School Council Meeting

Council Update (M. Cruickshank)

Garden Variety

• Have sold 3 to 4 tables so far

• Need people for set-up and take-down

Movie Night

• First one on October 26th

  • Need help selling pizza 6:00 to 6:15

• Next movie end of November

 

PRO Grant

• We got it. Using funds for STEM night

Class Parents

• Now have them for all classes

 

Spirit Wear

• Coming at end of the month

• Suggestion: grad gear

 

Queen Victoria PS

• Discussion around support for them since loss of model school status.

Ward 7 Update

• Next meeting Nov. 21st at King George

Treasurer’s Report (W. Hammond)

• Bank balance: $25,631

• Went over funds budgeted and expected fundraising this year

• Each teacher has $400 allotted for needs

• $200 for Science

• $13 per student for field trips - all primary students went to Andrews Scenic Acres

Pot of Gold and Projects Funded to Date

• Chawla $411 artist and water-colours

• Baigent $215 art supplies

• $800 paid to Victoria Fuller of Little Red Theatre to help with musicals - total budget of $2200 for 2 musicals this year

Wendy attended a financial seminar and learned that money has to be held separately. The money has to be kept at the TDSB. (Madeleine commented that’s often not what’s happening in practice.)

Alana would like to earmark money for revitalization of the yard. Long-term plan. (ex. benches, astroturf)

• Astroturf required but we need to sell the $100,000 underground sprinkler system first. Council will investigate funding options through TDSB, etc.

  • How much would this cost? Can we obtain funding through outside agencies?

• Doug commented that we can break up money into allotted for this year or next year.

• Alana says for a big project usually the money has to come from elsewhere. (ex. Jessie Ketchum with The Four Seasons build - $1,000,000)

• Kelly noted that maybe we need to create a wishlist for these items

• Linda suggested that the Grade 5 and 6 students do surveys to discover what students/teachers want at the school.

  • Linda U. will connect with Madeleine about arranging for room 207 to collect data on school needs....stakeholders students, staff, parents

Parent Engagement Grant

• All schools get this if they apply, simply submit application and can receive $500 to increase parent engagement

  • Use it or lose it each year.

    • We could use it for the Sing-a-Long night, etc.

Approval of New requests for Funds

• Field trip to Kortright for 204, 205, 206, and 207.

  • 100 students x $13/student

• Wendy also bought Quick Books

Principal’s Update (A. Hardy)

• Progress reports going home Nov. 14.

  • Parent interviews Nov. 16th and 17th (evening and PA day)

• Staircase landing garden has gone ahead. Andrea M. helped with the plantings.

  • Kids are researching best plants for the area.

  • Light to help plants grow in place

• Safe and Caring Schools Committee: no parent has come forward yet for volunteer, but Kat A. could be the person. (As Equity Coordinator)

• Still waiting for strings instructor. No responses to  posting as of yet

  • Alana would prefer it to be during school hours

  • Q: Are strings the only option for musical instruments?

    • A: We are doing drumming with Qwazi, but the instruments we have are strings.

  • Linda commented that we had drums in the past, but had no place to store them, and ended up selling the drums because of this.

  • Q: What’s the cost of the strings instructor?

    • Some discussion around the legality/union piece of having a strings instructor. It’s not just an extra-curricular.

Budget

Alana went over the budget from TDSB site. She sat down with 3 classroom teachers to go over this budget and to discuss what we need.

• Added to the technology budget.

• Added to the supply teacher PD fund.

Alana and 4 teachers attended the Rotman School of Business, for a course in Innovative Thinking. (ex. pro-pro charts) That kind of session is valuable but costly.

Q: Can parent fundraising help teacher development?

A: No, you can’t pay for the education side of things, but you can pay for field trips, etc. (Parents will have to pay for field trips from now on as no longer within school budget to pay)

Q: What are Special Events? (listed in budget)

A: The indigenous paintings from last year, for example. This year we’re going to do a clan pole. That will be in staircase. With Philip Cote again.

Q: What’s the final enrollment number?

A: 269

• Some discussion around telephone costs

Q: Do we get the interest from the budget?

A: No, it sits at the TDSB for us.

• Discussion around technology spending.

  • Alana has purchased projectors, smart boards and iPads for the school.

    • Surface computers: attached to a particular student and the board provides them for free for those students.

    • Maybe we could beef up Chromebooks. 10 laptops and 10 Chromebooks.

      • Junior teachers use them a lot. Discussion about chromebooks and why they work for school.

EQAO

Alana feels we did well. The only area of disappointment was the 77 in Math for the grade 6. But we are up substantially from 68 the year before. Happy with results.

The board did poorly, as did the province. Alana felt the math was pretty easy this year.

M: How many years have they been doing EQAO?

A: A long time, 15 years.

Madeleine commented that at the Ward 7 meeting, they talked about the EQAO results. Wondering which strategies helped those cohorts if there was an improvement.

A: You’re applying basic skills on more complex math in grade 6. The problem with math is trying to teach kids how to be mathematical. The rote way we learned isn’t effective.

M: Year after year, the numbers are bad. What can we do?

A: There’s a systemic problem that very few teachers actually studied math in school. They love teaching writing, etc. But when they get to math, they’re not comfortable.

Q: Shouldn’t there be more math learning/how to teach in teacher’s college?

A: Yes, it goes back a long way. Needs to go back to teacher’s college.

Some discussion on how teachers need to look at teaching math. Down the road, will take streaming out of math in high school. (Academic, Applied)

M: Does memorization still have a place?

A: There’s a balance.

Q: Can we bring in things that are fun and mathy? To even the playing field?

A: Robotics, chess, financial literacy. Students can try Khan Academy, etc.

Some discussion about tutoring programs and whether kids benefit from them. Alana feels problem-solving math is the way forward. Some discussion about whether this is being implemented in a way that helps. Alana feels we can do more but we are on an upward trend.

Focus for juniors this year is math. Erika Lloyd is coming in to co-teach. Alana is co-teaching.