Called to order 7:05pm
Great turn out to meeting via zoom. Possibility of doing this for future meetings if it makes it easier for people to attend
Address from Chair: this meeting is to secure our PAC executive team for the next school year, even though we don’t know what that looks like yet. More people joining committees is better so we encourage participation. Kelly thanks all the people who have helped in any capacity this year. Previous hot lunch crew recognized for their hard work, and a thank you to the new crew for stepping up and doing a great job.
Minutes from previous meeting passed by show of thumbs up reaction.
Principals Report
- Junior achievement project: Coi masks (group name): all 10 sewing machines were lent to families to make masks. Instructional video how to use sewing machine, permission to use template. Made business plan and sent letters to various companies to get donations. 200 masks made and they are hoping to raise $1000 to send to the Vancouver aquarium
- Remote learning successes: Students are getting great learning opportunities. Raz kids. Some are doing a passion project on their own guidance. One student made her own pair of shoes and has been invited to loves jewels leather to see how their shoes are manufactured. Getty museum challenge has paintings being replicated; examples will be posted on website. Click track Starwars band across the district with 9 schools participating with largest participation from Sperling. Ensemble quite impressive and will be posted for people to see later on.
- Staff has planned on many contingencies to be ready for various scenarios. Met and gone beyond health and safety protocols. This has been very difficult for the staff, as the district has worked to reinvent what learning looks like twice, but the resiliency and creativity of staff has been impressive. Made as smoothly as possible for parents and kids.
- Remaining at 23 divisions: 13 French and 10 English. Circa and Potyka on mat leave. Newman taking leave. Grundy extended her leave. So looking to fill 4 teaching positions
- Grads invited to come one at a time to share favorite memory and that will be combined together to make video montage and have a watch party with open invitation to families. Will maintain all health and safety protocols but if larger groups are allowed then they will look at how to have a few people onsite in a larger group
Financial Report
- last quarter not much going on. 2nd quarter $200 PAC grant. Fundraising monies deposited.
- We can combine teacher volunteer gift and teacher appreciation event. Fundraising acct.
- Gaming account nothing spent since division cheques, so there is no money remaining in that account which was our goal.
- Cash acct 41K
- Motion made to adopt financial report as presented. Thumbs up approval.
DPAC
DPAC was about budget. Half as many international students so budget has gone way down. Confidential info was given which has now been posted after discussion. Most of these are district jobs that are being cut. Next meeting would be the AGM, but unsure where that stands at this point.
McLean: teaching staff not affected. Front line positions have not been touched despite the cuts back scenes. Increased enrollment so teaching staff has actually gone up. Teachers get layed off each year and as soon as numbers of kids come in then they get hired back so we have a net increase this year. Lack of 800 international students. Burnaby always a small conservative district that has done well to mitigate damage.
CPF
CPF nothing to report.
Grade 7 Rep
Money they have so far should be enough to do a yearbook. Georgia has started that process in communication with the school. Not sure if all the fundraising will cover the costs. Delivery expected end of July. Hoping to have a gathering late summer to wrap up if things open up. Pretty sad to have to cancel events and bookings. If anything can be done they would like to do it.
Fundraising
- Unsure if we can do another clothing drive during the pandemic as donations are not being accepted anywhere
- ShopFunds cancelled this season. Will have to wait till Sept to see what happens.
- HotLunch same thing… will wait and play it by ear.
Teachers Appreciation Lunch
In talks with Cosmos as a local small business. 2nd choice could be Little Billy’s Hideaway or Cioffis. Teachers to get menu and pick what they want and it will get delivered to
school. Slide show might be tricky so we may need to skip that. For most teachers tu/th would work. Dave will follow up with Juanita from Cosmos, and Kimberly will message Sabrina. Appreciation week June 15-19 have children take pic or drawing to send teachers individually. Dave will send out on D list which doesn’t go to teachers. Nice message or note encouraged.
Exec Positions
- co chair position is filled by Norm Ells
- Ruth and Livia let their names stand for secretary and co-secretary.
- Dina lets her name stand for DPAC. Will can step in and Jason House is also considering.
Shannon is also interested. - CPF William letting his name stand. Having a member from Sperling the PAC receives a grant. Currently there are no meetings but they are usually once every second month.
- Treasurer would like to stay on. 2 treasurers are ideal. Jessica lets her name stand. Jason would be interested if he can find the time in the new school year.
- Kelly would like to stay on as chair.
- All exec positions voted in individually by way of thumbs up on zoom screen.
Committees (Non Exec)
- Sperling Sprint: Eugene and Melanie for May next year.
- Lost and found: Alessandra will stay on.
- Emergency preparedness: Phil will stay on.
- HotLunch: Liv, Elaine, Eva, Shannon and Jenny will stay on.
- Indoor outdoor boxes: Eva has stayed on.
- Fruit and veggie could use a few more volunteers.
- King of the Web: Ian will stay on.
- Parent notices and teacher appreciation: Chi who is also willing to help where needed.
Pancake Breakfast
Was different this year but went really well. Money made for food bank and there were lots of volunteers. Wasn’t chaotic. Some kids had never been before and good feedback from kids who are able to attend the first time. Nice event and worked out really well. Teachers had nothing but praise for the format and were happy that all students were able to participate.
Floor Opens for Questions
- Rosemary Venos reiterates how teachers so appreciate the parents being so flexible, kind, and understanding during this really difficult pandemic time for teachers. Forgiving of teachers who are learning how to do everything differently as this is not how they have learned to teach or have been teaching. Feedback from staff re parade: was a wonderful event and an amazing coming together of the community. Thanks for standing on the street and waving to us and holding signs. It brought us together: rough count was over 300 students
- Thanks to Kelly for a good job as chair.
- Paula suggests future zoom pac meetings. Right now we are using a paid school account. We need to figure out how long we have this account. Zoom is a free membership and there is no cost to run 40-minute meetings. Maybe PAC can pay for an account for the general meetings. If we have 45-50 people it would be great. No problem maintaining if this can stay free.
- Shruthi asks about gifts for teachers as her daughter is in her last year. Dave says send email for process on which it can be delivered. Teachers will appreciate that.
- Eva budget question for teacher appreciation lunch. We have enough funds from the teacher appreciation lunch and the gift line item so we will add it together to purchase the food.
- Lucia question about CommunyHub. Ian can put pamphlet together. People can go home and try it? This was in addition to some WhatsApp groups some teachers have done. Pandemic has made increased digital presence of teachers for classroom communication. Even after the pandemic this can be a great way to feel connected to the school.
- Communication: Parent reps for each class to be set in September. Schedule for fall meetings to be set in June. Minutes and other information posted on PAC website so go check out what’s there. WhatsApp and CommunyHub have been a great help to connect parents and foster friendships that have developed (parent driven)
- Funfair could be postponed a year, but would have been May 2021. Will be discussed in Sept.
- ADST: Printer and Cricut machine were around 4k and are being well used.
Meeting adjourned 8:18pm