School Council Minutes - January 2025

Land Acknowledgement

Approval of last meeting minutes

Budget Review

Teacher/Principal’s Report

• December
  • Grade 3 concert - Normally we have grade 3 and 4 but Mme Sciberras was on leave. We were almost at gym capacity with just grade 3’s (we have 6 grade 3 classes this year)
  • Spirit week
  • Hot chocolate day
  • Assembly that highlighted Christmas, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah
• January
  • Trivia competition (Reach for the Top) - 9 students participated and went with Mme Johnson
  • Info session for Grade 8’s from Bill Hogarth about expectations - they will visit BHSS later this year
  • Volleyball tournament away for junior boys
  • Volleyball tournament here for junior girls
  • Grade 8s to Snow Valley for tubing next week
• February
  • Grad photos - Feb 4th
  • Earth rangers presentation - Feb 5th
  • Lego robotics comp with Mme Jarred for intermediates
  • Feb 25th - boys int. basketball tournament here with M. Jarraba - Council will be selling snacks and drinks
  • Report cards - Feb 18th - electronically through YRDSB family dashboard
• Display case
  • Dec - Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah - created entirely by students
  • Students now want to be part of future displays (upcoming Lunar New Year, Tamil Heritage month)
  • They work on it during recess and lunch
• We got quotes for a new tent for sports events and tshirts
  • tent - $1084 + tax but only has “Sam Chapman” and not logo
  • t shirts - $19.56 each (tax included) and we would like 100
  • around $3000 total for both
  • There was a discussion on what type of shirts/pinnies we should get - gym teachers will provide feedback
• Cost sharing
  • allocated $4425 from the board and we put in same amount
  • We purchased 21 chromebooks
• Jananey and Mala prepared a video for Tamil Heritage month with 13 students and their parents/grandparents/cousins
  • The students acted out significant culture moments and what their culture means to them
  • Admin would like to share this with the board
  • This video will be played in all classrooms
  • Q: will this be the expectation moving forward for other cultural dates (that these are parent-lead)?
    • A: it’s important to have parent engagement but there’s also student-lead discussions going on - we can do both.
  • Q: Concern raised that we’re putting everyone in groups and perhaps seems not as inclusive as some cultural/heritages are not celebrated?
    • A: Take displays for example, even for Lunar New Year - not only Asian students were participating, all students were involved in creating the displays - instead of
      division, the students are brought together
  • Q: Can we send emails to parents to bring in artifacts/items for display? Can we send an email specifically for this rather than as part of a summary email
    • A: yes
    • Comment: YRDSB cultural days doesn’t necessarily match with other boards - for example Greek Heritage month - understanding it’s not possible to recognize all
      celebrations - it would be great to reach out to parents to fill in any gaps - Suggestion: Equity team/club to spearhead cultural/heritage celebrations - if we make it a club, we will need a teacher to lead it. Currently every teacher does an extra-curricular so having this be just student led in an ad-hoc manner was a way to work around
      this
• Update on SIP (School Improvement plan)
  • All school decisions are guided by the board - 3 key goals
    • instruction and assessment
      • how to use YRDSB tool “Tech selection tool”
      • helps to guide educators when they make decision about resources they use in the classroom to be responsive to students cultures and identities and ensure learning is relevant to students and their lives
    • mental health and well being
      • sense of belonging for students in SCPS discussion with teachers
      • started school wide inquiry - survey with students about belonging - what does it look like when you don’t belong?
      • did similar survey with staff
      • next steps to determine actions that can be taken school wide and within the classroom
    • equity goal
      • needs to be connected to dismantling anti-black racism strategy
      • with grade 5s doing some racial literacy work
      • how to address discrimination and hate - the other side - what is some of the learning and lessons that students can engage in that will help them with Black-affirming curriculum?
      • grade 7s - anti bullying pilot project, learning and conversations on anti-bullying and empowering students to speak up and be supportive
• Q: will the survey info be shared?
  • A: how do we make the student voice visible? discussed maybe putting it on the board or put something together to send to families. There’s a board in learning commons with notes from grade 3s on what they feel regarding belonging.
• Q: in the future can we include parents in these types of surveys as some kids may speak differently while at school vs at home
  • A: our surveys are anonymous to ensure honest answers are captured, the grade 3s did theirs as a class
• Q: Is there a boardwide survey as well?
  • A: yes - for grade 5-8s there were individual surveys (every child counts survey) - younger grades were done with families - school is provided school specific data - this data is used as baseline

Upcoming Events:

• Friday February 14 – Pancake Day/ Valentine’s Day
• May 13-19 Mental Health Awareness Week – Happy Pops Day
   

Q: What are classrooms or the school doing during this week?
A: we received mental health daily classrooms/lessons that have been shared with staff on a weekly basis - we try to embed this as part of the daily practice. Will connect with Mental Health Lead teacher for what will be done that week

June TBD Year End Event – Watermelon and/or Happy Pops Station

Grade 8 Grad - Tuesday June 24th

• Food trucks (2) will match the price from last year - $2200 + HST
• Photo booth - booked
• DJ - booked
• Balloon decor for stage - booked
• Not much more to do until close to grad
• order cakes from loblaws, drinks, favours etc

Fundraising

• Jan – selling Samosas in celebration of Tamil Heritage Month Can we do one next friday?, morning recess: 10 to 10:30, sell 2 for $1
• Other suggestions: Bubble Tea Day, Love Gelato
• Lunch
  • Kome/Astoria
  • We will discuss amongst the parents/volunteers to determine next steps
• - Can we have a lead for fundraising?
   

Special events

• Year-end SCPS Family event
• outdoor activities
• Food trucks
• will discuss in council group chat

• February 25, 2025 - Virtual
• April 9, 2025 - Virtual
• May 12, 2025 - Hybrid