School Advisory Council (MPSAC) Meeting Minutes - April 7, 2025

1.Call to Order, Welcome and Land Acknowledgement (Sarah)

-Welcome, and Land Acknowledgement read by Sarah.

Admin Report (Linnet)

• There was a presentation at the school by the Aurora Cultural Centre, who have come in years past, as well. The presentation was excellent. Karima Essa is a Bollywood dancer who did a presentation on positivity, being yourself, modelling how to work through anxiety in a fun and energetic way which engaged all the children, a phenomenal performance which was attended by grades K-4. She also did a special workshop with just the Grade 4 students.
• Mr. Bernier’s and Ms. Poupart’s classrooms both have doors now, which means there is only one class left in the school still to get a door, Ms. Webb’s class. The other classrooms which do not have doors are the ones that have the accordion-style walls that cannot support a door, so the next goal will be to get a door on Ms. Webb’s class, and then every class that can support a door will have one. -The Portapak got new floors over March break.
• Ms. Durante, Ms. Farrell, and Mr. Brown’s classes recently visited the Whitchurch Stouffville Museum, thanks to the funding provided by Council and a Daytripper’s Grant which the classes jointly applied for. Ms. Ivory shared pictures taken at the schoolhouse of the visit, and the classes had a wonderful time.
• Update on Blueprint and Cost-sharing. Both programs are through YRDSB, but are two separate programs. Blueprint is a program with set goals for tech ratios for schools, looking at what schools have on hand, and helping to close the gap between what the schools have and the ideal ratio, keeping in mind what technology will be aging out soon. So through the Blueprint program they will soon be making purchases for Year Two, looking at an additional 21 Chromebooks.
• Staffing numbers have been received, they are not final, but currently allocations mean that there will be surplus of seven teachers .

Teacher Update - (Sandra Ivory)

Upcoming Family Engagement events: 

• Family Math Night, Tuesday, April 15, run by Ms. Aldrich, Ms. Farrell, and Ms. Ivory. Many families have already registered, will be a fun evening of math games and activities.
• The Spring Concert will be on Thursday, May 1, from 5:30 - 7:30. The Grade 8s have been working hard on their art projects for an art display, they will be displaying their art the night of the Spring Concert.
• FAST Program - run in conjunction with Family Services of York Region. The program is designed to bring families of younger children together in the community to build and foster connections and community. The program is open to families who have a child in grades K-2. The program runs on Thursday nights for seven weeks, and involves singing, dancing, and families take turns bringing and preparing a meal to share, the cost of the meal is provided and assistance is provided with preparation if needed. The program is looking for 10-12 families interested in participating.
• Gardening - Ms. Aldrich has noticed that there has been a lot of interest around planting and worms, and wanted to let Council know that they could reach out if they had questions, and email her for more information.
• The money for half of the teacher wish list has been transferred, and more will be transferred pending more fundraising.

Treasurer Report (Victoria and Michelle) 

• Victoria shared a summary that she had prepared in addition to the more lengthy budget document, to better clarify the numbers for Council.
• Categories were: Diversity Program, Field Trips, Fundraising, Gardening, Graduation, Hot Lunch, Technology, Wayne Wynn, Wishlist.
• $600 was transferred from Spirit Wear and Fundraising as voted on at the last meeting, to cover the extra cost of buses for the kindergarten field trips. Fundraising had some funds come out due to reimbursement to Board of online expenses for School Cash Online. Gardening money remained there, Devon asked if we could reach out to the teachers and let them know that the gardening money is there to spend if they wish for the school garden. Hot Lunch, $2,000 was transferred to the Teacher Wishlist, to cover the first half of the Teacher Wishlist purchases. The technology category had no change as of right now, due to an error in the cost-sharing order with the Board which is being corrected, the order will be put through again shortly once the error has been fixed.
• Michelle shared that fundraising made 155.47 on the last Movie Night. Which leaves 2,052.07 in funds that Council can currently use.

Hot Lunch Update (Michelle)

• Voting went well, everyone loved the idea of Mr. Sub, it won the vote by a wide margin.
• Feedback was also given on the survey, it turns out Santa Fe Pizza is very well-liked, the compliments will be passed on to Santa Fe Pizza.
• Mucho Burrito had some more constructive comments, things that people thought could be done better, the feedback will also be passed on in the hopes that we can find solutions to better improve the parent satisfaction with the orders, though the number of people ordering each week has remained about the same.
• About 30 orders for Mucho Burrito each week. -46 approximately for Zucca’s.
• Kid’s Kitchen around 40-50. Burger’s Michelle will send out the results of the survey, to let everyone know that Mr. Sub won the vote. This was shared in the newsletter as well.

Clothing Update (Michelle) 

• All the clothing has been moved to the room beside the Milk Room, near the office, where Council will be storing it for the remainder of the year. The clothing has mostly been organized on shelves and tables at the moment, however much of it, like winter coats and dresses would benefit from being hung, also would allow us to wheel out racks of clothes for various events. Michelle researched the best price and double racks are available at Walmart for $42.97 each. It was agreed that three racks would be the ideal number, which comes to approximately $150.00. Sarah proposed a motion to vote on spending the money to purchase the clothing racks, quorum was obtained.
• It was mentioned that if there was any formal wear or accessories that we might want to let the Grade 8s know about, not much at the moment, but could reach out to the community for donations if it would be beneficial, though Girls Inc. also runs a program providing free formal wear, so may not be necessary.

Movie Night Update (Sarah)

• With the FAST Program about to begin on Thursday nights for the next seven weeks, Council would no longer be able to have the gym on Thursday nights, so movie nights would have to be on a different night. It was proposed to do Monday Movie night instead, as the gym is not occupied for any permit activities currently on Monday nights. Monday Movies was proposed, with May 26th as a potential date, and a “May the Force Be With You” Star Wars theme. A voting form will be sent out for which Star Wars movie the community will enjoy, with the movie being picked before pizza sales commence, so that parents can decide prior to purchasing pizza whether they would want to attend that particular movie or not. Pizza orders would have to be in by May 21st, which gives a timeline for the movie selection and pizza preordering. Movie Night Subcommittee will meet in the coming weeks and discuss more details.

Bake Sale Update (Devon) 

• Bake Sale Subcommittee: Devon, Michelle, Jen S., Meagan, Lindsey.
• Bake sale is coming up fast! Will be on May 1, in conjunction with the Spring Concert. The bake sale will start early, we will advertise that it will start half an hour before the concert, so that people can make their purchases and find their seats.
• Devon is reaching out to bakers, will email all those who have already expressed interest in the coming days.
• Michelle will send an inform blast asking the school community for any interested bakers to contact the school.
• Gian expressed interest in having coffee as well as baked goods, and Sarah mentioned that many people asked about drinks last year, and it was agreed that this year we will sell drinks. Gian will look into the coffee, and we will set up a separate table for drinks as well as baked goods.
• Subcommittee will continue to meet and organize for bake sale, and provide updates to Council.

Other Business 

• Possible ideas for an event in June were discussed. Some suggestions were a BBQ, a fun run, a vendor fair, a family fun night, or some combination of all of those elements.
• An email will be sent out so that anyone interested in joining the planning subcommittee can respond and look for options and what is feasible for this fun event in June, and will report back to Council at the next meeting, which gives us a month to plan. The date would have to be a Monday in June, which the tentative date put forward was June 16th, pending discussion at the next meeting.

Motion to adjourn was called for by Sarah at 8:34 p.m., seconded by Devon.