School Council Meeting

1. Welcome and Agenda:

• Meeting chair Madeleine Cruickshank, Minutes Erica Spencer

2. Teach for Canada Presentation

• Teach for Canada is an organization that connects teachers from southern Ontario with positions in remote First Nations communities.
• Representatives: Cecilia and Kyle
• Kyle: Teach for Canada exists because First Nations communities with no road access have had extremely high turnover (100%) for teachers and/or difficulty getting teachers.
  • The children’s education suffers because of it.
  • Seeks to make north-south connections between teachers and students
  • They recruit teachers, prepare them for the north and support them while they’re there for an agreed 2+ years.
  • Partnership with First Nations leaders, who interview and select teachers themselves.
  • High school completion rate in these communities is only 5%, so TFC wants to inspire more high school students to graduate and study education.
  • 95% of teachers finished the year and 80% went back.
• Kyle shared some stories about the educators in the north.
• Q: Where is your funding from?
  • Kyle: 5 or 6 wealthy families have donated about 50% of the funds.
  • The other half from the five banks.
    • They’ve made a conscious choice not to receive money from resource extraction companies b/c of history for First Nations.
    • Also not eligible for money from INAC.
• Alana would like for classrooms to work/partner with classes in the north. Can school council donate some portion of fundraising to Teach for Canada?
  • Connects to the other indigenous learning happening at Garden this year.
• Kyle noted how sometimes people in the north feel that people in Toronto don’t know/care about life in the north.
• Kelly asked how to donate?
  • Can donate through website: https://teachforcanada.ca/en/donate

3. Council Update (Madeleine)

• Madeleine attended a school council 101 presented by TDSB.
  • Learned which things need to be updated. (ex. bylaws)
  • Define our council and make the info public.
• PIAC: They ask every school to prepare a school statement of needs, which works as a living document.
  • What makes Garden unique and what we need at school.
  • Need a parent to take that on, engage with parents and find out what our needs are.
• Fundraisers:
  • Spirit Wear
    • Will set up in foyer to try on sizes.
    • Norm Chew has put together new items.
  • Pizza lunch.
    • Katey Witt is volunteering to coordinate pizza lunch.
  • Garden Variety is coming soon.
    • So far have sold $1,000 worth of tickets.
  • Gingerbread Raffle
    • Katherine to organize.
    • 13 or 14 kits and then raffle the houses. Winners drawn at Sing-a-Long.
• We need to pick a date for the Holiday Sing-a-Long.
  • Jennet Lees to coordinate
  • Dec. 20th Art night for primary not same night as sing-a-long.
• Silent Auction:  Organizers Sara, Natalie, Erica.
  • Separate silent auction from fun fair.
• Community events:
  • Primary movie night next Thursday at 6:30.
    • Kids have picked Minions.
    • Pizza for sale and popcorn
• Parents Reaching Out grant: Two outstanding grants available
  • 1. Handbook. Kelly’s students are working on it.
  • 2. Anxiety, stress, and mental health workshop.

4. Treasurer’s Report: (Zoe)

• Pumpkin Patch $4,000+ so the net takeaway is about $2500.
• Carryover from last year was $25,000, so working budget is $41,000.
  • $4,000 of unallocated funds at the moment.

Options for Spending:

1. Ms. Z has requested $1600 for accompanist, musical instruments and repair.
2. JK/SK theatre performance from The Little Red Theatre. $800
3. Ms. Schultz pottery 1/2 day workshop for grades 1-3 $1672.
   • Each class gets to make something, in time for Mother’s Day.
4. Ms. Cox is running the Outdoor Education program.  
   • $1,000 for equipment like books, magnifying glasses, and a music area.

Discussion around the question of fundraising/supporting Teach for Canada.

• Kelly suggested matching a donation, ex. if we buy ukuleles for our school, we can also buy for a classroom in the north.
• Also students can organize a fundraising effort. Council can match.
• Linda mentioned Parentbooks on Harbord. Create a resource library for parents?

Katherine suggested parking the 1,000 for the Outdoor Education program and thinking about it a bit more.

• Perhaps try to get more community donations?
• Yvonne suggested giving Ms. Cox a smaller amount to get started.

Motion: Approve $200 for the Kindergarten Outdoor Education program. L

Motion: Approve money for Ms. Zampiero for accompanist, instrument repair.

• Lisa motioned, Katherine seconded.
• Instrument purchase to be parked for now

Alana suggested asking parents to contribute half the cost of the art program for Little Red Theatre

Some discussion around whether the arts funding is equitable.

• Plans for Art Night. The primary art night is in December and Junior art night in the second half of year.
• Madeleine mentioned that we have tried to organize arts, science and physical education for each division.

Motion: Approved costs for Little Red Theatre. Seconded and approved.

Motion: Approve 1/2 of the funding for the pottery program. Seconded and approved.

Q: Wondering about the outdoor program. Can they take out iPads, etc?
Alana: Yes, they will be able to use iPads in the outdoor program.

5. Ward 7 Update: Katherine

Two Main Topics

1. Equity of access/allocation of resources.

• Identified 7 areas to consult with parent community on equity.
• Huge project, just started.
• Ask parents to go online and fill in questionnaire.
• On FB page provide link to parents.

2. Renewed math strategy.

• Across TDSB math results in EQAO still not good.
• Lots of resources for parents online.
• Goals are 60 minutes of math every day
• These online resources to be provided through email and the Facebook page.

Q: Who is our math leader?
A: Alana is. Alana described her math background.

• We will have a math lead, but haven’t chosen this person yet.
• We have a math coach to consult.
• The majority of teachers have an arts background and need to learn new techniques to teach math and get away from textbook-driven teaching.

Garden is hosting the Ward 7 meeting in January.

6. Communications update: (Sara)

Sara and Lisa are the elected communications coordinators.

• Mostly communicate through two platforms: Facebook and the council website.
  • Password protected login is a barrier. Needs to be fixed on website.
  • Website needs to be more user friendly but we can add lots of stuff to it.
• Volunteer sign-up is needed.
• Goal to streamline Alana’s message and Council notes, so parents receive one email instead of 2.
  • Everything going out in emails will be on website.

Q: Lisa: Should we send the request for supplies for Ms. Cox’s outdoor education program through again?

7. Principal’s Report: (Alana)

Principal’s Update:

• Projects working on: new curtains in gym, new floor in library, office space upstairs converted.
• The backyard was paved, but the pooling of water is still there so it may be ineffective.
• The old quilts have been removed. (Made by a past generation of Garden students) We will keep one for historical reasons.
  • The panels have been painted white and the students will create indigenous paintings under the guidance of Philip Cote.
• Progress reports will go home Nov. 15th and the interviews will be in evening or on the PA day.
  • Alana encourages everyone to touch base with teachers.

Safe and Caring Schools Committee: Linda Umezawa, a student rep, and Mrs. Bell to create positive space.

• New duty schedule, entry routine,
• Hoping to meet in November. A lunch meeting monthly?
• Lunchroom: Tried out having only one sitting, but have gone back to 2 sittings.
  • Too busy and too loud.
  • Alana was hoping to create a quiet room.
• We now have a half-time special needs assistant in the afternoon.
  • Ms. Pollack in morning and the SNA in afternoon.

Q: Can parents volunteer at lunch?

A: (Alana) It’s not permitted as it is a unionized job.

Q: What happens indoors in bad weather?

A: The students remain inside but it’s not very enjoyable for anyone.

Budget:

• Alana went over all items in her budget.
  • Added $50 to each teacher’s budget
  • Hoping to buy more iPads for primary
  • Ms. Zampiero wants to increase technology use in music
  • Alana gives credit to the council for the money fundraised and provided to the school.

Q: Why do FDK classes get the same amount of money when they have more students?

Some discussion followed around why money spent is different for the different ages.

• Murals will probably be more than projected, somewhere around $8,000

Alana wrapped up her budget information.

We ran out of time to discuss EQAO scores. Will have to address at the next meeting in November.