Markville School Council Minutes

Monday, December 5th, 2005

 

  1. Welcome  - Elaine Wilkes

The November minutes were accepted.

 

  1. Treasurer’s Report – Sandy Moriarty

We have received $95 in donations from the parent initiative since the last meeting.  We have had $10.31 in expenditures for cards and that leaves us with a $1235.19 balance.  We still have cases of popcorn to sell, we’re raising money for the mini computer labs.

 

  1. Administration – Rashmi Swarup and Susie Nunes

Friday, December 2nd was a P.A. Day and the staff met in the morning for literacy updates.  The school has asked a group of grade 10 boys at risk to participate in a reading program.  The boys chose picture books to read to elementary students at Raymerwood P.S.  The grade 10 literacy practice has started.  The next meeting will focus on a reading passage.  In February and March after school literacy classes will begin in earnest for the grade 10 literacy test.

The teachers levelled their students based on the mid-term reports. 

Level 1 is 50 – 59

Level 2 is 60 – 69

Level 3 is 70 – 79

Level 4 is 80 – 100

R is a failure

The ministry standard is level 3

The teachers looked at their level 1 and 2 students and what they could do with the data.  They planned their next steps.

In the afternoon, the department heads met.  Five new courses were suggested and four were approved.  They are: grade 10 geography (Asia), Japanese, French, and a grade 11 phys.ed.  The school has 14 new teachers this year and the heads discussed a mentoring program.  Six teachers had C.P.R. training in the afternoon.

York Region held the three day Quest conference in November.  Stephen Lewis spoke about AIDS and Africa.  York Region has a partnership with an orphanage in Africa for children of AIDS victims.  Dr. Reeves from Boston spoke about the importance of being data drive but that we must also look beyond the data into the reasons for the results.  Dr. Booth and Dr. Epstein spoke about how to involve the community and parents in the school.

Upcoming dates:

December 14         Festive Sounds – bands at Markham Theatre

December 15         Talent show – period five

December 16         Robo Olympics – auditorium at school

December 16         Road hockey – outside in parking lot

December 19         Christmas in Song – Choirs at The Bridge

December 22         School skating at Centennial Arena – 3 – 4 p.m.

December 23         Fireball Show – period five grade 9 and 10s

Exams are January 27 to February 2.  The schedule will be given to the students in January.

The students were surveyed about their activities and their attitude toward the November break.  More than 90% of students in each grade voted in favour of continuing the November break. They were also surveyed as to what they had done on the break – vacations, sports, relaxing, school work, university visits, community service.  The results were presented by grade.

Rashmi showed pictures of the grade 10 boys reading to primary students at Central Park and Raymerwood.  These boys were asked to participate.  They receive volunteer hours because they do this after school.

Susie approached the subject of student passes.  Some schools have all staff, teachers and students wear I.D. badges.  This identifies the student as a member of the school community and identifies who is trespassing.  Susie was looking for the response from parents at the school council.  We thought that it was a good idea but that it would have to be enforced vigorously.  It was suggested that if the badges were to be worn around the neck, that a break away strap would be needed.  The summer school uses them, Middlefield High School has them.  It is something that Markville is looking at for September.

 

  1. Elaine Wilkes

Elaine went to the first day of the Quest Conference.  There were 400 participants from the school councils in York Region.  The parents were put into groups of 10 and were given a case study.  They went to different storefronts from services in York Region to try to find help for the child at risk in their case study.  Elaine was amazed at the quantity of services available, as well as the organization of the day.

Grade Parent Reps.

Grade 9      The mid term reports had less significance for math and phys.ed. because they have been de-semestered in grade 9.  We discussed the difficulty of having the break on the same week as the Take your Kid to Work Day. 

Grade 10  Several parents complained that the Careers Studies class assigned a large project just before the break and it was due shortly after the break, so the grade 10s spent their break on school work.

Grade 11

Grade 12 – Students who are applying to university or college have been given a pin# so they can apply online.  The deadline is in early January.

 

  1. Role of School Council

At the November meeting, we established the roles of our school council.  We broke into groups to brainstorm ways to develop these roles.

 

Communication – It was suggested that we add to our school web site.  We see a need for “A Guide for New Parents” that would contain basic, general information about the school i.e. school hours, lunch breaks, meet the teacher night information ( you have t sign up for interviews), sign up to receive email, etc.

Become informed about school issues – Parents attend school council meetings, and contribute to school council meetings, talk to kids, talk to parents of other schools, program planning questions.

 

Learn about school programs – department heads often come to our meetings, we would like to hear more from the guidance department, extra-curricular activity and cultural group representatives could come to our meetings.

 

Bring in guest speakers – trustee Gary Unitas; Caledon Facey, a representative fro Youth Link will attend to tell us how to talk to teens.  It was felt that we only needed 2 or 3 representatives from outside the school to talk to us each year.

 

Motivating parents to become more involved – It was suggested that we send out a survey to parents to find out what they would like from the school council.  Elain also suggested that we survey teachers to find out what they would like to see parents doing to support their kids.  Rashmi said that any survey that went home would have to be done in several languages.  Patty and Sofia volunteered to help Elaine draft 2 surveys.

 

  1. Community Representative – Nirmala Persaud

Nirmala serves on several community groups and sees a lack of involvement from our school in the community.  Markville students could be doing much more in the community, both individually and in school groups.  The Lions Club and the Rotary Club are often looking for volunteers, the students could get their community hours from these groups. Nirmala feels that she sees other school more represented at community events and would like us to make an effort to increase our profile in the community.

 

Next meeting is Monday January 9th 2006.