LPCI School Council Meeting
In attendance:J. Bragg, W. Sheremata, S. Kopyto, A. Yu, M. Rosenblum, L. Turkish, D. Boughner, L. Mackenzie, A. Dean, J. Jaffary, E. Boone, S. Paetkau, P, Trenton, D. Carson, A. Fonseca, L. Gray, C. Poole, L. Jovanovic, G. Wyett, P. Sweeney
- Welcome by Co-Chairs (G. Wyett/L. Gray)
Lisa thanked all the parents who have been members of School Council this year for their support, and thanked all the parents who have helped with events this year. - Review and approval of agenda
Motion – J. Bragg
Seconded by – L. Gray
Passed - Approval of May 5, 2014 Council Meeting Minutes
It was noted that an item that was discussed at the May Council meeting was not reflected in the minutes. As a result, the minutes will be revised and will be brought to Council in September for approval. - Student Update
Students were attending the Athletic Banquet so no report was made. - Principal Update (L. Jovanovic)
- Today was locker clean out date, trying to get students to start organizing and returning items
- Athletic Banquet is being held tonight
- June 3 – June afternoon, the lunch hour will be extended by an hour for special activities and a BBQ
- June 3 – High School 101 evening for incoming grade 9 students
- June 4 – moratorium starts before exams (no tests, assignments), extra help offered for students
- June 5 – credit rescue, teachers will review marks of students that are close to 50, students will receive extra help
- June 6 – yearbook distribution, or students can pick it up at the main office next week
- June 9 – EQAO for grade 9 math, tutorial day for grade 10 – 12
- June 10 – PD session for teachers on mental health
- June 10 – exams start
- June 19 – final locker clean out; prom
- June 24 – mark review, students can come and see their teachers and review their exams (9:00 – 11:00 am)
- June 25 – Graduation
- The school will follow the EQAO guidelines for cheating during exams; students have been made aware of this; if caught cheating students will receive a mark of 0.
- Ms. Jovanovic clarified that students in gr 11 and 12 can take a full course load of 8 credits if they want to. The minimum credit count permitted is 6 (any less than this and students are no longer considered to be full time students) but 8 is permitted. Some parents and students had been under the impression that students in grades 11 and 12 were not allowed to take a full course load of 8 credits.
- Last year the first exam period was disrupted by a bomb threat. Hopefully that will not happen again; however, if there is any disruption, it will be dealt with, and i If possible, instead of re-scheduling any disrupted exams to another day, the exams will be written later on the original day.
- Update on mental health (S Paetkau) – Committee met last Thursday. Awareness week was held May 3-9; included BBQ, messages on lockers, mindfulness in 8 classes. Mindfulness will be the theme for coming year. 25 teachers will do an 8-week program. There will be a mindful moment every day starting in Sept. (have minute of silence during morning announcements and read a quote, meant to help them relax). May use the student leaders to help lead these sessions. There has been a proposal by teachers for early release on 4 or 5 days next year so kids can attend school sporting or music events. Helps to engage kids, helps kids feel part of school community. Hope it will be positive for all students. Will have to consider how teachers will make up this time in the curriculum.
- There was a discussion by parents about the amount of work at this time of year – summatives, review, exam prep. Can dates for summatives be spread out so they are not all due at same time and so there is more time between summatives and exams? The school is on a schedule, the summative period is started as soon as allowed by the TDSB, students know far in advance when their summatives will be but a review can be done to see if the assignments can be spread out.
- There was a discussion about the music program and the teaching complement for next year. Lillian indicated that the school will have more staff next year since the number of students has increased. The enrolment is growing in certain courses such as business, mandarin, and hospitality, so the school needs more teachers in those areas. The number of students requesting music has been declining. There was also a .5 surplus teacher, a position that has to be filled first (i.e. – that teacher must be pulled back into the school compliment before additional teaching positions can be posted). The band teacher has announced his retirement. In order to keep 2 full-time music teachers, the school would need 12 sections of music but only has 8 based on current student course requests. Due to the retirement, the school had to declare a vacancy for music. As the school had to bring back the .5 teacher who had been declared surplus, and with only 4 sections of band to fill, the position to replace the retiring band teacher was posted as a .5 position. The only way the position could be posted as a full time position was if the applicant could teach both band and hospitality, and to date no such applicant has been found. As the seniority/bumping period is not over until June 9, no teacher placement is final and the school administration is under a “cone of silence” imposed by the TDSB with regards to announcing any movement of teachers. There were concerns expressed by parents that if there is not a full-time replacement music teacher, the extra-curriculars (such as band, repertoire, etc.) will not continue as it will not be possible for a teacher who is at the school every other day to run the extra-curriculars. There is a sentiment that the extra-curriculars are part of the curriculum (i.e. – you learn your part in class but during the extra-curriculars you learn how to play as a group), this would be a real loss for the students and the school, particularly with LPCI’s strong reputation in music. Parents expressed concern about the decline in students taking music courses, as this has a direct impact on the staffing model. While the matter cannot be resolved right now, until the staffing is finalized, efforts will be made to see how/if the music extracurriculars can continue next year.
Note: Due to the length of the discussion regarding the music program, the presentation on the results of the 2011 school census was postponed until September 2014, specific date to be determined.
- Chair update
- As a follow up to a concern raised at a past meeting, Mr. Gurgol looked into the issue of English books and why they are not assigned to students. He spoke with the head of the English department who indicated that books are not assigned because they are too hard to track down from students but they are available in class and can be signed out by any student.
- Thank you to C. Poole for organizing the staff appreciation breakfast and for everyone who helped and/or contributed.
- Currently we have an LPCI foundation which is separate from the school council but exists to support the council. The Foundation was set up as a charitable organization so that tax receipts can be issued for any donations made to it. Any donations received from parents are received by and deposited in the Foundation. The Foundation also looks after three endowment funds of various sizes (ranging from $2,000 to almost $23,000). Awards are issued to graduating students from these funds. The TDSB, which is also registered as a charitable organization, is asking all schools to wrap up their foundations and to use the central TDSB one instead. If LPCI were to wrap up their Foundation, in the future, parents could still make donations to LPCI through the TDSB. Any money donated would be accessible to LPCI – the TDSB would not have access to any of the funds donated from LPCI parents. The new system would be easier more efficient as it would remove the need for two volunteer boards (one for the school council and one for the Foundation). The TDSB also has the capacity to manage the endowment funds on behalf of the council – the balances would be transferred to the TDSB, invested in risk free investments and paid out as directed by the council in accordance with the instructions received when the funds were initially set up. To date, a meeting has been held with the family of June Kim, the donors of one of the funds, and they have no objection to the fund being transferred into the care of the TDSB. The family of David Phillips, the other fund with a significant balance will be communicated with to ensure they hold no objections to the transfer of the fund balance to the care of the TDSB.
- Motion (G. Wyett) – Subject to the David Phillips family having no concern with regards to transferring the David Phillips endowment fund to the care of the TDSB, all endowment funds currently held by the LPCI Foundation to be transferred into the care of the TDSB and the LPCI Foundation is to be wrapped. Starting with the 2014/2015 school year, all donations made to LPCI will be made through the TDSB (online or by cash or cheque).
Seconded by P. Sweeney. Passed - A new School Council will be elected in September. We are looking for parents to fill a number of positions – Co-chair, Treasurer, Secretary, Web master, Inter-collegiate liaison.
- Other Business
L. Gray noted that LPCI students won a bronze medal in squash at provincials.
Adjourn
The meeting adjourned at 9:05 pm
The next meeting will be held Sept 8, 2014 at 7:00 p.m.