Glen Cairn Parent Council September 21st, 2010 Minutes
Attendance: Julie Drapeau, Brian Herron, Chris Mollison, Scott Blythe, Tanja
Campbell, Pat Furlong, Amy DiRienzo, Paul Warner, Deb Hickey, Mike Hickey
Regrets: Gwen Allingham, Andrea Hoyt
Review of 2009-2010 school council activity: fundraising, purchases, initiatives.
Election of new parent council board
· Chair-Brian Herron
· Fundraising-Gwen Allingham and Amy DiRienzo
· Treasurer-Deb Hickey and Chris Mollison
· Secretary-Julie Drapeau
· OCASC representative-Mike Hickey
· OCDSB representative-Brian Herron
· Communications-Paul Warner
· Picnic lead-Paul Warner
Old business:
1) Air conditioners: Purchase not completed in 09-10 year. Dimensions of four
rooms passed to Amy for her to call around for quotes. Pat to confirm that
OCDSB does not have any restrictions on types of A/C units bought and used
by schools.
2) Outstanding 09-10 wish list items: whisper phone, chalk board, dry erasers, ¼
of funds allocated to sensory room purchases, some books on CD
3) New food guidelines and their impact on fundraisers; school councils and
schools are encouraged to begin implementing new guidelines now ‘in good
heart’. The guidelines are not being enforced this year but will be next year.
4) There is currently a lot of discussion on the principal’s list about finding
appropriate vendors for pizza, as pizza is a large fundraiser and relatively easily
managed by schools. Parent Council to go forward with Pizza Pizza whole
wheat crust pizzas for sale at school. Price to remain at $1.75 a slice.
5) Home expo results: $270 raised in table sales. Most vendors felt that it was
good value for their money. Vendors would prefer an earlier start and finish.
Weather had a negative impact on turnout from community. Parent council
booth held the ballot box for the door prizes, as well as having sign-up slips for
council information. We were able to get 30!! Email addresses without sending
out requests via the students, and increased our visibility in the community.
Several vendors offered to run fundraisers for the school.
6) Purchase of accounting software (Quikbooks) and its licensing has been
approved to $250. Chris to ask her friend to keep an eye out for the best deal
on the purchase. Chris to shadow Deb this year and take it on full time next
year.
7) Principal’s report
i) ARK is moving forward this year, hopefully for implementation in 2012-
redistribution of boundaries in the Kanata south region.
ii) Pat’s budget for this year was delivered and is available to interested
parties. Staff last year did an outstanding job in managing photocopy
costs and created a small buffer to be used this year for school
purchased big ticket items, possibly.
iii) EQAO results are in. Grade three results will not be published as there
are only 13 students in the cohort and board minimums are 20. Grade
sixes did reasonably well in languages and below standard in maths.
There is a School Improvement Plan in the works to remedy the
situation. There are also plans to foster parental involvement to improve
these scores.
iv) Glen Cairn will host six international students this year.
v) Sensory room prepared, now looking at how to determine its best use
with respect to how to decide scheduling and frequency.
8) New business
a) Wish list items for 10-11: the new year has just begun. Teachers are still
figuring out their students’ needs and classroom needs. Pat will ask but
probably no responses for a few months. Magnetic speakers to accompany
A/V cart sort of requested, as well as a possible subsidy to run the Sporty
Kids programme...
b) Hawberry farms jams and jellies is going to move forward. Some discussion
of going through local home based vendors, but since we need as much
revenue as possible, we’ll go directly to the manufacturer.
c) Lump sum to Pat for her discretionary fund was offered and declined until it
is needed at a later date.
d) Silent auction at Holiday Concert to move ahead. We have already received
a gift certificate from Extendedstay Hotels and bracelets from a Silpado
home show. Deb to ask her church friend for a list of her regular donors.
Chris to ask around as well. Items to be held in display case near office.
e) Paul has accepted the task of beginning a blog for Parent Council,
comments de-activated. Parents will be able to know what is going on in
the school without divulging their personal email addresses. We can use it
to take pictures of Silent Auction items, keep parents in the loop about
fundraisers and where to go for more information about what we are doing
and when.
f) Pat has offered to have a PC box on the GCPS homepage for dates of
fundraisers and meetings
g) Parent council initiatives discussed briefly. Chris’ previous educational
involvement had a “Catalyst” programme wherein a professional would
teach a class about their area of expertise, not just a this is what an
engineer does, but hands on showing and teaching how to do something in
that particular field. The Boost your School article in Today’s Parent lists a
whole bunch of initiatives we can take part in.
h) Brian to contact McDonald’s about holding a fundraiser late October, early
November.
i) Sobey’s fundraiser offer to have a Nascar ‘burn donuts’ in the lot then cohost
a BBQ declined
j) Andrea is willing to train someone to take over Campbells’ soup labels. Pat
recommends that we stop doing the labels as the amount of work is
staggering compared to the return of product.
k) Add link to Pace Car programme so that new and returning parents are
aware that GCPS is in fact participating
Next meeting: Tuesday October 12th, 2010.
