Council Minutes - 21/04/10

Council Meeting Minutes – April 21, 2010

Attendance:

Mary Whittaker, Principal
Julie McFayden, Secretary
Paul Dover, Treasurer
Bernadette Ryan-Phillips


The minutes of the last meeting were approved.

Treasurer’s report - The current balance is $2693.53. The deposit for Fiesta 4 Kids went through. Reptilia’s payment was not yet processed.

Principal’s Report:

Boys and Girls Club is going well. There are about 43 students registered.

Literacy morning went well. The storyteller was very well received.

Timetables are all completed for next year. Supervision schedule and prep time has been sorted out. There will be no music program in the upcoming year resulting from the loss of Mr. Steacy and Ms. Kim. Mary advises that music will still be taught but won’t be as comprehensive a program. Julie asked about the option of bringing in an outside person once a week paid for by parent council. Mary says she will have to look into whether that would be allowed.

AKA dance performance – the performance consisted of two dancers who told a story through dance. Mary was not present, however heard it was very well received.

Do Respect – performance is on Friday.

BOOST is on April 29th.

Library visit – For Asian History Month the Grade 2s and 3s will walk over to Maria A. Schuka Library on May 4th to have henna put on their hands. They will also hear about the history culture and traditions.

The Kindergarteners will be going to Pioneer Village on May 13th.

Welcome to Kindergarten on May 20th.

Scouts About will be planning a field trip to their camping grounds for a day.

Fun Fair:
- Julie will prepare volunteer form
- Bernadette will contact volunteers to ensure they know what they’ve signed up for
- Mary will call Lisa Tobio at the Seniors Centre to ask what they may be able to do
- Mary will contact the guidance councillors at Vaughan Rd. and York memo for postings.
- Mary will ask the neighbours across the street for BBQs again this year.
- We need someone to buy stuff.
- Julie will talk to Dollarama manager re donating toys
- Bernadette will talk to No Frills.
- We need to start buying items. Council members will start looking at flyers and specials
- We need someone to pick up and drop off stuff
- Paul will check back-up records to find out quantities and expenditures from last year’s fun fair.

Council went over a checklist of food/beverage items we will be needing. These were as follows:

Food:
Hot dogs – beef, chicken and veggie dogs
Freezies
Ice cream bars
Juice boxes (check costco)
Pizza
Sodas (donated by No Frills last year)
Water (check costco)
Ice (Esso – Bernadette)
Sobeys ($10 last year)
Bake sale (by parents)

ARC

Council talked briefly about a Briar Hill meeting following up from the last ARC meeting. Howard Goodman will attend and go over his JK-3 multi-use proposal and answer any questions parents may have. The meeting was confirmed for May 13, 2010.

Suggest follow up meeting May 5 and 19.

Briar Hill on CTV News

Parents fight to stop school closings

CTV New article and video coverage

New Briar Hill Proposal

The following letter was sent by Trustee, Howard Goodman to Chris Spence, Director of Education today. It outlines an alternate proposal that would keep Briar Hill open. Please review for your information. The proposal is also provided below.

Dear Chris

Rather than close Briar Hill PS, it seems possible to rebuild a new Briar Hill K-3 school within the budget proposed for renovations to other schools to accommodate the Briar Hill students.

In addition to keeping a valued neighbourhood school open, it also appears that this option would allow us to:

- dramatically reduce safety concerns caused by closing Briar Hill and raised by the ARC,

- preserve specialty program spaces at Fairbank, and

- retain the possibility of having West Prep go to K-8 sometime in the future.

I have attached to this email detailed comments arising out of the recently completed Dufferin-Eglinton ARC. The options that I raise in my comments are fully aligned with the findings of the ARC and address some problems created by the necessary division of the area into several ARCs, but they are at odds with the recommendations of the Dufferin-Eglinton ARC.

I ask that all the issues that I raise in my comments be explored in depth as part of the staff reports that will be coming to Board in June.

Best of all it would preserve a TDSB presence in an underserved area of the city.

I recognize that these options need further investigation in order to see if there are any hidden problems with them that I have not identified. It is this detailed analysis that I am requesting, so that we have all the needed information in front of us when we make our decision in June.

In the service of schools and students,

Howard

PS. Could you please have the attached comments distributed to all the members of the ARC and posted on the Dufferin-Eglinton web-page. Many thanks.

PROPOSAL:

April 19, 2010

To: Dr. Chris Spence, Director of Education, Toronto District School Board
CC: Members of the Dufferin-Eglinton ARC & TDSB Trustees
FROM: Howard Goodman, TDSB Trustee, Eglinton-Lawrence

RE: COMMENTS ON THE DUFFERIN-EGLINTON ARC

Dear Director Spence

Under TDSB’s Accommodation Review policy, once the Director has received the report from an ARC, Trustees may provide comments on the ARC’s recommendations to the Director. I am taking an opportunity to provide you and my colleagues with my comments on the Dufferin-Eglinton ARC report that you received last week concerning Briar Hill, West Prep, and Fairbank Middle.

As you know, we will be making decisions that will have long-lasting significant effects on students, families, and whole communities for decades to come. I believe that we must take every reasonable effort to find the best possible balance between all the factors that confront us.

The ARC recommended closing Briar Hill, and turning Fairbank Middle into a K-8 school. A minority report was filed by ARC members objecting to these recommendations.

ALTERNATIVE SET OF OPTIONS TO BE EVALUATED

I write to ask that, in your report to the Board on the Dufferin-Eglinton ARC, you include a detailed evaluation of the following option:

1. that Briar Hill become a K – 3 school incorporated into a redevelopment of the Briar Hill site with residential or commercial space above the school,

2. that Fairbank Middle become a K – 8 school (see item A below),

3. that West Prep continues as a K – 6 school for the time being, and that staff examine the feasibility of West Prep becoming a K-8 school.

I believe that this action more closely meets the goals set out by the ARC, and would contribute more funds to TDSB’s capital account than the option recommended by the ARC. The minority report submitted by the Briar Hill ARC members requests that the K-3 option for Briar Hill be considered more fully, as it “was not given fair consideration” during the ARC process.

Further, I ask that you include in your report an analysis and recommendation concerning each of the following:

1. Restoring the old DB Hood catchment area to the newly restructured Fairbank Middle K-8 school (K-5 and K-6 students in this area are now being served by Fairbank Memo and JR Wilcox), in keeping with a suggestion from the ARC that was beyond their mandate to make as a recommendation
2. Turning Fairbank Middle into a grade 4 to 8 school (this would mean that the catchment area changes described in A above would not be needed, and no significant changes would be needed to the building)
3. The wisdom of offering senior elementary grades (7 and 8) in both JR Wilcox and Fairbank Middle, given how close the two schools are to each other
4. Initiating, at the earliest possible date, an ARC to address the future of Fairbank Memorial school, which will have an impact on both Fairbank Middle and the schools in the Keele-Eglinton ARC to the west of Fairbank Memo.
5. Reviewing the recommendations from all the ARCs now under consideration in order to ensure that the actions that you will be recommending make sense across the boundaries of adjacent ARCs and with neighbouring schools outside the ARCs
6. What space will be needed in the schools currently under review to accommodate increased enrolment due to the marketing and retention efforts that you plan, and how this might affect the ARC recommendations
7. The likely effect on Briar Hill enrolment of the introduction of extended day services to students as part of the Province’s Early Learning Program policy.

GENERAL COMMENTS ON THE Dufferin-Eglinton ARC

In keeping with our policy, I was a non-voting member of the Dufferin-Eglinton ARC. Throughout the process I listened carefully to the comments from the community and the deliberations of the other ARC members.

I greatly respect and appreciate the work done by community members and our staff on the ARC. They did their work as well as possible under the limitations that we placed on them. It was a pleasure to have spent time with them during the past six months.

No comments or recommendations that I make here should be taken to imply any level of criticism of the ARC members. Quite the contrary. The ARC members and the community at large provided much valuable insight into local conditions, and our staff members listened to this insight attentively and worked hard to provide all the information requested of them.

My interpretation of our policy and the Ministry regulations is that Trustees are not to influence the ARC’s recommendations. In particularly, Trustees are not to advocate for their preferred options. While I was active in providing background information, clarifying our policies, and helping to ensure that the full implication of options were clear, I took great care to avoid arguing for or against any of the options being considered.

Finally, throughout the ARC process I and members of our staff made it clear to all those participating that the:

- most important part of the ARC report was the insight into local conditions

- recommendations developed by the ARC were recommendations and not binding

- Staff report might differ from the ARC report, and

- Board would be making the final decisions regarding the future of these schools, and that these decisions might be different from both the ARC and Staff recommendations.

MAJOR ARC FINDINGS

Among the major local issues that I heard time and again from both community members and ARC members were:

- concerns about the safety and practicality of young children traveling from the current Briar Hill area south to Fairbank Middle (hazardous left turn into Fairbank, crossing Dufferin, narrow sidewalk along Dufferin, distance)

- the desire to maintain access to the specialized spaces and programs currently available in Fairbank Middle

- that space remain available in West Prep to allow potential private school students to return to West Prep and to possibly allow West Prep’s expansion to a K-8 school

- the value of the small school experience to young children school in their early school years

- that the major reason for Briar Hill’s decline in enrolment in the last few years has been the absence of effective day care serving Briar Hill.

All of these were expressed clearly in both the ARC recommendations and the minority report.

Despite the ARC articulating these priorities, they have recommended an option that makes it unlikely that any of these would be realized. The flaws in our process are reflected in the disconnect between the priorities that they stated and the option they recommended.

Again, I believe that the recommendations that I am making would meet most of the goals set out by the ARC, and would generate at least as much new money to our capital account as the ARC option.

RATIONALE FOR EXAMINING A NEW K-3 BRIAR HILL WITHIN A REDEVELOPED SITE

1/ The Briar Hill site, which fronts on Dufferin, is ideal for a multi-story residential or commercial building incorporating a school, daycare, and early learning services into the first floor or two of the building. It may even be that having a school in the building would increase the value of any residential development above the school, and attract a new stable TDSB school population to the area.

2/ Staff estimate that it would cost $3.6M to add classrooms to West Prep and Fairbank Middle to accommodate the Briar Hill students. It is likely that the cost will be higher than $3.6M, as the current estimate includes neither changes to the traffic flow at Fairbank Middle (to deal with some of the serious safety issues) nor the preservation of the lunch room at West Prep, both of which were raised by the ARC. It is therefore possible that the cost of a new school would be less than the costs to close Briar Hill.

3/ Making Briar Hill a K-3 school in a new development would preserve a much needed social space in the heart of an area that is already under-served, and provide an opportunity for a full-service school to be built, including space for the Early Year Program currently housed in a commercial plaza directly across the street from Briar Hill.

4/ Building a new K-3 school at Briar Hill will eliminate many of the safety problems created by sending children as young as four years old across Dufferin to the Fairbank site.

5/ Much of the enrolment decline at Briar Hill has resulted directly from the loss of day-care at the school, and a subsequent loss of service to Briar Hill provided by an off-site day-care. Many of these students have gone to other TDSB schools, but some of them have gone to non-TDSB schools. With the imminent introduction of all-day kindergarten and extended day services throughout TDSB schools, the lack of childcare would no longer be an issue for families in the Briar Hill area. It is possible that many would choose to stay in their home school rather than to attend other TDSB or non-TDSB schools. It is important to take a second look at the enrolment projections through this particular lens.

While it will be worthwhile to consider a K-5 configuration for the new school, there are several likely advantages to restricting the school to K-3:

- primary students require smaller playing fields and fewer specialized classrooms than junior and senior students (this allows us to maximize funds flowing to our capital account)

- junior grade students are better able to safely travel longer distances and cross major roads, and are less likely to be driven to the Fairbank Middle

- our educational goals for our primary students are significantly different than those we have for older students

- it would give students five years to adjust to Fairbank Middle before starting high school, while still giving them access to the all-so-important experiential learning that comes from industrial arts, family studies, and other courses

- it eliminates most or all of the cost that would be needed to both Fairbank Middle and West Prep to accommodate Briar Hill’s K – 3 students, but still maintains the population needed to ensure both schools are viable

I look forward to seeing a complete analysis of this option and its variations as part of your report on the ARC to Board in June. If you or others have further questions about my proposal, and I’ll be pleased to provide any detail that you require.

In the service of schools and students,

Howard Goodman
TDSB Trustee, Eglinton-Lawrence

Trustee Howard Goodman is proposing an alternate option to closing Briar Hill

Howard Goodman wrote a letter to MP's last week seeking support for a proposal that would keep Briar Hill open. The contents are provided for your information. Feel free to leave your comments, which you can do anonymously.

Letter to Mike Colle, Howard Moscoe, Eric Hoskins, Joe Volpe and Carolyn Bennett

Dear Mike, Howard, Eric, Joe, and Carolyn

As you no doubt are aware, TDSB has been reviewing the schools in the Dufferin-Eglinton area, affecting schools in both Eglinton-Lawrence and St Paul's. The review comprises three parts: a community report (done), a staff report (early June), and the Board decision (late June). The community report (called an ARC report) was received by our Director of Education yesterday morning, and I thought that you'd like to be brought up to date on the current status of the process.

The ARC report recommends that Briar Hill PS be closed, and that the area currently assigned to Briar Hill be split between Fairbank Middle School (FMS) and West Prep (WP). They also recommended that Fairbank Middle become a k-8 school (it is currently has grades 6-8). A number of other suggestions concerning catchment areas, improvements needed to FMS and WP, safety issues, etc. I have included the link to the report (http://www.tdsb.on.ca/wwwdocuments/schools/area_review_committee/docs/ARC%20Report%20Briar%20Hill%20Jr.%20P.S.,%20Fairbank%20M.S.%20and%20West%20Preparatory%20Jr.%20P.S..pdf)
and to all the review documnetation to date (http://www.tdsb.on.ca/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=10118&menuid=25485&pageid=22046).

We have also received a minority report from the two BH parents on the committee, arguing that the goals stated by the ARC are more consistent with keeping BH open. I have attached that report.


In the next few days I will be issuing a response to the ARC recommendations building a case for building a new full service k-3 BH school as part of a multi-use multi-storey development on the Briar Hill site. My preliminary analysis indicates that this will be no more costly than the ARC proposal, and it will preserve a vital hub of community services in a fairly needy area that has few community services.

I hope that I will have your support for this proposal and your help in locating relevant Municipal, Provincial, and Federal services in the new development.

I will be sending you my proposal as soon as it is available. There won't be much time in order to develop coordinated plans, and I hope that you will give this issue some serious attention.

In the service of schools and students

Howard Goodman
TDSB Trustee, Eglinton-Lawrence

The ARC Report has been posted on the TDSB website

The ARC recommedation was presented at the last public meeting held on April 8th.

The recommended option is as follows:

• Close Briar Hill JPS
• Fairbank Middle becomes a JK-8 school
• West Prep JPS remains a JK-6 school

Thanks to all Briar Hill parents, teachers and community members who came out and voiced your disapproval of the option presented. The report is now posted on the TDSB website with an attached minority report submitted by your council representatives Paul Dover and Julie McFayden.

The report now goes to the Board, then to the Trustees for a vote in June.

Many of you have been disillusioned by the process and saddened by the possibility of losing our wonderful school. There may also be others who feel that this is a good thing.

Please feel free to share your thoughts and concerns here. Any comments on the ARC process including your opinons on the recommendation are welcome.

ARC Minority Report

Council Minutes - 7/01/10

Briar Hill Junior School
Council Meeting Minutes – January 7, 2010

Attendance:
Mary Whittaker, Principal
Paul Dover, Treasurer
Julie McFayden, Secretary
Lynn Cover, Education Assistant Support Staff
Tyler Steel
Dorothy Steel
Bernadette Ryan-Phillips


Welcome - meeting started with a report from Lynn Cover.

Lynn and Trina sat in on the ARC break out group with the West Prep parents.She was very encouraged by their attitude. They talked openly and are in support of keeping Briar Hill open. They see it making more sense to close Fairbank. Closing our school has more impact on our community. Suggest making us k-6 and Fairbank Memo K-8. A contact address of a parent was passed on to us by Lynn. Most were parents and there was one teacher from West Prep.Mary talked about development of programs in collaboration with Fairbank Seniors Centre.

• Minutes from the previous meeting were reviewed and approved.

• Treasurer’s report – Paul apologized for not having a report this evening. He had problems generating the report. He will forward the numbers via email to Julie.

• Principal’s report – Mary has a meeting next week with Don MacKenzie re photographs for next year. He currently does Fairbank Memo, John Wanless and a number of other schools. He will bring a package.She also spoke with Life Touch who have done our pictures in the past. Mary circulated a package for parents to browse through. They provide an option to change the background in photos. She can suggest they come to our next meeting to present to parents. They do not have a birthday bookmark like what Edge Imaging now provides. We get a 10% rebate on all sales.Parents agreed to the presentation. We also discussed setting the photo shoot earlier in the school year, however Mary expressed a concern about the monetary burden that may be placed on parents so early in the school year. Mary will follow up re the banner from Edge Imaging.

• Mary was in touch with Dwight – the DJ for the Dance-a-thon. It will be $150, fun fair will cost $300. Bernadette advised that we should have a credit with him. Mary tentatively booked him for June 3th. Mary says she will ensure he will provide age appropriate songs. Dance-a-thon is booked for February 19th. Parents agreed to use him for both events.

• Business from the Minutes – Mary asked Paul to provide the cheque for $2,000 for the snack program.

• Uniform shirts – long sleeved order is still outstanding. Mary has not been able to connect with Leslie to determine status. Mary will continue to follow up.

• There is a ward meeting next Tuesday at John Wanless School if anyone is interested. A reminder will be sent home for parents.

• Next pizza day – January 18th. Mary indicated she will most likely need volunteers since Leslie has not been available. February 22nd would be the next pizza lunch.

• Next meeting – Tuesday February 23rd.Fun Fair – Bernadette reminded us that we need to start sending out the letters from now. Mary has identified a couple of parents who she feels would be willing to assist with the arrangements.

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.