CATARAQUI WOODS PARENT COUNCIL MEETING

Meeting Minutes

 

March 26, 2008

 

Present:                  Sue Rawson, Principal; Peter Dendy, Vice Principal; Amanda Paquette, Chair; Stacy Da Silva, Secretary; 3 parents

Regrets:                 Ms. Pinder, Teacher Representative

 

Next Meeting:          Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at 6:00pm

 

 

I.         Brief Introduction

 

II.        Student Council

            Mr. Dendy informed us that the Student Council will host another dance before the end of the year.  We will use the same Deejay as last time.

 

April 18th is Retro Day.

 

III.      Fundraising Updates

Jersey Raffle

The school made a $2028 profit from the Jersey Raffle.  Although we didn’t sell all the tickets and make as much as expected, we felt that it went very well and are quite pleased with the outcome.

 

Party in the Park

Party in the Park is on May 23rd.  Amanda asked for any ideas that we could do to help cover costs, ie raffles, etc.  There will be a Quilt Raffle before May 23rd.

 

There was discussion about what we could do to interest the older kids who come to Party in the Park.  There were suggestions of a Skateboard demonstration, Guitar Hero Truck and Dance Dance Revolution.

 

ACTION:  Amanda and Karen will look into this.

 

Cake Walk

Council made a decision to have the Cake Walk fundraiser next year.

 

Magic Show

Council made a decision to have the Magic Show next year.

 

Triple Bee Fundraising

A notice will be coming home soon to inform parents of this upcoming fundraiser.  The sales period is April 18th to May 5th and delivery is scheduled for May 20th.  We will sell any extra flowers at Party in the Park.

 

IV.       Yearbook

Karen Hardie wanted to thank all the teachers for their cooperation in getting all the pictures, etc that is needed to complete the yearbook.  There is $546 in pre-sales already.  This is a great start.

It was stated that she needs volunteers to help with the advertising end of things.  The job doesn’t require any cold calling, just contacting previous advertisers.  Please let Karen know soon if anyone is interested.

 

V.        Tip of the Hat

The Tip of the Hat is recognition to deserving students.  The honor gets recognized by Parent Council and is announced on morning announcements and weekly updates.

 

Tip of the Hat this month goes to Mrs. Pinder for the great job that she did with the Chess Tournament on March 4th.

 

VI.       Teacher’s Report

Mr. Dendy spoke on Mrs. Pinder’s behalf.

 

We had 214 participating students, from Grades 1 through 8, representing 9 area schools for the Chess Tournament.  Many of Cat Woods 41 students qualified in the top 25% of their grade level to advance to the upcoming Eastern Ontario Championships on Sunday, April 6th.  The school had full media coverage for this tournament and Mrs. Pinder represented the school very well.  The school made a profit of $260 from the Canteen and Admissions.  Mrs. Pinder is going to purchase two Chess Teaching Demonstration Boards for teachers to teach/coach chess as a classroom math strategy game, and for the use by the school’s chess club.

 

Basketball – Congrats to our Boys basketball team, they made it to the semi-finals.  The Girls basketball team won one of their games in the divisional finals. 

 

Indoor Soccer – Mrs. Evans is coaching indoor soccer for Intermediate students during lunch recesses on Mondays.

 

Speed Stacking – Ms. Bryant and Mr. Ross will be starting this event next week.

 

TV Turnoff Challenge takes place March 31st to April 4th.  There are daily announcements encouraging students to be more active and accept the challenge.  The Log forms will be sent home with this week’s Weekly Update.

 

Healthy Lunches Challenge – All classes had great participation during the challenge.  Mr. Ross’s class won the draw and received compartmentalized lunch containers as prizes.

 

Jump Rope for Heart and Hoops for Heart will take place in May.  There will be an Assembly to inform all the kids.

 

Cross Country Road Races and Track and Field will start as soon as the snow melts.

 

 

 

 

 

VII.     Principal’s Report

School Council Forum

April 10th, 6:30 – 9:00pm Bayridge Secondary School will be hosting a School Council Forum.  Guest speaker is Max Valiquette.  Topics include how changes in the media, culture, advertising and communication influence youth and the implications for schools and home.

 

Maternity Leave – Jennifer Lloyd (grade ¾ teacher) is on Maternity Leave.  Mark Blackett has stepped in to cover her leave and will start on Monday.

 

Lockdowns – The school is going to start to practice “Lockdown” procedures over the next three months.  There will be delicacy in the information that is given to the Kindergarten to Grade 3 classes.  We don’t want to scare the children during this time, but do want to teach them the proper way of handling certain situations.

 

Character Education – This initiative refocuses the schools efforts to remind students of the various character attributes that we value most.  A list was handed out with sample attributes.  The school would like to take at least 5 attributes from the list to focus on.  Some suggestions were: Fairness, Respect, Responsibility, Empathy and Punctuality.

 

Progress Reports – They will be sent home on Friday, March 28th.

 

Other Business

 

There was discussion around where the power of authority lays between Yard Duty Supervisors, Teachers, etc.  One parent mentioned that her child was in need of adult assistance in handling a troublesome situation and couldn’t get the assistance of the Yard Duty Supervisor for one reason or another.  The child told her teacher upon return to class and was told that “what happens on the yard stays on the yard”.

 

ACTION:  Ms. Rawson will look into this matter.

 

VIII.    New Business

School Beautification Project - Jeff Scott, the arborist, will come out in April after the snow melts to make recommendations on what our school yard needs.  He has already spoken with the School Board and everything is set.

 

Home Depot - Amanda is still going to look into the Home Depot Sharing Program.

 

Pop Cans – Geri Shortt is still looking into recycling pop cans to raise money for the school.

 

“Sports Day”- It was mentioned that the school should have a “Favourite Sport” Spirit Day in place of “Hockey” Day.  This allows all kids to participate.

 

IX.       Meeting Adjourned