École Squamish Elementary PACRegular Meeting Minutes

November 16, 2017

6:00pm

1. Adoption of Agenda: Heather Feeney, Kelly Nelson

2. Adoption of Previous Minutes: Leigh-Anne Kaiser, Kathryn Metcalfe

3. Treasurer’s Report ~ Leigh-Anne Kaiser1) Community Services Account: Currently has $27,000. Upcoming expenses include $3,000 for art,

$1,000 for uncashed checks. Total left in account after expenses is $23,000.2) PAC granted Leigh-Anne $51 transfer from Community Services Account to Gaming Grant for fees.3) Gaming Grant Account: Currently has $19,000.

5. PAC Businessi) Hot Lunch ~ Julie Miller/Celeste Bickford - Nov 24.

A. Going well. Rice Krispies being made. Always good to have volunteers day of. B. Pizza: No longer individually wrapping in tin foil. Whole box delivered to classroom with

correct slices, labeled for each classroom. Julie emailed teachers to let them know changes.C. Nester’s Card Draw: Drawing the winner during hot lunch prep. Posting video to PAC

Facebook.ii) Art Cards for Xmas ~ Heather Feeney

A. Can’t get cards ready before Santa letter writing day. Next year will start these in September so that is possible. This year, all classroom participating. Some creating holiday pictures, some not.

B. Heather getting all art by Tuesday and will mail into company. Parents will get a sample card back with a code on it to make their orders online. Each kid gets their own sample card back. Don’t need to order cards if you don’t want them.

C. PAC to advise parents the order by date to receive cards before school holiday break. iii) Glee Club - Every Friday at Long Recess facilitated by Melissa Braun from S.A.M. Grades 3-6

A. Club for Grades 3 and higher so all kids are at the same reading level, teaching style.B. Melissa teaching an extra day THIS Thursday for older kids who are just now joining the club.

Will catch them up on songs for Gondola Holiday Concert.iv) Gaga Ball ~ Julie Miller

A. Going well. Meeting tomorrow to review wood donations.v) Santa’s Workshop ~ Roslyn Semjanovs/Megan Ellis

A. Labels $ money collection this year will happen ahead of time. PAC will provide labels and teachers will prep. Ros sent email to staff to let them know the new process.

B. People and businesses have offered donations. Need place to store everything. Rose looking into use of the portable.

C. School requested collection happens on a couple specific days so not to conflict /w Christmas Care donations happening that same week (week of 12/4). Will collect donations early as well.

D. This year, left over donations cannot be stored at the school after the event.vi) Popcorn Day ~ Pennie Clarke

A. Ran smoothly. Collecting money day before was great.B. Laura sends home an email to remind parents to pay Monday.

vii)DeVry Poinsettias ~ Grade 5/6 FI fundraiser A. Going well. Plant Pick up on Dec 1

viii) Nester Cards ~ Offering a draw prize for participants. A. Prize is $25 gift card. Your name gets put in the draw for each $50 Nester’s Card you buy.B. Incentive helped. Sold $2,600 worth of cards instead of $1,100 worth.C. Laura will pull the prize winner during hot lunch. Julie will video draw and post to Facebook.

ix) Buddy Bench ~ Kathryn MetcalfeA. PAC approved planning for a bench. Katheryn to present plans and cost to build bench at

next PAC meeting.

B. Large campus makes hard for kids to find friends at recess. Bullying can be hard. Bench makes this easier. Symbol of anti-bullying, friendship, etc. Lots of schools have had good success with these. Great for building community.

C. Logistics: A. Bench needs to be permanent/solidly built, big enough for adults too. B. Kathryn has friend willing to build bench. C. David Daniels has business where he recycles materials & offered to help with

supplies/build. D. Can buy kits online, or have kids involved by decorating boards. E. Julie offered to look into requesting wood for bench from Gaga Ball contact.

D. Successfully Implement: A. Neat to unveil in Feb. during anti-bullying week. B. Include kids in making the bench so they’re proud of it. C. Teachers need to teach to it and refer to the bench often so kids are aware of

it/reminded.D. Mamquam Elementary School’s bench was headed by a student who is still there. Maybe

he/she could come talk to the kids at the bench unveiling assembly. x) School Spirit Wear ~ Laura Noaro

A. PAC approved spirit wear.B. PAC requested Laura to also price out track jerseys. May use SWAG profits to purchase

those.C. Next PAC Meeting: Laura bring t-shirt/hoodie samples.D. Great to use for school spirit: school spirit days, pep assemblies for track/basketball teams,

etc.E. Would not conflict with Grad hoodies because this is more for younger grades to wear while

attending this school. Grad kids sign their hoodies, etc. / different purpose.F. Vendor: Sea to Sky Promotions has good quality products. Also good because you don’t have

to bulk order and then sell. Products are made to order. Just need 12 order minimum. Easy for SQE.

G. Timing: Sales 3 times a year: start of school, before Christmas, Spring.H. Design: Laura to work /w company. Small logo /w big letters, “Ecole Squamish Elementary.”

Keeping simple so kids can wear multiple years. May do a clan thing if it works well.I. Products: first offer t-shirt, dry fit shirt, pullover hoodie, zippered hoodie, pants. Can add

water bottles, cinch bags, etc. later. xi) Secretary ~ Only a month left to find a secretary for the PAC. Duties include: Taking minutes at

meeting and preparing them for publication; Attending all PAC meetings; Keep track of all PAC correspondence; Could also include creating graphics for Facebook Page (events calendar etc). Time commitment 3-4 hours per month, 2 hours for PAC meeting and 2 hours misc.

A. Celeste Bickford volunteered to take and publish notes.B. Julie Miller volunteered to make Facebook graphics.

xii)PAC Constitution – PAC to review and make any necessary edits to its constitution.A. Changes made and updated constitution will be posted soon.

xiii) Folie En Rouge – Christine McLeodA. Next year expanding to Gd. 4-6B. Last dance had 300 students. Half of those were from SQE.C. PAC hosting concession stand again. Johanna cannot lead, so will need a volunteer for that.

xiv) iGuy/iGirl – Christine McLeodA. Rose says school developing a curriculum plan across the board for all grades, how teachers

can implement and supplement current curriculum (Sexual health, digital citizenship, etc). B. Parents wanting to know current sex-ed curriculum can look at Ministry of Education website.

Choose by grade, then subject.C. How does iGuy/iGirl affect gender neutral kids? How to deal with this safely? Rose to talk to

Christine McLeod/Kate O’Conner for a solution.

6. Principal’s Report ~ Rose Mackenziexv)Parking:

A. Issues: parking at school drop off and pick up is unsafe for pedestrians, round about bottle necks, and there is no secondary exit for emergency vehicles. New construction will aggravate problems.

B. Recommended SolutionsA. Build community better than enforcing policies. School community involves parents. Have

mindfulness signs. Parents model kindness. Do a campaign /w kids & posters.

B. Kelly Nelson requested a committee of 2-3 people who brainstorm solutions. Kelly may talk with Rose more after meeting. Committee not approved, but good discussion at PAC meeting regarding possible solutions.

C. Other options discussed were closing roundabout, using bus lane, parent/student volunteers, kiss and ride, various longer term pedestrian and vehicle traffic routes to/from school.

C. Rose: Her experience that you won’t be able to solve parking lot problems. A. District feedback is that SQE is actually much better than some schools in the district. Kiss

and ride only works for schools where parents don’t park and come in to drop kids off.B. Traffic engineer suggested blocking off the roundabout. Rose is ok with that.C. Not ok with policing lot. Parents/staff get abused by angry parents. Not good.D. After School: SQE staff not supervising kids (except for bus kids), parents responsible.

Tracking bus kids. Jodi (supervising bus kids, will have a book with kids’ photos to reference which bus kids have caught the bus.

D. District looking at traffic flow in conjunction /w nearby Jumar construction. May put school entrance in back /w a drop off section. In developer’s best interest to increase goodwill /w neighbors.

xvi) Music Program, prep timeA. All kids except intermediate French have a music class during school.B. Every teacher currently gets 100 minutes of prep time every week where the kids are

somewhere besides the classroom. Schools can use that in several ways. Our VP contract is for her to teach .8 of the year. Better to have a VP in a non-enrolling position, & administrative staff cannot do learning support & ELL, so that leaves only teacher prep time to fulfill contract requirements.

C. VP has been teaching the children the core competencies. VP is now teaching social studies while ELL teacher is teaching French to the English classes. Teachers prefer a variety, not just music.

D. Parents can find out what their kids are learning during teacher prep time by asking the office.E. PAC recommended for intermediate French Immersion students to participate in Holiday

Concert. Combine Grades 4-6 and teach them all the same song(s). Have the 4-6 French students sing both nights and kids can pick which night to attend.

F. Include Glee Club in evening concert? Maybe not because backstage logistics would be difficult as they wouldn’t all be in the same classroom. School assembly might be a better option.

7. Adjourni) Next Regular PAC Meeting scheduled for 6:00pm Thursday, December 21, 2017 in school

library.