Meadowlands School Council

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.

Call to order (5min)

• Welcome and introductions

2019-2020 Wrap Up (10 min)

• Thank you and closing remarks
• Weird wrap up because of Covid-19.
• We were able to settle finances the best we could.
• We had to cancel dances and events and we had some money left over from that and an email went out asking if anyone wanted or needed the money back from pizza or hot dog since they were all cancelled.

Treasurer Report (5min)

• Did we get the Ukuleles? Yes we did. So we need to fix that amount. 1468.02 for the Ukulele money.
• Confirm pizza number with the office. Some people did ask for it back and those that did not… the rest will be donated to the Food Bank.

Election (10 min)

• Voting and new council members/positions
• Question: Are there new rules for councils with remote learning vs in person? 2 options – there was talk about virtual council or you can join the council of the school you belong to.

• Voting members: Tara,
• President: Marilyn Green
• CoPresident: Andy Davies
• Secretary: Brianna Szabo
• Website Social Media Editor: Karen Speers
• Treasurer: Sabrina Adatia
• Nutrition Coordinator: Don’t need it this year because of Covid-19.

Principal Report (15 min)

• Our school reorg and transition went very smoothly with much input and support from the staff and great parental support and understanding. Focus was on Safety and Equity for all. The students have adapted very well.
• Transfers from virtual to in-school or vice-versa is an ongoing challenge. The board is still working on getting students into virtual classes this week. Those not yet in have either been at school or at home using Google Classroom. All homeroom teachers have Google Classroom set up for when children need to self-isolate or if we need to close schools.

• Some new staff members: Paul Meggs, Emily Saar, Wanda Manning, Alison Hall, Noreen King, Natalie Savarie, Dana Howell, Paramjit Kaur
• Snack Program up and running with many staff members assisting.
• Thank you for your support with finding LunchTime Monitors. We have five LTM presently.
• Outdoor learning and recess: Dress for the weather: ESSENTIAL
• Terry Fox donations. I will send out the link  http://www.terryfox.ca/MeadowlandsPSNepean
• Student and class photos have been delayed until the spring.
• Covid symptoms and sending students home to self-isolate.

OPH Form: Attestation for Return to School for Students Following Illness

Recognizing concerns about the importance of getting asymptomatic students back to school OPH has developed a Parent Attestation letter.  Parents of students who were isolating at home due to COVID-like symptoms, who have either seen a medical practitioner and confirmed they have a chronic condition or another medical reason for symptoms; who have completed 14 days of self-isolation; or have tested negative for COVID-19 and have been 24 hours without symptoms can now complete a form (attached) attesting to being symptom-free, or with symptoms related to other non-COVID conditions, prior to the student’s re-entry to school. It is suggested these forms be filed in the student’s OSR. (Please note that we will develop this form as a fillable PDF to facilitate completion for parents.)

•  Luv 2 Groove
• PE and recess challenges: no equipment use
• Principal’s Profile/Fundraising goals/School Council emails and phones
• Chromebooks limited
• T-shirt orders…fundraiser
• Virtual Meet the Teacher October 29th

 New Business (10 min)

• Community building/Fundraising ideas
• How can the council support the school this year?
• Wagons
• Ukuleles (yes we got them)

Questions:

• Should we be contacting Brenda for Council items now? Yes.
• Do we know the current class size average at MPS? And average kindergarten class size? 20. Kinders 24.
• Is it possible that there will be another major re-org if a lot of MPS students go from in-person to remote?  Or will class sizes just get smaller? We are accepting children on an individual bases and the changes as a whole can only happen at certain times to not disrupt the children.
• But can students could choose to go from in-person to remote, particularly if covid cases continue increasing in Ottawa.  So MPS could lose students… No they can’t, as a whole once you chosen in-person you can’t switch to remote the board stated when the decision for parents had to be made.
• What about the Blue Jay class photo from last year? They got them in the Office and they will be sending them out to those children.
• Just wondering what was happening regarding zones at recess… I was told that some students were given permission to be in a zone other than their own class’ zone…?  Is that the case? In one scenario that is the case, so an individual situation. They do switch zones every biweekly or monthly.
• Can we get Luv 2 Groove to do outdoor classes? We can do that if people are interested. (Voted yes below)
• Did we find a solution for the tents? I know they were concerned they may blow away
• Is the library not an option this year at all? We are going to do it in a modified way.
• Can Kinders get wagons still? Melissa Smith is going to work on what the need is as they were not purchased but there was an amount of $365 was allocated for them. The need is new as it isn’t being asked for forest school, this would be more for special needs. Laurie will coordinate with Melissa for what is needed.
• So would each class K-6 get an in class dance series? It would be for every class in every grade.
• Regarding Je Lis – we paid for the subscription last year. Is it being used and do virtual/homeschool students have access? Laurie is going to look into what is going on with it. Mme Mercier and Balde was using it last year.

New Business (10 min)

• Community building/Fundraising ideas
• How can the council support the school this year?
• Wagons
• Ukuleles (yes we got them)

Voting Motions

Attendance: Marilyn Green, Andy Davies, Samantha Dorion, Melissa Smith, Karen Speers, Kristi Paivio, Tara Siebarth, Jasmine Albagli, Sabrina Adatia, Suzy Wong, Marc Stalder, Heather Adams

School representative: Laurie Pilon