Principal’s Report by Heather Broddy
● Grade 3 and 6 EQAO testing is pretty much completed and went smoothly
● Many year end trips taking place Kindergarteners going to African Lion Safari
● Grade 6 garage sale went very well on May 12th
● Kindergarten Orientation took place on May 11th
● Open house, lots of visitors and activities our families participated in, including the skipping team demonstration.
Upcoming events and Updates:
● Volunteer breakfast for all volunteers June 9th
● Copernicus is providing a pizza lunch for the classes who participated in filming and photos June 9th
● Donna is taking a few of our foot and safety patrols to a luncheon this Thursday June 9th in celebration of their efforts. We are sending 2 students to leadership camp as well as 2 students on an excursion made possible by the Guelph Police
● Intermediate Track and Field June 9th at U of G
● Hack-a-thon in the library on June 13th
● Basketball clinic taking place for our grade 5-8s put on by Guelph Gryphons June 15th
● Junior Track and Field at U of G June 16
● Grade 8’s leave on June 21 for Ottawa for 4 days
● Grade 6’s to Camp Paradise June 21st and 22nd
● Grade 7s go to Niagara Falls on June 24th
● Talent shows taking place on June 20th and June 24th
● Grade 8 Graduation June 27th
● Report cards go home June 28th
● June 29th LastDay of School
Other: Thanks for a great year and a wonderful Family Fun Picnic!
Old Business:
Staff Appreciation Luncheon:We want to repeat the luncheon next year, but move it to earlier in the calendar year
Facebook/Twitter are linked together and also on the school’s website. It has been quite successful thus far.
Family Picnic was a success! We want to book a date for next year so we can book Sweet Temptations earlier and get the Sprinkles truck. The sweet temptations tent sold out of all cupcakes.
PRO Grant:Laura has put in the application for $1,000 to do two nights this coming year. She will submit the final report for this school year.
Sara Furnival agreed to order $650 of parent books with the money remaining from this year.
New Business Events for Next School Year
Thursday, September 22 : Open House in September (after any reorganization). Melanie is going to book the Sweet Temptations cupcake truck during the OpenHouse. Look into food trucks to help families who need to eat dinner after coming home from work and still be at the open house.
Trailblazer service points to grade 8’s who want to help Friday, February 24th Skate Night in Aberfoyle. January 16th Parent Info Night (in lieu of parent council meeting for January). April 3 tentative date for second parent information night.
Thursday, May 4th Family Picnic/Open House. We discussed having it themed for Star Wars given the date. “May the Fourth be with you!”
Tuesday, June 13, 2017 Staff Appreciation Luncheon
Miscellaneous:
Heather placed a request for tree watering over the summer
Committee Reports
Budget: Ange presented the financial update and provided a spreadsheet. Proceeds in September go to Picnic/Community Building Fund.
Laura motioned to rename the SC Other Account to Community Building Fundraising,Cherise seconded.Request a cheque from the Upper Grand because of the RBC Grant money ending up there
Sweet Temptations proceeds goes into the fundraising account.We earned a little over $1343 from the picnic basket raffle tickets. Milk money moves to greening account at the end of the year. Laura motioned to accept the financial statement, and it was seconded by Dawn.
Fundraising 20162017
● QSP magazine fundraiser● Coffee/Tea from Planet Bean (add beans purchase option)● Big Box Cards● Fresh From the Farm needs to be advertised immediately!● Coffee & Cookies before the winter concerts in December. We could pre-order cookies or advertise so parents bring money. Possibly order the cookies from College Heights.
Playground & Greening
● Dawn is running an outdoor cleanup for Sunday, June 26th● We need three quotes for the remainder of the playground plans to proceed with completion ● Cherise brought in two quotes for soccer goal posts. One from Ontario Playgrounds and the other from Gym Equipment Ltd. Approximate costs would be $23,000 to purchase and install three permanent soccer goal posts.
● Heather will email us new ideas for grants to submit to raise money to complete the playground
Community Building & Events:
We discussed the possibility of a school mascot.● Costs for a costume between $3,000$5,000● Name him/her a gender neutral name● Perhaps a beaver or other woodland creature dressed in a lumberjack costume● The mascot could make appearances at assembles and sports days● Promote school spirit● Possibly debut at the Family Picnic in May● Ask student body for ideas and decide as a school● Send out a survey to get opinions. It was noted that when the Trailblazer was chosen to represent the school, it was well thought-out and specific animals were not chosen to represent the school. There was also discussion on the difficulties of getting people to dress up as the mascot, and the upkeep and cleanliness of such an expensive costume is difficult. To be further discussed at future meetings.
Ideas to get more involvement at school council:● Offer a door prize for the 1st meeting● Specific invitation sent home to every parent detailing what we discuss● Survey sent home● Testimonial by new parents who have joined council● List ways you can participate that do not include coming to the meetings● Send out email plugs before every meeting.
Laura motioned to move meetings to the 4th Monday of the month except for September and December. Seconded by Tiffany.
Next Meeting: Monday, September 12, 2016 at 6:30 p.m.
Adjournment: 9:15 p.m.
Categories: School Council