Minutes January 21, 2013

LPCI School Council Meeting

Attendance: M. Rozenblum, C. Musselman, J. Barry, D. Boughner, L. Gray, L. Gleason, M. Pattison, A. Snoll, S. Kosmopoulos, H. Miller, H. Rosenberg, L. Bates, C. Caldwell, M. Gurgol, L. Jovanovic, A. Fonseca, L. Turkish, A. Yu, I. Rosenbluth, C. Poole, D. Rabinovitch, D. Boughner, M. Tam, P. Sweeney, G. Wyett, A. Cohen, K. Rein, L. Addis

  1. Welcome: A. Cohen
  2. Approval of December 10, 2012 School Council Meeting Minutes: Motion by G. Wyett

Second by P. Sweeney. Approved.

  1. Student Update: Students did not have a lot to report due to lack of extracurricular. These two points were made: 12/12/12 Photo was taken of Lawrence Park students – 12th hour, 12th minute. In addition, the students reported their Wednesday late starts have restarted.
  2. Prinicipal Update:

–       Find-it/Finish-it- TDSB program to give students the opportunity to complete an assignment prior to creation of 2nd terms reports.

–       Ms. Jovanovic discussed Long Term Occasional  and Contract teachers issues – advised an email to parents will be sent out shortly

–       Nancy Martins the new VP has started

–       Literacy test in April for Grade 10- LP will be offering prep sessions for students identified as requiring assistance. These sessions have proved valuable in the past.

–       February 15 – PA Day and February 18- Family Day

–       Any Events in the school calendar should be considered cancelled if they are outside of school hours.

–       L. Jovanovic  asked the teachers/staff what resources they need so their requests can be brought to Parent Council for funding. To date these items have been identified: computers, internet drops, photocopier, economic work books, graphic novels for library. Council will take the requests under consideration and bring a motion at a future meeting.

–       Enrollment for 2013/2014 school year: We have been classified as “limited optional attendance”. We are essentially full as we have no free space. Planning for 1200 students which is 100 more students than the 2012/13 school year.

–       Reports cards are been prepared. These are progress reports with a mark only except for the grade 10 Civics course reports.

  1. Winter Musicale – L. Addis  has put together a team of 31 parents to assist with the event.
  2. Budget 2012/13 – M. Tam expecting to have cash balance of approximately $3700.
  3. Speaking Engagement for May- Council advised we will look into speaker possibilities for May event. Suggestion made that perhaps this could be an event that would appeal to students as well as parents. Suggestions will be made at next meeting.
  4. Other Business: Tutoring at LP is still in place and occurring.
  5. Extra-curricular: A. Cohen thanked all the volunteers who have offered to step forward. Council has received approximately 700 addresses from parents which will allow Council to communicate with them directly instead of through the school administration as has happened in the past. The second is the small list of parents (approximately 35 people) who indicated they were interested in helping to organize extra curricular activities for the students. The second list is the one that will be circulated among the volunteers.

Council is trying to facilitate events to be run however recognizing that the risks and costs must be covered by the leaders of the events. D. Boughner presented  guidelines for activity leaders as follows:

A)   Consent form templates are available

B)   Supervision – parents must be present at events and there should be more than 1 adult present in all situations.

C)   Permitting of facilities is thru the TDSB

D)   Costs- all costs are to be downloaded to the parents of participants.

E)    Volunteers- we have a list and we have a new email system which Council can share with the Leaders. (see first paragraph)

F)    Equipment – some barriers to utilizing equipment. Do not assume you can use equipment(eg. Volleyballs). Always double check with Admin.

G)   Insurance/Risk- events offsite add another level of complexity and will take a great amount of time. Other parent councils recommend, where possible, hold the events on site.

&

Insurance- M. Freel pointed out that TDSB’s insurance coverage is unavailable. Some TDSB insurance might partially cover certain aspects but do not assume. Purchasing of outside insurance can be costly (eg. Skating event – 1 time event- insurance $350.). M. Freel going to try to get us more information for next meeting.  We will need a policy to cover all aspects of:

–       non sporting events

–       sporting events

Meeting Adjourned.