Council Minutes - 18/11/09

Briar hill Junior Public School
Council Meeting Minutes – November 18, 2009

Attendance:
Mary Whittaker, Principal
Nicolas Amores
Paul Dover, Treasurer
Nicolina Amores
Julie McFayden, Secretary
Tyler SteelAleksandar Cvetcovic

1. Welcome

2. Minutes from the previous meeting were approved.

3. Treasurer’s Report – Paul reported a balance of $ 4,083.70. This will increase as there is QSP money and pizza money to deposit.

4. Principal’s report:

- Multicultural Night was reported in the last minutes. The event went very well.

- Picture retake day is November 23rd for those photos that did not turn out well.

- The Remembrance Day assembly went well. We were not able to have a veteran visit the school this year. Mary says she tries to focus on peacekeeping in her assembly address. Guides and Brownies participated in the ceremony.

- The nutrition program is up and running and doing well. We still need help with the snack assembly. Most teachers give the snack at recess. Mary will continue to ask for support in the newsletters.

- ARC – Accommodation Review Committee has identified 10 areas where schools are below capacity and Briar Hill is one of them. Fairbank and West Prep are also under review. The Board is looking at switching to a JK – grade 8 model and are looking at schools that can accommodate. Jeff Hainbach, our superintendent of education met with the staff at lunch today. He advised that it is not a done deal that Briar Hill will close. That is why public meetings are being held. Julie and Paul will be Briar Hill’s parent representatives on the ARC committee. There are four public meetings that all parents can attend. The first one is on December 8th a Fairbank Middle School. The ARC provides recommendations, however it is the trustee that makes the final decision. Our trustee is Howard Goodman. Howard.goodman@tdsb.on.ca.
Parents have a big role to play. They need to voice their opinions if they don’t want the school to close. Our school is old and we are under enrolled which are two factors working against us.

One parent asked if the school was being used for community events. She advised that the ScoutsAbout program is running at the school, however that is all.
Mary also established that we are at about 48% enrolment when asked.

- The Kindness Program is returning on Dec 8 & 9. This is where a lady brings her dog cleo in to teach certain principles to students.

- holiday concert – December 9. Preparations are underway.
A suggestion was made to use the concert as an opportunity to address parents about the school review. All parents were in agreement. Julie agreed to put something together for review at the next council meeting.

7. Uniforms – quite a lot of students have ordered long sleeved shirts.

9. Translation list – Ms. Lynette Aschar Sobbi is putting together a list so that notes to parents whose first language is not English can be prepared in their language. The note would be attached to important notices going home for parents. It would request that they ensure they have it translated.

10. Other business – Jeff Hainbach visited the school today. He says this is a wonderfully literacy rich school. Hi only suggestion was that more student work could be displayed.

11. The next meeting was scheduled for December 9, 2009.