Meadowlands School Council

Call to order (5min)

• Welcome and introductions   

New Business (10 min)

• School Events
  • January (Bingo) – Update
  • February (raffle) – Valentine Themed Raffle – fill a basket and sell tickets on the yard at the end of the day for example. Perhaps we can sell them virtually. We are going to look into that to see if it can be worked out through school cash.
  • March (Pizza) – We could try to do a pizza kits from Boston Pizza. They would buy it from us and pick it up from Boston Pizza.
  • April (Scavenger Hunt) – Virtual Scavenger Hunt through the Facebook group. The other school that is doing this is asking for $5 or whatever amount they want. The money from it was being donated to families in need from their own school.
  • May-?
  • June- pizza delivery? Ask the grade 6’s for preferences.

Principal Report (15 min)

1. OCDSB and MPS Kindergarten Information Evening: Virtual: January 20th or 21st
2. First floor “Hooks and cubbies”: Approximately $2700.00
3. Snack Program: Over 800 healthy snacks given out last month

Teacher Report (10 min)

Questions

Call to order (5min)

• Welcome and introductions   

New Business (10 min)

• Update on Something for Nothing
  • $1444.95!!
  • Total in Account $5106.84
• Virtual Bingo: Update January date – Sam, Sabrina and Marilyn have been planning it. $5 each family. There is an app that will run it for us. Have the cards and can register everyone for us. We have a poster but we just need a date. We have local places that we reached out to prizes. We will reach out to find a fun voice to call out the numbers. We are going to ask Nick Lafrance.
• Meadowlands gear swap on FB and gear update – Laurie Pilon will address in her report. We can get clothes from others too and we will look into that and to make it covid safe.
• Popcorn – We want to know if it is an option to have the kids be able to have popcorn in the new year.
• Teacher Allocation (24 teachers) – How much do we want to allocate to the teachers? Feedback: $100 for each.
• School Events
  • January (Bingo) – January 12 at 6pm
  • February (raffle) – Valentine Themed Raffle – fill a basket and sell tickets on the yard at the end of the day for example. Perhaps we can sell them virtually. We are going to look into that to see if it can be worked out through school cash.
  • March (Pizza) – We could try to do a pizza kits from Boston Pizza. They would buy it from us and pick it up from Boston Pizza.
  • April (Scavenger Hunt) – Virtual Scavenger Hunt through the Facebook group. The other school that is doing this is asking for $5 or whatever amount they want. The money from it was being donated to families in need from their own school.
  • May-?
  • June- pizza delivery? Ask the grade 6’s for preferences.

Principal Report (15 min)

1. OCDSB has been doing extensive work around Equity. Each school has a team with staff and admin: Pam Parks, Paul Meggs, Nadira Ramharry, Nick Lafrance, Heather Counsell. 
2. Progress Reports and Parent-teacher interviews process went well
3. Luv 2 Groove: Great success. Kinder wagons. SFN Fundraiser. HUGE Thank you!!!
4. NEW – Elementary Rainbow Hangout
   Fridays, 3:30-4:30pm
   For any OCDSB elementary level students who identify as 2SLGBTQ or questioning.
   Join via google meet: http://meet.google.com/vqb-rajn-hhw
5. Meadowlands Gear: finalizing the order
   1. Hoodies and tshirts (red and blue) – Estimate: $16 for Tshirts, $30 for hoodies.
6. City parking lot/Traffic: It has now been closed off by the City.
7. Pre-holiday presentation for school. Media Release. Clips sent by individual teachers.
8. Blizzard of Kindness: Snowflakes of kind acts. 
9. Lost Mittens: Cardboard decorated mittens and then the kids have to figure out who’s mittens they are.
10. OCDSB and MPS Kindergarten Information Evening: Virtual: January 20th or 21st
11. First floor “Hooks and cubbies”: Approximately $2700.00
12. Snack Program: Over 800 healthy snacks given out last month

Teacher Report (10 min)

• $220 per class. Scientist in the school: Virtual. They will drop off the kits to the school ahead of time.
• Teacher Allocation? Teachers possibly can have more than $100 later on in the year if needed then we can vote on a new amount at that time.

Questions

• Any restrictions on Christmas gifts to teachers this year? Laurie will ask the staff what they think and she will let the teachers know to quarantine the gift for 3 days.
• Do we know if there will be EQAO testing this year? No, not this year.
• If we paid for Scientists in the School, would every class benefit from it? We are not sure – for instance, it might be a lot for the teachers to do with no volunteers depending on the age of the children. Also they do not offer as much modules so it could be stuff the teacher has already taught.
• Will there be any other fundraisers this year? No big ones are planned as of yet.
• Can parents reach out to the City if they would like to see if they can get it opened back up? What else can we do? A parent called the City, and they said they will not reopen it. We can try the City Councillor.
• Can we have kids enter the yard even if O Canada is playing? It’s because we can’t hear it and if the kids don’t enter the yard, it gets congested on Spring Gardens since parents can’t leave until their kids enter the yard. Laurie said she will address that they should be entering the yard slowly so they can be supervised by the teacher and safe on school property.

Voting Motions

Attendance: Marilyn Green, Andy Davies, Samantha Dorion, Melissa Smith, Karen Speers, Kirsti Paivio, Jasmine Albagli, Suzy Wong, Heather Adams, Karen Tucker, Marc Stalder

School representative: Laurie Pilon, Kevin Parsons

Please be advised that our next Parent Council meeting will be on Tuesday, December 8th at 6:30 PM. All parents are invited to attend. Links to Google Meets, Meeting dates and Meeting minutes will always be available via this link.