Valleyfield Parent Council Minutes - April 12, 2017

Valleyfield Junior School

Minutes of School Parent Council Meeting

April 12, 2017

The meeting began at 6:20 p.m. with opening remarks from Jason Martin, Co-Chair.

The Agenda for the April 12, 2017 meeting was approved. 

Janet Churchill moved to have the minutes of the February 8, 2017 meeting adopted, seconded by Lorraine Vasilaros. Motion carried.

There were no matters arising from the minutes.

Principal’s report

Ms Drimmie Miller explained the process for the projected number of students per grade and how many teachers will be required for 2017/2018 school year.  Based on the data given, the following allocation will be made for 2017/2018: 3 kindergarten classes,  1 class of grade 1, 1 class of grade 2, 2 classes of 2/3 split, 1 class of 3/4  split, 1 class of 4/5 split. There will also be an additional teacher for a ½ day to reduce size of morning teaching for junior classes. There will be one French teacher per grade for French Immersion.  There will also be ½ a teacher for ESL, ½ day of library support and ½ day for extra help for children needing extra assistance, together with one  1 teacher for special education.

There are a few upcoming family events. Family skate night will be on April 24 and on May 9^th there will be a math literacy night, held at the school and hosted by the staff.

A percussion group, “Torque” will be coming for a school performance for all grades on May 3.

Ms Drimmie Miller and staff have committed to training in “Zones of Regulation” which is a program designed to teach children to regulate their behaviour.  The teachers were finding children at Valleyfield in need of this training, especially the Grade 2 children.  Children are taught to identify what emotional state they are in and then moving into a zone where they can learn best and behave best. The children are enjoying it.

Grade 5 and 6 Graduation is scheduled for June 28 in the morning at Valleyfield.

The Dance a thon was very successful and raised $4,452.25. Three classes had a pizza lunch for top fundraising.  The children learned dances in advance and then showed them off at the Dance a thon.  There was line dancing as well. There was a committee that decorated and did a terrific job.

Ms. Drimmie Miller advised that the new sound system purchased last year with fundraising money is great.  She thanked the Council.

There was a discussion around Council about giving an award at graduation.  Jason suggested that a special award be given by parent council to a top student.  Ms. Drimmie Miller cautioned that if council does adopt this award, to ensure that the award is based on character trait awards, or school marks, so it would be easy to back-up the award on paper, in case a parent ever challenged.

A parent suggested that council give all the graduating children a momentum instead of one award as parents are not directly involved with the children and it would be hard for them to judge who would get an award. It would be better if everyone received the same thing, ie. Flower, chocolate, yearbook.

There was a discussion about using Council funds for a graduation luncheon and yearbook, however no decision was made.

Teacher report

Ms. Vasilaros advised that clubs and teams are going strong.  There are currently girl’s junior soccer, track and field, primary reading club, puzzle club, dance club, yoga club, and lego club. 

Ms. Vasilaros advised that the kindergarten classes are going to the aquarium next week.

Graduation plans are being made.

Discussion

At this point in the meeting a discussion took place between Jason Martin Co chair and Michelle Drimmie Miller Principal with respect to the dance a thon funds.  Michelle maintains that the funds should remain as school funds because there was no participation of parent council at the dance a thon.  Jason maintains that he was unaware that this would be the case.  He would have been prepared to come and help, however he was told that Mr. K would be DJing and school was looking after things. 

Another discussion then took place between Jason and Michelle about the parent council bank account.  The parent council funds from last year’s dance a thon (2016) have been kept in the school account because council does not currently have a treasurer.  Michelle advised that two weeks ago Lisa the school secretary was added as a signing officer to the parent council bank account. A cheque was then signed to cover the expense of the silver birch books that were purchased by the school without any notice being sent to the co-chairs or council. The question was asked by Jason as to who signed the cheque. Michelle advised that Lisa and herself signed the cheque.  Jason was outraged that a signing officer was added to the council account without his knowledge.  Michelle advised that it was stated at a previous meeting that Lisa would be added as a signing authority.  Janet agreed that she remembers being told that Lisa would be added to the account.  Jason reiterated that he wasn’t aware of it and the fact that Michelle was also added without him being aware. After a lengthy back and forth discussion, Michelle left the meeting because she did not like the tone that was being taken by Jason.

After Michelle left, another discussion took place about why at the February meeting volunteers weren’t asked to assist with the dance a thon.  Lorraine explained that a lot of work was done by teachers in preparation for the dance a thon.

It was agreed that there was a miscommunication between council and the school about ownership of the dance a thon.  The Co-chair was unaware that the school was taking over responsibility and therefore would be holding the money in its fundraising account instead of handing money over to council.

Janet suggested that the discussion was becoming unproductive and that the meeting should move on.  Jason stated that he had nothing more to say.  Janet suggested adjournment and the parents agreed.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:22 p.m. due to conflict between the Co-chair and Principal.  No further meeting date was set.