SCI Parent Advisory Council: April 2009

Springfield Collegiate Institute Advisory Council for School Leadership
March 2, 2009
Meeting Minutes

Attendance

Parents/Community Members: Nikki Bertrand, Gary Walker, Diane Walker, Kathy Andersson, Caroline Smith, Donna Walby Lawson, Ingrid Tomiak, Michael Tomiak, Karen Carey, Ingrid Wasylenko, Roxanne Lapointe
Students: Mike Lawson
Administration/Staff: Pat Ilchena, Monica Biggar, Chris Szun
Guest: Mr. Wayne Leckie

1. Call to Order: Chair Gary Walker called the meeting to order at 7:27pm.
2. Approval of Agenda: Kathy requested to add Consent Letter for PHN as well as Report from Budget Meeting under (7) Correspondence. Motion (1) Donna moved, Kathy seconded. All in favor, carried.
3. Approval of Minutes: Motion (2) Caroline moved, Nikki seconded adoption of the minutes for January 19, 2009. All in favor, carried.
4. Student Council Report: TV/Monitor in the main hallway is up and running with daily announcements, special events, pictures etc. – Gym Blast tentative date is March 16 – Blood Donor Clinic is March 9 – Ugly Sweater Day was ugly – Bring you own Mug Day went well – new couch for the Grade 12 area in the Library is still in the works – Monica spoke with Cathy Tymko, principal of the Edward Schreyer School, regarding the Rachel’s Challenge presentations that were given in Beausejour - reported to be a very positive presentation – the cost was $7,000 – Monica will be contacting Network 4 Change – in the preliminary stages.
5. Principal’s Report: (Pat) Student Registration Guide is ready – running sessions already – March 26th is the deadline for registration – High School Credits and Post-Secondary information session March 12 @ 6pm – Grade 8 Registration Orientation Session March 12th @ 7:30pm – met with Shelley Senkow and Ryan Neufeld and will be holding a Wellness Day in May targeting Grade 9 & 10 students – Kathy suggested Parental support on Wellness Day in May - will include date of next PAC meeting in a Synervoice as well as interim report dates and the deadline for registration
TREVLAC – staff will be able to use to query info and allow them to email school wide or individually (ie. School Newsletter, Class/Grade Events, communication between parents and teachers)
(Monica) Some Recent Student Activities Highlights
Citizenship Activities
- Urban Plunge field trip (awareness of poverty and inner city challenges) – 8 students
(Kitching)
- Youth Empowered Conference – human rights conference in Wpg – 4 students
(Frederiksen)
Aboriginal Academic Achievement grant activities (through Biindigeg)
- Ox Cart being built (heritage activity) – 10 students building, 4 students filming as part
of talent development (McCorkle)
- Foods workshop (Radchuk)
- U of W Powwow field trip this week (McCorkle)
Music Activities (LeClair)
- Fraser Linklater from the U of M worked with students for an afternoon
- Wind Ensemble and Senior Band performed at the Optimists Festival, followed by a workshop with one of the national adjudicators/guest conductors
- Band trip to Minneapolis in May
Extracurricular Sports
- Boys’ hockey team plays end their season this week (Wojcik/MacLean)
- Basketball teams are well into their seasons and involved in tournaments (Carriere,
McKetchen, Milks)
- Indoor soccer finishing up (Tardiff)
- Outdoor soccer (tentative) and rugby (Chagnon/Osler) and other extra-curricular sports
coming in Spring
Other
- 24 students Gr. 9-11 participated in the national Mathematics contests this past month
(Kitching)
- Students have had field trips to attend career symposiums and tours at the universities
and colleges (Loureiro/Suffield/McCorkle)
- Europe trip approaches – Spring Break (Frederiksen/Balinski/Hutton)
- Quebec trip in late Spring (Noordman)
- Grad planning is underway, more info will be out to grads shortly (St. George)
(Chris) Ms. Marie-Josee Morneau was the successful candidate for the position of the
Middle / Senior Years Program Leader – Tabatha Noordman has replaced her.
Mr. Leckie spoke about the program - What did you do in School today? - which is an
analysis of school perception by students – data collection by the Canadian Educational Association – info is obtained on how SCI students are responding to staff/team generated questions – this data can be shared with PAC once more is collected.
6. Treasurer’s Report: Balance as of March 2nd is $614.06 – Donna applied for the $125.00 from MAPC – signing authority not complete, Gary and Caroline yet to sign - Motion (3) Donna moved, Caroline seconded to accept the report as stated. All in favor, carried.
7. Correspondence: MAPC announced their Annual Conference – May 1st and 2nd with keynote speaker Kevin Cameron – (Motion 4) – Kathy moved, Nikki 2nd to put the Conference information on the PAC site. All in favor, carried.
8. Business arising from the Minutes:
a) Evaluation of Smoke Free Policy: (Pat) going well – area kept relatively clean – there are some issues with exit and entry into the school – encouraging students to use the front and back doors – (Mike) issues with some students crossing the lane and not watching for traffic – (Kathy) some kids may not be using the smoking area – no signs are posted regarding the School Division Smoking Policy – have parents been made aware of the Smoking Policies and the new smoking area – as per Pat and Chris there is info on the SCI Website.
b) Drug Awareness Presentation: See Principal’s report regarding Wellness Day.
c) School Lunch Monitoring: at present SCI is allotted 4hrs per day - Kathy asked about this at the Budget Meeting – apparently SCI has 5 positions at 1.5hrs and the use of Grade 12’s – Mr. Leckie reported that other schools do use Grade 12 students – the Division is looking into how the allocation of funding was decided – the goal is provide proper and safe supervision – students would require adequate training – if SCI has another 2 hrs to work with Mike suggested using multiple students as opposed to one or two.
d) Student Choice Award: (Mike) – the objective is to recognize the things a teacher does – had lots of positive feedback from Teachers and Students regarding same – Monica suggested a letter with signatures as opposed to a plaque – Mike will ask Student Council for input and perhaps form a committee to establish criteria
e) Student Credit for Volunteers: (Mike) ie. Student Council / Presentations / Pier Support / Youth Center – lots of students should get credits for their dedication – Monica advised that there is a Provincial Credit for Grade 9-12
9. New Business: Kathy attended the Budget Meeting – no change in the Mill Rate – very little monies to play with – lots of funds towards student programs – asked about Smart Boards, maybe if there is money at the end of the year – there is money allocated for SCI for new bleachers – Mr. Leckie reported it was a maintenance type of Budget.
- the article “An Opportunity of a Lifetime” in the Clipper regarding the Wellness Center was supported by 5 PACs including SCI – Mike emailed Donna Pronishen from the SMS PAC to see if the SCI Student Council could help – a survey was discussed with the Admin at SMS – Mike will contact Curtis Boughton regarding the survey that was done by SWARPC
- PHN (Gary) – PAC would like to support a program letter and consent forms with registration.
10. Date of Next Meeting: Monday, April 20, 2009.
11. Motion (4) Caroline moved that the meeting adjourn at 9:14pm.

SCI Parent Advisory Council

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Thursday, April 16, 2009