YRDSB



Redstone Parent Council – October 2, 2017

Attending

|Wendy Thompson (Principal) |Bahar Jalili |

|Linda Taglieri (Vice Principal) |Yan Wang |

|Doug Inglis (Teacher Rep) |Juan Jaime Barreto |

|Caroline Dawn (Teacher Rep) |Varinder Bhabra |

|Maria Konstantopoulos (Co-Chair) |Yvette Nazarian |

|Jeff Young (Co-Chair) |Bonnie Ta |

|Karren Lee (Co-Secretary) |Elahe Ranjbar |

|Vivian Murray-Black (Treasurer) | |

|Niki Koutsovasilis | |

Call to order at 7:07pm

Jeff read the Land acknowledgement.

There was a motion to accept the Minutes for the September 11 meeting.

Moved: Jeff

2nd: Doug

PASSED

Teacher’s Rep Report – Doug Inglis and Caroline Dawn

Here are recent and upcoming academic, social, and extra-curricular school events:

School Wide…

● Mathletes - on October 2 and 3, this organization returns to Redstone for another year of fun, collaborative and non-competative math activities for students in grades 2 - 6. Intermediate students will be involved as team leaders, with classes scheduled over the two days in the gym. Families are invited to participate together on the evening of Tuesday Oct. 3 from 5:30 (registration) to 7:15.

● Character Assemblies and First Nations’ Grandfather Teachings - this year, we have changed the format and schedule for our character assemblies. In support of First Nations’ education, we are connecting our character traits with the 7 Grandfather Teachings (honesty, truth, humility, love, respect, wisdom, bravery). Teachers will share and discuss formally and informally about Indigenous history and culture throughout the year, and the character traits and Grandfather teachings will be framed as an integrated whole. We will have 3 character assemblies throughout the year, hosted by division, which will focus on this holistic perspective. Students will continue to receive certificates each month in their classes and be recognized in our newsletter for the character trait of the month, and we will acknowledge the recipients at the assemblies.

● Picture Day – Say “Cheese!” Wed. Oct. 25 is picture day for individual students and classes.

● Terry Fox Foundation Fundraiser – we had another successful fundraising campaign this year, with students and staff donating ‘toonies for Terry’ or ‘fivers for Fox.’ We wrapped up the event with a walk around the Redstone community on the afternoon of Thursday September 28. While the total amount raised is not yet determined, some individual classes had extraordinaty results - Mr. Mangaloglu’s grade 7/8 students and families donated $250 themselves!

● Well-Being Initiative - on the afternoon of Oct. 3, Ms. Taglieri, Ms. Wong and Mr. Inglis will attend a planning session in support of the Board’s Well-Being Strategy. The strategy is based on the integration of programs and initiatives that address the 4 components of positive mental health, equity and inclusive education, safe and accepting schools, and healthy schools. The planning will help us meet our own goals as outlined in our Redstone School Improvement Plan (SIP)

● Orange Shirt Day - This was our first spirit day of the year last Fri. Sept. 29; participation by students and staff was outstanding. The orange shirt day movement started in 2013 to highlight the pain and suffering of thousands of Indigenous children who were sent to residential school throughout the last two centuries.

● Halloween Parade and Dance – primary students will parade throughout the downstairs hallways and classrooms in their costumes from 9:15 - 9:45 on Tues. October 31. Also, students in all divisions will attend a Halloween dance in the gym. Each division will have an hour to dance, participate in contests, and win prizes. Very scary!!

Primary (K – 3)

● Mathletes - as above, grade 2 and 3 classes are scheduled to participate on Oct. 2 and 3

Junior (4 – 6)

● Cross-Country Team –The Redstone team, comprised of students in grades 4 – 8, participate in the area cross-country meet on Wed. Oct 4th, at Richmond Green. Our athletes have been training very hard every Tuesday and Thursday morning, and we appreciate the guidance and direction of Ms. Cookson and Mr. Hynd. Ms. Wong has also provided organizational support. We wish our students much success at the meet!

● Mathletes - as above, junior classes are scheduled to participate on Oct. 2 and 3

Intermediate (7 – 8)

● Cross-Country Team – as above

● York Region Public Health – nurses from YRPH attended Redstone last Fri. Sept. 29 to administer vaccines to gr. 7 students.

● Mathletes - as above, intermediate students will be team leaders for various math events in the gym.

Administrator’s Report – Wendy Thompson and Linda Taglieri

EQAO – People can access results from any school on the Website. Redstone’s results were presented

Primary – Reading 83%, Writing 89%, Math 79%

Junior – Reading 80%, Writing 84%, Math 67%

This includes ALL students in the school, including exempted students (their 0% would pull our school percentage down).

Schools use the scores and information gained from EQAO to determine where the focus for improvement should be. This is only one assessment tool that is used – there are many others.

SIPSA (School improvement plan) – Math is a large focus – How can we use the things that are making us do well in literacy and use that to improve our math? Working on home connections to improve math as well – Math Prodigy – connect what kids are doing at school once they go home – productive use of electronics in an engaging way. We are currently below the standard in math in the Junior division. Target plan is to improve students from a Level 2 to a Level 3 in Math.

Mental health, well-being, modern learning are also targets of SIPSA, along with teaching math in a way that will encourage math longevity – develop skills and understanding that will carry students forward in math in the long term.

Today, we were granted $1000 for a well-being initiative through Pro-Grant – Council to decide how to spend this – will discuss options.

Quest – November 15, 16, 17, 2017 – This is an opportunity for students, families and educators from around the world to get together and conduct personalized learning sessions, along with breakout sessions to sign up for so they can learn even more. Ms. Ciani is taking some intermediates. Well-being is a big focus at Quest, with keynote speakers to engage the audience.

Treasurer’s Report – Vivian Murray-Black

There was a discrepancy this month between the numbers, and things are not balancing. This is to be investigated further with Ms Nasser. Reporting from the system may have a glitch. $1827.84 needs to be paid out for milk, and we still owe the Greenies approximately $60. The approximate true balance is $2300, not $2423.88 as shown on the statement.

It was noted that we are charged a 3% transaction fee for Cash online transactions.

Co-Chair Report – Jeff Young and Maria Konstantopoulos

Movie license - There was discussion on the purchase of a movie license, and council is not in favor of purchasing a license so there will be no movie night this year. We will determine a different family event to hold – ie: Family skate night? Dance night?

Principal profile review – If anyone on council feels there is anything to add or change in regards to the Principal profile that Maria has circulated, please reply by the deadline to Maria. If there is nothing to add, please reply that all is fine.

Fundscrip – Fundscrip fundraiser will take place in late November – dates to be finalized at the next meeting

Milk program update – New milk term has launched without issue. There may have been a couple of late orders accepted, and orders may have to be adjusted slightly.

Fundraiser – Donation drive – A motion was put forth to conduct the donation drive prior to fundscrip.

Moved – Karren

2nd Maria

PASSED.

The donation drive will take place October 30 – November 10. Bahar will revise the letter than goes out asking for prize donations for the raffle that is conducted as an incentive during the donation drive. This letter will go out to the Community on paper October 6, and will also come out in the Friday news. Doug will communicate the information to the teachers as well in hopes that they will have donations of prizes to offer. Bahar will have this letter ready by October 4th, and Bonnie and Juan Jaime will copy and collate on October 5th, ready for distribution October 6th.

Prize donations will be due by October 24th. Karren will revise the Fundraiser letter by Thursday October 26th by Noon, and will email it to Vivian so that she can be copy and collate it, ready for distribution October 27.

We will determine if we can collect all donations through School Cash Online so that counters will not be needed. Someone will still need to generate the raffle entries (cut into strips the names from the report of who has donated – Ms. Nasser to print off this report) and will need to conduct the raffle on the 2 Fridays during the drive (November 3, 10). Money raised through the donation drive to be used towards the purchase of technology, student wellness, and other curriculum-enhancing endeavors. Council decided not to support Grow and Agendas this year. Other things that we will potentially support:

Technology, Forest of Reading, Grade 8 Grad, Possible purchase of a math app, Jungle Sports, Mathletes, purchase of recess equipment. At the meeting after the drive, we will decide how much money will go towards what initiative, based on how much we raise.

Philanthropic events: Do 2 events this year – 1 local, 1 world-related Local event to take place before the holidays – It was decided that a Toy Drive will take place – info to follow. A food bank will also happen in the school prior to the Holidays. In the new year, we will conduct a milk bag weave – we have lots of milk bags – possibly do a family night of weaving?

Other Business -

Flower pots and curb appeal – It was moved that $250 be allocated as a budget for flower pots / plants / other curb appeal items

Moved – Doug

2nd – Maria

PASSED

Next meeting will be Monday, November 6, 2017 – 7:00pm.

Motion to adjourn – Vivian

Second – Maria

Meeting adjourned at 9:00pm.

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