Minutes February 5, 2018

LPCI School Council Meeting

Attendees: Anna Richter, Dorothy Carson, Claire Murphy, Anne Marie Armstrong, Debbie Weiner, Veronica Bak, Jennifer Wilmer, Lana Sheinbaum, Julie Sole, Erika Boone, Liz Hanson, Gillian Wyatt, Suzanne Sparrow, Oyvind Haga, Bryan Seaton, Beth Wood, Kelly Green, Lauralyn Johnston

Important Dates:

  • Feb 8 – Semi Formal – Bring Proof of payment by Feb 6th (Parent consent also needed)
  • Feb 5-9 – Charity Week  (Friday extended lunch)
  • DECA- Also this week
  • Feb 8th – look for interim report card.
  • Feb 13th – 250 Lawrence Community meeting – 7pm @ LPCI, Library
  • Feb 14th – Staff Appreciation Breakfast – Bring donations 7:30 am Library
    • Feb 15th – parent teacher interviews
    • Feb 16th – Last official PA day
    • March 1 – Parent Social & Silent Auction – Safari’s sagoto.com/lppc/social
    • Kiwanis coming up (March 1&2)
  1. Student Council Update – Ada Celik, Ta’Ziyah Jarrett
    • Dance Show took place last week Thurs Feb 1 & Fri Feb 2. It was a big success and supported Camp Oochigeas.
    • December the student council ran a Toy Drive
      • Toys went to Toy Mountain through CHUM
    • 24 hour Challenge recently took place
      • Kids stay at school for 24 hours and have activities. It’s a fundraisier. $125 / child. Money went to food supplies and some to charity. 300 bagels were donated. Some money donated to the school for Health and Wellness.
        • Parent questions regarding the student cost of participation – is this accessible to all? Student leaders/staff will review.
      • Upcoming Events
        • Semi Formal – This Thursday – Semi – Sold on Cash on line, $22, Deadline is 2/5/18
          • Bring form payment to school Feb 6/18
          • Parent consent form – in the office
        • Charity week
          • Friday – big booths and extended lunch to use pre-purchased tickets to use as cash. Buy tickets before Friday. Buy the tickets 10 tickets for $5, 20 for $10. Sold in front of display case every day at lunch.
        • Family sponsorship – New student initiative in December each class got a list of what the family required. As a class they bought the individual things.
          • Parent question as to whether this could be better communicated/organized next year – discrepancy between classes (some give $5 each, others donate…great initiative, are there ways to improve?)
        • DECA Provincials coming up Friday at the Sheraton Centre.
        • Principal update – Plan this year was for fewer student supported charities and do it better (make a bigger impact on smaller number of charities).
  1. Chair’s Report – Erika Boone
    • Approval of Dec 4th minutes – First approval Dorothy Carson, Second approval – Anna Richter
    • Health & Wellness Centre Renovation update
      • What it is: Refers to the old weight room in basement and adjoining shower room. Idea is to get the wall removed between the two rooms, create big open space for multi-purpose room, for classroom, extra curricular .. Two new Phys ed curriculum leaders are very supportive. School wants a flagship room for all health and wellness activities, dance, yoga, stretching, classes..
      • Update:
        • Not where we want to be, Principal still waiting to get approvals.
        • Board is still saying working towards doing the upgrades.TDSB thinks taking down the wall is too big of a job and too messy of a job and too expensive. Their counter proposal is to shut the space off and not deal with it, and create opening in classroom adjacent (that is currently used) and create this space opening, will cost $75,000 – 100,000 and they’d paint and spruce up the room.
      • Issues:
        • LP not top of priority list due to where we are in the board (108th on LOI). The board has $3.7B backlog of repairs yet LP has very poor facilities for phys ed.
        • We can’t raise money for the capital funds – walls/windows/.. Has to come from the ministry.
        • LP is one of many of 583 schools that doesn’t have air conditioning. Not one working space with air conditioning. A motion was passed for heat days, so if temperature high, they’ll be considered heat days.
      • School Reaction/ Next Steps:
        • Erika’s unhappy with lack of progress. Original idea has been approximated to cost $250,000-$500,000 and has to be done through the Board. Waiting to hear what the rules are so we know how to proceed.
        • Erika to meet with Vickie Branco to discuss further.
        • Erika went to Deer Park Joint Ward forum. The meeting was dominated by questioning the potential loss of the gifted program. Erika asked how the board will address needed facility improvements, especially when Health and wellness is a board initiative.
        • Erika asked how to prioritize the needs and requests and any ways to partner / creative ways. Response was only ‘good question’. Priority is based on safety.
        • School is going to start buying equipment, but no plan how we’ll use it.
        • Erika’s comment: We may need to raise our voice to get things done.
        • One parent is urban planner and works at the City. Stated that Section 37 – can be capital project if serves the community affected by new people that are coming in.
  • Joint Ward Forum – January 23rd
    • See John Molloy’s video response on TDSB website to the Enhancing Equity Task Force Report
    • One item is professional learning. Very big and broad. Until action plans are narrowed down, it’ll be awhile until we see outcome from the task force.
    • French program will be first program reviewed to ensure effectiveness of the program and how resources are used, and provide recommendations.
    • Regarding streaming changes – 16% of TDSB are in applied and of those 60% have special education needs. Small group of kids. 8-12 kids out of 300 will be distributed.
    • Principal Comment: 2019/2020 is when the restructuring begins, starting with grade 9. Applied classes are 6 or 8 now but later it’ll be larger classrooms. Next year the staff will develop strategies for kids at all the different levels for 25 kids in the class.
  • Ward 8 Creativity Workshop – Feb 6th
    • Wellness focus (teachers, students, parents)
    • One was in December. Angela P attended with another teacher, Erika and students. Ward program, sponsored by Jennifer Arp is Feb 6th working as a team of students/parents/teachers and focus is health and wellness.
  • 250 Lawrence Community meeting – Feb 13th (7pm @ LPCI, Library)
    • See Flyer
    • All local groups are opposed and getting ready for OMB May 22nd.
    • It’ll affect the school population, traffic, use of community fields,..
    • Issue raised from local groups is Sewer system under the building will affect the Douglas ravine.
  • Staff Appreciation Breakfast – February 14th (7:30 am Library)
    • See sign up for contributions.
    • Looking for baked goods and fruit. Let Erika know if you are interested to donate.
  • Upcoming Speaker suggestions
    • From received pro-grant money.
    • Erika’s looking for suggestions for April 9th Council meeting
      • Preparing for College & University, Educational Consultant
      • Artificial intelligence
    • Fall Direct Donation results
      • 68 families = $6500.00
      • 1150 students, so 600 families.
      • Money goes to student enrichment funds. Details in prior meeting minutes how students can apply for requesting funds.
      • In prior years the direct donation went at the start of the year. Principal was hesitant to ask for money at the beginning of year. The $60 from beginning of the school was a student activity fee for the yearbook, agenda.. it was not a donation to the parent council.
    • Parent Social & Silent Auction – March 1st !!
      • Tickets on sale. Student talent recruiting to play music.
      • Buy tickets at: sagoto.com/lppc/social
      • $25 / ticket – includes appetizers and small school donation
      • Funds raised to go the school Health and Wellness initiative
  • Dorothy said thank you to Erika for all the work she does on the parent council and on the school’s behalf.
  1. School’s Report – Principal Joel Gorenkoff
    • Communication
      • Very important and he wants to understand why kids aren’t finding out about things.
      • School Calendar – Starts with the calendar at the beginning of the year, it’s recommended to look at that calendar to ask your kids in advance.
      • Twitter – Watch the twitter feed. Ruth Kelly monitors
      • The Eye – they’re adding attachments to ensure we’re as well informed as can be. Please review and also look at the calendar.
      • Outside sign – is operational.
      • Phone messages – if your kids are late / missing. You’ll also get other frequent memos.
      • Google Classroom – many teachers are using of what’s going on in classrooms.
      • If not sure – call the office.
    • Important Dates:
      • Last Monday – First African Heritage assembly at LP, empowered
      • Bell Let’s talk day – How to get support if you need support
      • 2/6/18 – MADD is back, drugs and driving will be discussed.
      • Kiwanis festival coming up. Great event for kids.
      • Report cards – this week. Feb 8th – look for report card. It’s an interim report card.
        • Details on parent teacher interviews on Feb 15th.
      • Last official PA day Feb 16th
    • Innovation & Directions
      • Learning about what kids are doing in class:
        • Shared handout ‘tdsb Global Competencies’ = New world is a global world and need to change the approach to learning.
          • What the kids need in 2020, 2030..
          • Key areas: Critical Thinking & Problem Solving, Global Citizenship and Character, Communication, Collaboration & Leadership, Creativity Inquiry and Entrepreneurship.
        • Challenge can be class sizes.
      • New report card coming that will capturing the global competencies.
      • Expectation – kids will get into richer ways of using technology, and kids manipulating the cyber world.
      • 2 interesting examples the students taught the class:
        • 3D printing across the curriculum – A student’s journey
          • Grade 12 student mimicked a Wonderland ride, used 3d Printing and hooked it up to a motor.
        • Collaboration to foster creativity and digital literacy in the classroom
          • Grade 10 student did an interesting hybrid fairy tale using technology to speed it up and taught all the teachers what they had done.
  1. Other Business
  2. Next Meeting: April 9th 7pm in the library