Sperling PAC
General Meeting Minutes for November 16, 2022
Meeting called to order at on or around 7:08 pm. Meeting was held electronically (via Zoom).
Attendance: Kelly, Sheeba, Jessica, Livia, Jason, William, Principal Mr. Chow and Head Teacher Ms. Venos, and various parents
Adopt Minutes from Last General Meeting September 26, 2022
The previous Minutes from the last General meeting held on September 26, 2022 were passed and adopted. The motion to adopt was moved and seconded.
Items discussed:
Old Business from Last General Meeting
No follow up items. Some further updates to previous items are noted below.
New Business
- Elections for vacant Executive roles. PAC has vacant positions for DPAC (2 co-rep spots) and Treasurer (1 co-rep spot). Two parents, Clifton Lo and Irina Robertson, have shown interest to fill the DPAC co-reps; one parent, Jevy Wu, has shown interest to fill the role of Treasurer co-rep. Nominations were made, seconded and voted in favour of
electing the above-named parents to fill the respective roles until the next Annual General Meeting (AGM) in May. Pursuant to section 9.6 of the school’s Constitution and Bylaws.
Updates - Hot Lunch (Liv). The rollout of hot lunches has been great so far! The Hot Lunch team is back at it and any volunteers on board and eager to help. The first one was held on October 17 th (pizza) and another on November 3rd (Sushi/Rice Bowl). The feedback from parents has been overall positive and very appreciated. We are going through
new vendors and also working out logistics and mechanics with each hot lunch.
Hot Lunch received an e-mail from a family wishing to (anonymously) sponsor/donate some funds to put towards providing hot lunch(es) for families in need. Kelly C mentioned that the family can give this donation through SchoolCash Online and can specify where they would like their funds allocated to (ie hot lunches); the school can work on the families that would benefit from this and keep it as anonymous and discreet with the hot lunch committee. - Pancake Breakfast (Liv). The PAC run Pancake Breakfast has been approved by the school – happy to have it return! The date for the event to be confirmed and will be sent out through School Communications. The event has been organized and run by the Hot Lunch team with many Sperling community and family volunteers lending their hands before the event and on the day of. The event is held in the gym and volunteers would help prepare and serve breakfast; families would loan out their personal griddles and pancakes would be flipped by rotating volunteers on the gym stage.
In prior years, the breakfast was held before school hours (7 to 9 am) with half hour seatings assigned to families. In 2019-20 year the school tried a different approach and held the breakfast during school hours (9 – 11:45 am). The students would enjoy breakfast with their buddy class and teachers get a chance to sit and enjoy. Parents/families were still welcome to join, but if they couldn’t make it, every student was still able to partake in the event and sit with someone (buddy). - Grade 7 committee. A parent of the Grade 7 committee was present and provided brief information on their fundraising efforts. They have been discussing a fundraiser with The Pie Hole bakery; and potentially the Kernels popcorn fundraiser, similarly to last year. Fundraising will likely be more in the spring; no plans at Christmas time; however, for the winter concert they may be considering some type of lottery draw for front row seats – ie purchase tickets to enter the lottery which would be a prize of reserved seating; promoting more chances to get drawn rather than highest bidder which would make it more fair.
The committee has also been discussing the year end venue and event for the grads. The theme is looking at more casual and fun. - Fruits and Veggies (Shannon). Great to hear it’s back (since post-Covid hiatus)! A small group of parent volunteers have been overseeing and organizing it. The recent produce items delivered were blueberries, carrots and pears; next up are expected to be mandarin oranges.
The committee will send communications to the school to let the teachers know the delivery dates and expected produce item (subject to change). Delivery to the classrooms is usually around 2:00 pm on the day of. - Lost & Found (Sheeba c/o Alessandra). The Lost & Found rack is getting quite full; the parents overseeing this task will post the lost items on Instagram (handle is @ecolesperlinglost). Watch out for them!
- PAC Website update (Sheeba). A PAC Executive has gone through the current PAC website for updates, revisions and consolidations and have been sent over to the parent volunteers (Ian and Estralita) who manage the site. The updates are coming and the new link will be sent out soon. The site is meant to bring awareness of all the PAC information available and provide access to the general meeting minutes.
- Stay Safe/Babysitting (Sheeba). PAC is organizing a couple of workshops run by Sea to Sky Safety Training services. They are scheduled for April and June and will be open intermediate students (grades 4-7 age):
– Stay Safe (First Aid) – tentatively for April 24 th and June 2 nd (both on Pro-d days)
– Babysitting Course – tentatively for June 2nd
Registration and payment are still being worked out; information to come out in the new year, so look out for that. This event will be noted in the calendar on the PAC site once confirmed. Any questions on this can be directed to the Vice Chair (Sheeba) at vicechair@sperlingpac.com - Body Science (Sheeba). PAC has been looking into the body science workshop training operated by Saleema Noon and her team. The workshop would be held over 3 days (May 10 th – 12 th ) and held in person/class for all grades. There would also be one evening information session for parents/caregivers prior to the start of the workshop. The evening workshop for parents will be virtual via Zoom (on May 8th).
The age appropriate workshops would be divided up by: grades K to 2 (30 minutes); grades 3 to 5 (45 minutes) and grades 6 to 7 (45 minutes).
An inquiry was raised on whether parents would getting a heads up on what would be talked about – this would be in the parent information session (evening). - CPF Update (Jason). The French book subscriptions (Ecole?) have been distributed out to parents; if we get 10 subscriptions, the school will benefit with French books in the school library.
Upcoming Events:
– French film festival (further information to be provided)
– Patinage/skating day scheduled for December 10 th (location TBD); free for CPF members or a small cost for non-members
– French lessons (for adults/parents) – these have begun and will run through to Spring Break; it is now sold out; if you looking for more information, reach out to the PAC rep at cpf@sperlingpac.com - Budget Update (Jessica). Updates since the last budget circulation:
Fundraising Account:
– Disbursements issued for the following items:
— Classroom consumables
— Pumpkin patch expenses – note the bill ended up higher than what was budgeted ($80 difference); the school covered the balance. PAC to consider increasing the budget amount for the next year. The budget includes the pumpkins and the hot chocolate supplies.
– Hot lunch
— Expense disbursements issued
— Munchalunch funds received (via bank deposit from Stripe account)
— Invoice payments disbursed to hot lunch vendors
— Donation to grade 7 fund – flat rate of $500 – subsequent to this meeting, it was noted that the donation in the budget line will be reviewed at the next General meeting
Gaming:
– Transfer of a budget line for field trips ($800) was made; the Treasurer noted that if there are any residual funds regarding field trips, the school will give back to PAC. - Principal’s Report (Kelly Chow). Themes coming out:
Rise of illness in schools and in general (workers):
– not all Covid related, even cold and flu season
– Continued effort to keep up safe practices where appropriate; never question mask wearing
– Staffing shortages – if too many become away and can’t be replaced; Sperling has been fortunate that the ones that have been away have been able to find TOC’s; but there may be a threshold (what’s that limit) and when that comes what are we able to?
– Other schools have already shown a high absenteeism within the District
– Stress patience
– Encourage everyone to stick with common sense and keep child home if they are sick with any symptoms, even if it’s not Covid
Pro-D Day:
– Coming up next Friday (November 25 th ); staff attending many workshops; Kelly C and Rosemary are already in discussions on what to work on for next year to work collectively as a staff and how to support each other
Winter Concert:
– Primary classes only during the Winter (the Intermediate classes perform at the Spring Concert)
– 2 tickets per family (due to capacity) and will be either for the afternoon or the evening show (not both); if there are extra tickets available the school will send communications out to parents
– Inquiry was made on whether there is a way to video the concert, to mitigate people using their phones etc. but the concern is the liability and obtaining disclosure/signoff by every parent from a student that was in it
Student Leadership Group:
– Mme Altman is working with the students to develop a mission statement; broadening their horizons; not representing themselves but the entire group/population
– Coming up with a statement that asks the question ‘does the activity or what they are doing, fit everyone collectively’ (rather than only a certain group)
– Leadership Group is collecting for a toy drive – bring an unwrapped gift for donation; the Group have set goals and incentives – x amount raised allows for some extra stuff
Meeting adjourned at 8:04 pm.
The next General meeting will be February 15, 2023.