Markville School Council Minutes

Monday, June 5th

 

  1. The new parents, the new student council members and the teachers were introduced.

 

 

  1. The minutes from the May meeting were accepted.

 

  1. Treasurer’s Report – We had $1431.  We gave money to the school for the purchases as promised.  We spent $500 on stamps for a mailing in the early fall to the parent community.  We gave $100 to the art department for posters for the

Stephen Lewis Foundation.  We have $296 left.

 

  1. Principal’s report – Steve Bewcyk

Steve introduced Debbie Linkewich who will be the new vice principal in the fall.  Debbie is from King City Secondary School.  Debbie indicated that she is excited to be at Markville S.S.  Steve thanked Rashmi Swarup for all her amazing contributions to Markville.  Rashmi will be going to the same high school as Anne Belanger in September.

 

  1. Athletic Department– Jesse Bramer

The athletic department and the grade 12 leadership course have been busy running intramurals.  Recently, there were 14 teams involved in basketball, they have also had badminton and dodgeball.  The girls’ varsity soccer team will be playing the York Region tier two championship game on Tuesday.  The senior girls’ softball team, coached by Miss Norman, lost in the semi-finals to Newmarket.  The OFSAA track meet was last week and 2 Markville students placed.  The boys’ rugby team had their first win.  The ultimate Frisbee tournament is Tuesday.  The Athletic ceremony will be held on Wednesday morning.  They are expecting 300 athletes for breakfast.  The athletic department is holding a raffle.  The $2 ticket is for a portable basketball net and sports tickets and the draw is June 16th.

 

  1. School Update

May 4 – Fashion show raised $2000 for Alzheimers

May 4 – 7 – Grade 9 and 10 bands to Chicago

May 8 and 9 – Markville Pops at Markham Theatre

May 15 – student council elections

May 17 – Hip Hop Away from Violence – presentation period 5

May 17 – 19 The drama department performed 2 comedies

May 25 – Grade 8 barbecue and Markville Mayhem put on by the guidance department and student council

June 1 – Senior Prom

June 9 – Grad barbecue

On April 27 the board recognized York students at APPLAUSE!  The Markville boys curling team was undefeated until they lost at the quarter final of OFSAA in Ottawa this year.  They lost to the winners who claimed that Markville was their stiffest competition.  The board also recognized the tech students who won the national contest for their stop racism video.

Markville had an individual student recognized for success.  This student will be announced at the June board meeting.  The board recognizes 16 individuals each year.

  

  1. Vice Principal – Susie Nunes

Susie accompanied the music department on their trip to Chicago.  She showed us her pictures from her trip.

 

  1. Vice Principal – Rashmi Swarup

Staff from Markville attended the Literacy Learning Fair on June 2nd.  Markville had a display poster with tips on best practices from each department on how they teach literacy.  Members of the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat looked at our display poster for a long time and loved the concept. 

On May 11 and 12th, the grade nine classes wrote a literacy practice test.  It has been marked by Markville teachers.  289 students will get this test back next week showing where they need improvement in order to pass the grade 10 literacy test.  Parents at the council meeting suggested that the practice test needs to be signed by parents in order to ensure that all parents see the results.

May was Asian and South Asian Heritage Month.  On May 26th there were 2 assemblies.  300 students participated in the assemblies.  Perhaps next year there will also be an evening event for parents.  Rashmi showed a portion of the video of the dancing.

 

  1. Student Council Report – Amalia

Amalia showed a slide show from all the student council events this year.  It has been a successful year and the current council is donating a rock and a tree to the school.

 

  1. Parent grade reps

Grade9 – Joyce Chan – her daughter had a great first year.  Joyce had a question about the grade 9 math summative.  Answer – a summative is an end of unit assignment.  Joyce also questioned the action from the school safety committee – the area that needed paving will be done shortly, but there was no answer about extra lights.

Grade 12 – Valerie Milligan – The prom was a wonderful event, the grads had a great time.  The music banquet is Tuesday night.  The students are all preparing for exams.

 

  1. School Council Forum

Judy attended the school forum on May 30 on behalf of the Markville School Council.  She went to 3 speakers.  Most of the speakers were services in the community that can be used by schools.  She made special mention of 310-COPE.  It is like Kids’ Help phone but it is an emergency response crisis for any age.  They do not trace calls, and will only call 911 if the caller agrees.

 

  1. Chair – Elaine Wilkes

We have had a response from the parent survey.  As many or more filled out the survey on line.  There were lots of teacher responses.  Elaine suggested that if a survey is done next year, students should get a ballot for a prize if they return the survey.

We discussed the best dates for meetings for next year.  Steve suggested that it works best if we keep the dates the same as the staff meetings so the department heads wouldn’t have to set aside 2 evenings.  The ministry gave us $500 for an initiative to increase parental engagement next year.  The parents felt that a letter would be more effective in the fall, administration would like to send it at the beginning of August because they would like to include information on the early start and the student I.D. tags which Markville students will be required to wear next year.  We decided to miss the December and March meetings next year.  The date in October will be Tuesday October 3rd due to Yom Kippur.  The November and April meetings will have guest speakers in hopes to draw a larger crowd.

Elaine will update the school annual report and Jan Christen volunteered to read it. 

Sandy Moriarty and Tim Armstrong announced that they won’t be on the executive next year.

 

The date of the school council meeting will be Monday, September 11 at 7:15 in the library.