School Council Meeting

Toronto Marlies Fundraising (Paul)

• Paul explained how the scheme works. They sell us the tickets for a discounted price, for a specific date, and council adds a couple of dollars per ticket for fundraising.

  • Also possible to just do a school spirit day.

• Incentives: if a certain number of tickets are sold, the school choir can sing the national anthem or we could have a family skate on ice before the game.

• Online sign up. Could be a school day or a Saturday/Sunday afternoon.

• He has flyers to distribute.

• Can also donate items for Silent Auction.

• Could be at Ricoh Coliseum or ACC. (Limited number of games for ACC)

Madeleine: How many tickets do we have to commit to?

Paul: We organize events for small schools, or up to 700 tickets.

M: How much would we have to price the tickets for?

P: They’re usually from $13 to $20. You can seat everyone together.

• Alana commented that it might be nice to have on the weekend to include more family members.

• Madeleine to follow up with some possible dates.

Council Update (M)

MOTION: Approve minutes from previous meeting. (M) Seconded. (Sara)

Fundraisers and Events for Next Year

• TFSS (Toronto Foundation for Student Success) takes 5% of donations. Enables parents and community members to donate any amount they like.

  • Done through the Canada Helps website, we can put in suggested amounts

• Potlucks: we will do two or three.

• Pizza lunch: we will stick to just pizza next year and begin earlier.

• Movie Nights: Plan to put 4 of them in the calendar.

• Curriculum Night BBQ in September

• Pumpkin Patch to be held on October 21st or 28th.

• Garden Variety. Possible dates: November 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th

• Fun Fair scheduled for May 26th, 2018.

  • We need a new lead as Eli can’t take it on again.

Elected Positions

• All current members to return in same roles except Zoe.

  • New treasurer required

Initiatives for 2017-18

• Apply for PRO grant for a family STEM night

• TDSB enhancing equity task force.

  • Survey done to describe the equity environment at school.

• School Statement of Needs.

  • Council has to put together (there’s a form to submit to superintendent)

• Garden parents are interested in: Math Programming, like an after-school club. More math content needed.

• Alana commented that she may know a program on financial literacy. (After-school club) This is a maybe for next year.

  • Kumon or Spirit of Math is not an option

• Some discussion about robotics club.

Days of Significance: (Kat A.)

• Kat feels the children at Garden need to be more aware of certain days of significance. (ex. Orange Shirt Day)

• Alana responded in defence of what Garden has done to become more inclusive and to look at minority populations throughout the year.

  • Focus on indigenous populations and the work with Philip Cote.

• Some discussion around how we can improve on this front for next year.

• Some suggestions of special events we can look at:

Orange Shirt Day

Day of Pink

Lunar New Year

African Heritage Month

Pride Month

• M. suggested making the conversation bigger, by looking at different field trips, or booking different performances.

Treasurer’s Report (Zoe)

• Update on fundraisers.

• Discussed apples through Foodshare.

• Discussed retirement gift for Officer Eric.

• Teachers spending:  Most teachers have spent their funds this year.

  • Some teacher spending is over their limit. (S. Goetz) Are we okay to take money from pot of gold to cover costs?

  • Ms. Lawson put in a request for painting materials. $150

MOTION: Approve spending requests. (M) Seconded. (Sara)

• Spending for next year:

  • Alana wants to create a sensory room as we have an available room.

  • Unspent dollars to carry forward, roughly $20,000

  • Budget request items: Ms. Zampiero would like to fund musicals (both junior and primary) and would like to expand ukulele program.

  • Ms. Childs: Dance instruction to continue for Grades 4-6.

  • Ms. Cox: Forest of Reading books.

  • Mrs. Murray: Two Scientist in the School visits for kindies.

  • Technology spending?

    • Maybe microphones for musicals

• Spending for a big ticket item:

  • Turf for the yard a possibility.

  • All of the other neighbourhood schools are getting it.

  • Have to have some idea how much it would cost.

• Madeleine mentioned that another option would be to give some money to another school like Parkdale or Queen Vic. Some discussion around whether the parent community/other school councils would like this idea.

  • We could also donate tickets for a Marlies game to another school

• Alana would like to work on art installations. Or to bring in more performances.

MOTION: Approve skeleton budget, and revisit in fall. (M) Seconded. (Sara)

Principal’s Report (Alana)

• Report cards to go out with room numbers only, not teachers’ names.

  • Ms. Swail will return. Ms. Baum may come back and Ms. Hortzman also.

  • Ms. Cundari won’t be returning. Ms. Bowman will be leaving as well.

• An additional SNA (special needs assistant) will be here.

• A new lunch-room supervisor is coming from Annette.

• Renos: kindergarten yard are continuing.

• Other renos: Safety accommodations for a new student who requires some alterations to accessibility.

• New stage curtains will be arriving in fall.

• $1500 raised for indigenous community. (Michelle Bell’s class sold jewellery)

• Final numbers for next year will be 261.