Meeting called to order 7:12pm
See sign in sheet for attendance.
Minutes from last annual general meeting May 22, 2019 passed.
PAC Activities
Fruit & Vegetables 11 times a year. Call out for volunteers. Kids more likely to try a new food when all their peers are trying it. Email chair@sperlingpac.com if you are interested in volunteering once in a while. Meets on a Monday from 1pm.
Emergency Safety Box needs organizing. Looking to do an emergency release practice this year. 2 very organized teachers have purged the box and organized purchase of needed items. Parent needed to check the list and make sure everything is there.
Indoor/Outdoor Boxes. You get a budget and get to shop for needed items for each class. i.e. magnifying glasses, hula hoops, chalk, balls, etc. Budget is $600 for 23 divisions. Email chair@sperlingpac.com to volunteer. Twice a year. One for inside in Sep. Outside boxes get done in the Spring.
Sperling Sprint will likely be first Friday of May. Great fundraiser and healthy fun activity for the kids. Need volunteers to monitor street corners.
Shopfunds twice a year. Nov/Dec and Apr/May. Parents buy gift cards for places they might normally shop at and the school gets a % of sale. Great for birthday parties, teacher gifts, Christmas or other celebrations. And parents aren’t pressured to spend money on anything they would not already purchase.
Clothing Drive. Paid by weight. Condition doesn’t matter as items are repurposed. Twice a year. Oct and Apr.
PAC Donation Letter is another option for you to participate in if you want.
We will be easing up on the fundraising this year and will likely stick to these options. Raised over $12K with the Fun Fair in the Spring so we are going to enjoy the year without any heavy fundraising. Again, there is no pressure to participate in all fundraisers, only the ones you would like to take part in. We want to give you options…
Principal Report
Great start to the school year and the assembly was great. Kids were encouraged to say ‘it’s going to be a good year’ when they were assigned to their permanent classes.
6 words we believe in as a school. 10 minute video sent out by the school animated short. Great to watch if you have a chance… emailed to all the parents by Mr. Maclean. Once you know your own gifts you are able to appreciate everyone else’s gifts. Jigsaw pieces are starting to be placed around the school aerial photo.
School is full! They had to reorganize 7 classes in English at the last minute, while trying to keep the composition they felt was important to each class. Mostly new students who got moved around. Primary French is totally full. Intermediate has a small amount of room. (Only 4 spots left in the school?)
22 new teachers hired district wide as enrollment is up across Burnaby.
Intakes in 2 weeks. Forms getting sent home soon. Get to know you for the teacher… if there is something greater, please make an appointment.
Terry Fox Run Sep.26 to raise funds for cancer research. Voluntary donation. Terry was Metis and this is a great opportunity to put the lens on this event.
Orange Shirt Day will be used to launch a week of education around reconciliation. ‘Stolen words’ is a book that points to some truths about the lost language.
Timberline for Grade 6 coming up. 3 staff going as well as the counsellor the first day to help with any homesickness.
32 students for Cross Country.
Pro-D Day Sep.27th to set up a variety of focuses. Mme Neuman Grade 6/7 is working on creating an in house challenge program (0.1 admin time). 16 vex robots at the school. Alexa will start off the Pro-D Days with a design challenge. (4 students from our school go to Parkcrest every Wed and series of design challenges and lessons that they do there. We had 60 students apply but we can only send 6 so there’s a need. In-house program can hopefully meet that need). Does not take away from our LSS time. Model is a co-teaching model. Alexa can go into classrooms to run these workshops. Will get stronger as a staff. For the first couple of months. Looking into building a hydroponic wall with one of the classrooms. If we can build the capacity of our staff around ADST challenges and design challenges … Working on writing goal around motivation and relevancy and helping students feel confident about writing and want to write… break down the apathy around writing. Restitutional language also an aspect.
Playground… 2-week delay in some of the parts arriving. Cement delay by a week. Climbing rock to get poured this week. Levelling to come next week then soft fall. Hope to be done by sept 20th. Colour scheme looks great. Kids will be introduced to the playground when it is opened and the K’s will have their own dedicated time.
Question: K parents’s who didn’t attend orientation in the Spring did not get the memo that gradual entry was 2 weeks. The package that came out the first week didn’t mention the 2nd week. Reply from Mr. MacLean was apology for the breakdown in communication and will take the feedback to the staff. The reason they changed the model was that they weren’t effectively balancing the classes cause they didn’t know the kids. But this is important for them to learn. Parent comment that this is a very appealing was to start Kindergarten. Our primary teachers are very strong and there is some great practice going on within the classrooms. Teachers are collaborating together and it’s great to see.
Skiing will be slightly later this year cause they offered different dates at Whistler. Documentation will be sent out when it is ready. Available for Grades 4-7.
Ottawa/Quebec info will be offered to Grade 7s. Staffing will be determined based on number of students taking the trip. Likely the first week of Jun.
Hip Hop happening again but not in Sep. booked for Jan this year for 2 weeks.
Teachers sat down in June to look at the calendar to properly space out the events to see what we can manage properly.
Question: Grad committee gets initiated by Grade 7 parents. Go to teacher and set up a time and date with teachers
Looking for parents to join in the ‘Safety of Your Children Committee’ i.e traffic patrol. Parent requests for paid crossing guard would be appreciated. Evaluations being done all the time but safety of our children needs to be taking the safety of our children more seriously. Would love to reinstate the walking sidewalk. If we can focus a campaign parents for a walking sidewalk that would be great.
Treasurer Report
Error Noted: Change the $800 from the ADST line to $8000. Motion made to pass the minutes with the change to the ADST line. Budget adopted with the change.
Question: About why Movie Night is not a line item: we would like to present it as a free event for the kids not a fundraiser so that’s why it is not on the budget.
Question: Christmas Concert? Primaries will have one in the Spring. Musical theatre cabaret in the Winter for the intermediates.
DPAC
Nothing to report
CPF
Nothing to report
Website Presentation by Ian
Changed the large repository of information that was the old PAC site [public Sperling PAC website for school-wide parent communication] into a more streamlined look with improved functionality. Clean and purged old information. Progressive Web App will adjust to phone or desktop. MacLean: School calendar is updated on a weekly basis – Ian can subscribe to that and it can be imported into the PAC calendar, ideally.
Review of CommunyHub [private parent community for classroom parent collaboration and connection] which can be opted into by the classrooms individually so that you can only get the info that is relevant to you. Question: Who is vetting membership? Ian at the moment. Other parents could take over their own classroom as a classroom parent rep. MacLean has a few concerns as to how to address issues such as permissions to post photos/videos. Also custody issues, etc. need to be considered as to how the info gets to the parents and to make sure only the parents who are supposed to be getting the information are getting the info. If there is a custody situation within the classroom this could be an issue. And have all the parents of the children in the photos opted in? Something to look at when setting up CommunyHub. How do we moderate proper information when parents are able to chat… when we are asking a parent to be a moderator of what might turn into taking sides… cannot be sanctioned by the school in any way. Suggestion for Ian and McLean to sit down and problem solve some of these issues. Maybe limit to classroom Calendars only and other information that could be found publicly.
Sperling PAC website set to go live shortly.
Meeting adjourned 8:53