St. Mary Catholic School School Council Meeting Minutes – September 8, 2009 Present:  Allan Asselin, Diane Horrigan, Angie Orr, Mary Lou Pfeffer, Maxine Schmidt, Richard Bondy, Jim Bowden, Paul Conrad, Corinne Sales, Rebecca Hergert, Louise Hopkins. 1.    Welcome and Prayer:  Diane Horrigan 2.    Minutes from last meeting: have not yet been circulated; Diane will follow up.     3.    H1N1:  The letter that went out in the September newsletter was reviewed.   ·         Students are to stay home for seven days from the onset of symptoms ·         Maxine will be tracking, for the Health Unit, students’ symptoms as their absences are phoned in ·         There is a plan in place at the School; this includes the desks being cleaned twice each day; handwashing before meals; assistance with the supervision of handwashing for grades JK to 3 ·         Staff have a limited supply of hand sanitizing gel and kleenex; Allan requested School Council consider paying for additional supplies as needed. 4.     School Update:   ·         Fire Drill to take place Sept 9. ·         Tornado Drill to take place September 10. ·         TLCP (Teaching Learning Critical Pathways) Meetings:  to take place Sept 14.  Allan reviewed this process that the teachers work through.  Allan to demonstrate part of this process at the November School Council Meeting.  Request was made to provide information to parents on the process/teacher expectations of students as a result of the process. ·         Magazine Fundraiser Assembly: Will be on Sept 14. ·         Open House: Will take place on Sept 15 from 5 p.m. –8 p.m.; Events will be similar to last year (BBQ, Book Fair, etc).  Instead of a guest speaker during the Open House (as there has been for a few years), a guest speaker will instead come on a separate night (Oct 6) for parents—the topic will be Cyber Bullying. ·         Lice Check: will take place Sept 18. ·         Girls Soccer Tournament:  Sept 22 in Mount Forest ·         Boys Soccer Tournament:  Sept 23 in Mount Forest ·         Cross-Country Run:  Sept 24 in Erin. ·         Terry Fox School Walk/Run: Sept 25 ·         Spiritual Development Day: Sept 28.  Morning at St Ignatius Retreat Centre; afternoon at the River Run Centre with Dr Mark McGowan (guest speaker); Bishop Tonnos (celebrant) ·         School Photos: Sept 30 and Oct 1. ·         Director’s School Visit: Oct 2, 8 a.m. ·         Bishop’s Dinner: October 8.   Everyone is encouraged to attend. ·         Diocesan Mass:  October 15 in Formosa.  This is put together by FACE: Friends and Advocates of Catholic Education.  Everyone is encouraged to attend. ·         Career Pathways: Oct 27 (morning) for grade 7, in Orangeville. ·         Hep B/HPV Immunizations:  On October 29: Hep B for all grade 7 students (first of 2 needles; second given in the spring); HPV (at parent’s request) for grade 8 girls 5.    Elections:  The following School Council members’ terms are now ending:  Angie, Sandy, Louise and Diane.  Diane has volunteered to continue.  Allan has been encouraging more parents to attend meetings. Decision was made to have an information table at the Open House with flyers describing School Council and providing the next meeting date. 6.     Alumni Wall of Fame:  The Alumni Wall of Fame is moving to near the front entrance of the school.  Richard is working on obtaining a 6’ wooden wall banner for the Wall.  He is also planning to redo the current plaques to make them uniform as well as make duplicates of them so that the recipients have one for themselves.  Nominations for this year are needed; information about the Alumni Wall of Fame and requests for nominations will be made available at the Open House as well as in the October newsletter and possibly the church bulletin.     7.    Budget:   Allan described how last year there was a $600 shortfall in funds received from parents to cover the costs of school agendas.  This is a typical amount of shortfall that is experienced yearly at the school that eventually comes out of the school budget.  This was brought to School Council’s attention as this should be addressed by School Council. Discussion took place re: the effectiveness and usefulness of agendas; whether the school should pay the full price of the agenda; whether more reminders should go home to pay for the agendas; if it is difficult for families to cover the $7 per agenda, are there other issues we need to address as a Council in terms of the financial struggles of our school community.  Ideas regarding this issue are welcome at future meetings. 8.    Uniform Update: 170 surveys were sent out this summer; 81 were returned (48%).  Out of those returned, 29 are in favour of the uniform; 51 are against it; 1 was fine either way.  89 surveys were not returned and this is significant as Council would like everyone’s voice to be heard. A motion was then placed:  To follow School Council’s original plan to make follow-up phone calls to the 89 families who did not yet respond to the survey, so that their vote is counted.  Motion made by Richard Bondy, seconded by Louise Hopkins; unanimously approved. A third party will make these phone calls; Diane will ask that they be completed by the end of September.  Allan reminded Council that once this decision is made, this issue cannot be brought to Council again for 3 years.   9.    Staples:  We will register again for this program where the school community brings in empty ink cartridges for recycling and in return the school receives Staples Gift Certificates.  A reminder to continue bringing in empty ink cartridges will be placed in the newsletter. 10.  Open House:  Volunteers are needed to help at this event on Sept 15; set up is at 4 p.m. 11.  Thank you to staff: Richard thanked the Grade 7 and 8 staff for preparing students well for their transition to high school. 12.  Pop cans: They continue to be collected.   13.  Golf Tournament:  Will not take place this month; Allan to check with Sandy regarding an update; will likely be deferred to next school year. 14.  Next Meeting:  The guest speaker on Cyber Bullying will speak on the same night as the next School Council Meeting.  Plan is to have the speaker first, followed by the School Council Meeting.  Parents attending the Cyber Bullying presentation will be encouraged to stay for the School Council Meeting.  The guest speaker from Therapy Partners is funded from a Parent Reaching Out (PRO) Grant – this information will be outlined in the October newsletter.     15.  Thanks and Adjournment: Motion to adjourn:  Richard Bondy.  Next meeting will be on Tuesday, October 6, 2009.   -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by [ http://www.mailscanner.info/ ]MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.