Markville School Council

Minutes of the April 3rd, 2006 Meeting

 

  1. Elaine welcomed everyone, especially our board trustee, Gary Unitas and the head of the French and International Languages Department, Chris Hilmer.

 

  1. There were no additions or corrections to the March minutes.

 

  1. Treasurer’s Report – Sandy Moriarty

We have had no new income since the March meeting and Sandy proposed that we move the money to the computer fund.  Elaine asked if we would have any expenses at the end of the year.  Steve Bewcyk said that every school was different and perhaps we would like to do a mass mailing to the parents about school council.  Others suggested that if we were going to do a mailing, it would be better to do one in the fall.  Elaine mentioned the survey and it was suggested that it could go home with the April report card. After more discussion, we decided to give $1700 to the school for technology so the board would match the funds and we would keep $100 for emergencies.

 

  1. Principal’s Report – Steve Bewcyk

All but 6 option cards for next year are in.  Administration is busy meeting with the department heads and planning for next year.  The population of Markville is expected to be 1270 in September, that is within 25 students from September ’05.  Some courses may need to be cut, there are difficulties when only 10 – 15 students sign up for a course.  The students will be notified in the next week if a course they signed up for is going to be cancelled.  The school year structure will be discussed at the upcoming heads’ meeting.  The board has granted permission for Markville to begin school in August again for 2006. 

Thursday was the semi-formal, an initiative of student council.  It was a big success, with a great location.

Three Markville teams have been to OFSAA in the last month.  The swimming team, two of the boys’ ski teams and the boys’ curling teams should be congratulated on their fine efforts.

Nancy DelCol, an English teacher at Markville was in Africa last year and arranged for Sister Clarissa Mchello and Greg John to come to Markville with a message of the fight against HIV / AIDS in Africa.  They were powerful speakers and made a tremendous impact on the audience.  Steve Bewcyk arranged to have the message videotaped to be shared with other York Region students.  He also arranged for an ABEL broadcast.  ABEL is Advanced Broadband Enabled Learning and the broadcast was shown simultaneously with the students at Emily Carr S.S.  The students at Markville could see the students at Emily Carr on screen and vice versa.

 

  1. Vice Principal’s Report – Rashmi Swarup

Rashmi will be going to Vienna, Salzburg, and Budapest with the senior music students next week. 

On April 19th and 20th, there will be math contests at Markville, one for each grade.

On April 27th the history department will be hosting the Heritage Fair.

April 24th – 28th is “Turn off your Screens Week”.  A letter will be going home the week before.  There are concerns that our lifestyle is too sedentary, and that families are losing touch with one another due to TVs, computers, and video games.

The grade 10 EQAO Literacy was at the end of March.  338 students wrote the test, 294 grade tens, and 43 grade eleven and twelves.  Some of the senior students are new to the province and had not written the test previously.  27 special education students and 36 ESL students were given up to twice as long to write the test.  Markville did a grade 10 literacy blitz the previous week.  The blitz generated passion and interest from the students.  During the blitz, there would be a literacy activity in the period one class on one day, period 2 another day, period 4 another day etc.  The school received a request for officers from the EQAO office to observe the test and the assistant deputy minister of education arrived with them.  Markville received compliments from the visitors about how well the test was run here and about the attitude and manners of our students.

 

  1. Tim Armstrong introduced our guest speaker Gary Unitas.

 

  1. Gary is in his ninth year as our trustee for the board of education and has registered to be elected again.  He has been the budget chair all 9 years.  During the day he is an accounting manager for Cadillac-Fairview.  He has two boys in high school in Markham. 

Gary responded to concerns about our alternative calendar year.  The parents in attendance were unanimous in their support.  The board has expanded the program to one more school, Sutton, so now there are 3 York high schools with an early start.  The board is reluctant to expand it too quickly due to family vacations, student jobs, and shared bussing the Catholic board.

Y.R.D.S.B. is the fourth largest board in Ontario, but is the fastest growing.  It had an operating budget of $845 million last year and is expecting to have $900 million next year.  It is the largest employer in York Region, with over 9000 staff.  Forty new schools have opened since 2000.  Currently the board is building a new sports oriented high school at Kennedy and the 407.  There are 105 000 students in our schools with a large ethnic array in suburban, small town and rural communities.

In the province wide testing YRDSB is consistently above the provincial average.

The YRDSB is setting up an advisory board on parental engagement that will support and recommend to school councils.  Tim has put his name forward for this committee.

If anyone wishes to contact Gary, they may email him at unitasg@cadillacfairview.com

 

 

 

  1. Chris Hilmer – French and International Languages Head.

This department has 3 full time teachers and one part time teacher.  Students need one high school French credit (grade 9).  The number one question Chris is asked by parents is whether their children should take academic or applied French.  Usually the school tries to schedule both at the same time so the switch can be made easily if the student is in the wrong section.  Every other year a course is offered for students who have not had French before.

Spanish and Japanese are offered after grade nine.  There are two classes of grade 10 Spanish and Japanese and one grade 11 class of Japanese. 

Suzanne Hamilton is new on staff this year and is teaching French and Spanish. 

Markville offers Advanced Placement French.  It is a high level program meant to be at a university level.  It is taught by Chris after school on Fridays.  AP courses show motivation and intelligence and are recognized by universities.  Two students took the AP exam last year and both scored level 5 – the highest level.  Two students are taking the course this year and one will write the exam. 

This department took 26 Markville students and 12 Keswick students to Paris, Provence, and Barcelona for 10 days during our break in November.

Some years Skimersion is offered to our students.  It is a five day trip to Quebec where the students receive ski or snowboard instruction from a French instructor. 

The senior French students run a French café for the grade nine French students each semester.  The grade nines are currently working on a web page.

The grade 11 Japanese students created New Year’s cards and sent them to a Japanese senior centre in Scarborough.

We congratulated Chris Hilmer for being shortlisted for V.P. with the YRDSB.

 

  1. School Council – Chris Hilmer

Since Amalia was not present, Chris filled us in on what is happening in the school.

The Heart and Stroke Fundraiser in February raised over $6000 in memory of Curtis McLaren.

254 students attended the semi-formal last Thursday.

The prom is June 1st.

In May, there will be a buy in for HipHop Away from Violence.  This group sends a message of anti-violence.

The school is selling Markville clothing – sweatshirts, pants, long-sleeved shirts.

There was a charity basketball game between the senior basketball team and York Region Police officers.

 

  1. Elaine will change the dates on the survey and send them home with the report      cards.

 

The next meeting will be Monday, May 8th at 7:15 pm.