Minutes
There will be a talent show on May 23. It is a buy in.
Student council elections are coming up. The speeches are May 24 and the vote is May 25.
The drama club is performing the Haunting of Chip Lake Lodge on Wednesday May 9, Thursday May 10 and Saturday May 12.
There will be a Coffee House gathering on May 17.
The prom is May 31 at the Bellagio
on
The music department is performing Markville Pops at Markham Theatre on May 7 and 8. Junk food and jazz will be at Markville on May 30th.
The Markville Music Awards Banquet is June 5th.
Elaine mentioned the popcorn. She suggested that we donate the popcorn to student council to sell after school for a fundraiser. Aline will take the idea to student council.
Markville currently has French and Spanish classes. The number of students taking languages is up.
The language teachers try to impress on the students the importance of learning another language. It gives you an edge in the job market, it improves English skill, creative and thinking skills, it helps to appreciate other cultures, and art, and of course for travel.
The department is organizing a trip
to
The question for grade 9 students is always about taking academic or applied French. The academic learner grasps concepts quickly, works independently and can hold several concepts at one time. The applied learner needs continuous reinforcement, works better with guidance and holds one concept at a time.
A Certificate of Merit is now awarded at graduation to students who have completed 4 years of French.
Elaine asked why we have just the 2 languages at the school and Vicky said that it depended on staffing and interest from students. We have the ability for more languages.
The department advertises exchanges to the students in the fall. Students must be in at least grade 10. The exchanges are anywhere from 1 3 months long.
At Markville we have English language learners with a varying degree of the English language. The first step for immigrants is to go to the reception centre at YRDSB for assessment. Some come to Markville with no English , some may have a rudimentary knowledge of the language.
Joyce asked how integration works. There are 5 ELL classes plus other subjects. When the new students are ready to be integrated, there are peer tutors in the class. The guidance department works with the teachers to create modifications, accommodations or adaptations. Math may be strong for students with little or no English. The curriculum expectations are the same for everyone but allowances may be made for longer time, separate classes, bilingual dictionaries and method of response. The grade 10 literacy test is a requirement to receive a diploma but the test may be deferred.
Steve Bewcyk put $500 into the school council account in error. We received $500 in January from the board, another $500 for parent engagement. We have $135 from popcorn sales in a separate account. We paid $500 for the parent engagement evening for the speaker. Steve will remove the $%00. We have a balance of $410.93 from the board which should be used this year, $545.93 in total.
The board grants the early school start in August one year at a time. We have been given approval for this year, although the program will not expand to any new schools. We will also have a staggered start. The grade nines will be the only students in the school on the first Monday, but it has not been decided yet exactly how the rest of the week will run.
In the previous 2 years, math and phys. ed have been full year alternate day courses. This has created conflicts with scheduling since phys.ed classes are single sex, there must be at least 2 math classes scheduled at the same time. The school will be assessing the benefits over the next week and a half. The school must start building the schedule for the 07/08 year next week. Steve will report in June about the final decision. There has been no noticeable increase in the grade 10 phys.ed . enrollment and the math and phys.ed. department heads do not seem overly concerned about returning to semestered classes.
The school has taken out a permit for Wednesday nights next year. Wednesday nights will be ours and we will not need to get a permit for each event.
Maureen said that a new person has been hired by the board for technology and the school has asked him to look at web site improvement.
Sophia suggested a voice message before meetings.
Next years meetings will be on:
Monday, September 10
Wednesday October 10
Wednesday November 14 parent engagement evening
Monday January 14
Wednesday February 6
Monday April 8
Wednesday May 14 parent engagement evening
Wednesday June 4
There is a school council forum at Middlefield S.S. May 8.
Elaine thanked the committee and Maureen also thanked the committee. About 45 50 parents came, most from Markville, a few from the feeder schools.
The parents filled out a comment sheet for future parent engagement evening topics. The suggestions included:
Health and safety
Internet use/abuse
How to choose universities
Curriculum
Mentoring / tutoring
How to talk so teens will listen
Communication gaps
Teen behaviour
Parenting through a crisis
Careers
Teen parenting
Joyce spoke about out reach and how to involve more parents. Maureen suggested that when we have a guest speaker that we could open up the parent engagement evenings to other high schools.
Deb Linkewich suggested we have a joint school council meeting with school councils from our 5 feeder schools. We agreed that it was a good idea and that April would be a good month.
Joyce is concerned about taking
care of the school. The lights on the
school sign on McCowan has a broken light bulb, more plants would
beautify and solar powered lights on the path to
Elaine proposed we meet at her house in June some business and some social.