ERS COUNCIL MEETING MINUTESERS COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
DECEMBER 21, 2011 8pm
IN ATTENDANCE:
Jen Feikes
Andrea Rankin
Darlene Bartha
Debra Anstey
Sharon Blyth
Irene Zinkan
New vs. Old Math Teaching: Spoke about article in Globe and Mail sent out by Jen Feikes regarding new math. Deborah to contact Angela Flynn who is the district’s math consultant to see if she could come and speak with School Council about new vs. old mathematics teaching.
Nutritional advisory committee is requesting a member from council to attend meeting Jan 11, 2012. Irene Zinkan has volunteered to attend on behalf of council and report back at next meeting.
Composting- Mlle Alairie has set up composting at ERS and would like a parent volunteer to organize the transport of it to the CCHS.
Volunteer Coordinator: Spoke about the need to have someone to take over role of volunteer coordinator.
Collected clothes at ERS to give to Exshaw School. Big thanks from Exshaw to ERS!
Global Citizenship: Darlene spoke about an initiative she is interested in developing.We decided on our May Dance fundraiser to go towards 2 things: our global citizenship focus and helping towards funding Sue Bjorge IF she decides to go on the teacher's trip in July to Sierra Leone. We talked of our global citizenship focus to be the same as the Bicycle Cafe guys focus of "Mother and Children in Sierra Leone" which is MDG #4+5 that our kids will learn about in the play performed at an April assembly.
As well, a poverty awareness seminar is being suggested where any grade that is interested could put on a play based upon the theme of global poverty. Jan 16th there will be an assembly at ERS. The group from the Bicycle Café is attempting to raise money for maternal & child health in developing countries & they will be at our school to speak about this.
Spoke about tying in to this a BIKE-A-THON to help support the group.
Possibility of creating a school T- Shirt as part of fundraising & having a contest for a logo made by the kids.
Deborah Anstey- Principal’s Report:
-spoke about the 3 year plan & the need to not reinvent it.
-Kathleen Matheson is still unable to be back at school. Susan Morley will be teaching music to the children until she can return.
- Spoke about Learning Support Team- building on capacity and doing more training with teachers.
- Question about receipts for library and grade level books for classrooms- receipts to be kept and forwarded to Jodie Hurry (treasurer).
- Feedback from teachers regarding IEPT’s was that they were not strong enough and were a slow process. Some parent feedback was that certain parents were disappointed that their previous file was not carried forward at least to help prepare the new IEPT’s. Parents are concerned they aren’t yet being seen for their children. The situation was not helped by the lack of technological support.
Feed back regarding report cards- Jen. Concern over what “meeting” grade level really means? Deborah explained it can be a wide variance as meeting equates to achieving a 50% in a certain area up to 75%.
-Parents feed back was it was a bit too vague. Goal setting from children was considered a good initiative by most parents. Parents want to see teachers’ comments to get a better feeling of what their child is achieving and where they need support.
8. E-mail monthly calendars to parents which indicate pizza days, spirit building days, etc.
Meeting adjourned 9:30pm