LPCI School Council Meeting
7:00pm, Library
Attendees: E. Boone, J. Sole, S. Sparrow (staff representative), G. Wyett, S. Paetkau, A. Armstrong, A, Kawale, C. Kassenaar, A. Brown, C. Murphy, J. Rother, L. McIlveen, P. Hamann, A. Mukherjee, B. Turnbull, D. Carson, D. Boughner, I.Kovalev, M. Ouroumis, A. Welland, L. Nield, J. Wilmer, J. Gorenkoff (Principal)
Student Council Update – Maya
- Many things continuing to happen at LP:
Teams: Ski & snowboard and swim teams went to OFSSA
Semi on February 9th – went very well (for grades 10-12)
Drama: Sears Festival – two plays were in the festival, one performed at LP and the other at NTCI in February
Drug Abuse Assembly last month (social media and cyber bullying themes) - Coming up:
Rome/Italy trip during March Break
OSSLT – Grade 10 Literacy test (needed to graduate)
EQAO
Student Council Elections in May
Principal’s Remarks – Joel Gorenkoff
– Thank – Jenna & Maya & Suzanne Sparrow (Teacher rep)
– Thank you for attending this evening – parent-school partnerships are part of student success
– I look forward to continue meeting all of you. I have had the pleasure of meeting many students over the last 4 weeks and am impressed with their accomplishments in class and in extracurriculars.
– I have been an administrator for 21 years – and this is my 3rd Principalship. I had a wonderful decade at North Toronto and am looking forward to being at Lawrence Park.
-Balance academic excellence & rich extra-curricular & student leadership program
– Excellent facilities – students learn better if they have quality resources & surroundings
– Building relationships with staff, students & parents – at the heart of a trusting partnership where we can have respectful, and difficult conversations but also celebrate successes together. Aim to be proactive about issues and not reactive.
-I have encouraged staff and students to tell me what they love about LP and what they think needs improvement. I hope parents can do the same.
– What a busy place! Students have done amazing things:
-Dance Show
-24 Hour Challenge
-Semi-Formal Dance
-Kiwanis Music Festival – many awards
-Sears Drama Festival – 2 amazing plays
-Athletics – City & regional winners – & OFSAA – Skiing, snowboarding, swimming, girls’ hockey
-Math & Computing contests and French Speech contests
-Police assembly on Social Media & cyberbullying
Challenges:
1. Staff changes – leadership roles (ACL), leaves of absence, LTOs (we need to fix the problem and reduce amount of change as we are governed by lack of teachers, regulations etc.) – I know it is an issue and I am trying to understand what is at the heart of this. My goal is to always work towards having an exemplary staff, in tune with student needs.
-Aim to have a happy staff with high morale. We aren’t there yet and I am working with staff to get there. It may take some time.
-We have just interviewed 60 candidates for the various curriculum leader positions – and I hope they will enrich and strengthen staff
-Staffing begins after March Break. It is a difficult process because we never have enough resources to do what we want to do. Some challenges also – very large program here (focus our energies & resources so overall increase in quality – currently we are all stretched too thinly), many staff on leave (hold positions for them that causes bumping & disruptions)
- Building Trust & relationships with parents – very important to me. Again, I am trying to understand what is at the heart of the issue….I hope parents will contact teachers, VPs, Guidance & me to resolve any concerns. The Superintendent & School Trustee are of course resources to you, but it should rarely get to that point. Please email or call me.
-Communication has to be focused and meet your needs. Aim to hire a Curriculum leader who will over-haul website & we are reviewing all types of communication to make it better. I encourage feedback from you. (e.g. The Eye….increase quality & should meet your needs). Feedback? Too much information? Not enough?
- We will continue to work on consistent and high quality teaching practices. I am very impressed by some of the innovative practices of the staff and great things can happen. Once we work on timetables and morale, great things will happen.
- One of the things that hurts the schools and students overall is the number of spares and exodus to private credit schools. There is a culture of bailing on a course when things get tough and seeking and paying for easier, higher marks outside (lack of resilience).
-every spare a student takes equal less staffing to the school making it more difficult to staff classes and extra-curriculars). I remind students and parents it isn’t about just getting in to post-secondary but staying in. universities are reporting many issues with students and I think this is a major topic for another day.
Work ethic and resilience have to be encouraged.
Upcoming events:
-OSSLT March 30th (watch for more information) –students not able to complete on-line portion from the Fall.
-next report card – April 19th – formal, complete report card
-Have a wonderful, healthy & fun March Break. I look forward to the last 1/4 of the school year. It will be exciting.
School Council Update – Erika Boone
– Planning for Staff Appreciation Breakfast
Decision to make this a catered lunch from Freshi like last year (teachers enjoyed this food and format). Date in May to be determined by staff
- Motion to direct school council funds raised year to date
Erika motioned: “To transfer $5,290 of the funds donated to the School Council through our online donation page, to the school to be used as follows: $300 towards the cost of an auditorium chair; $386 to be put towards the music department, specifically, if possible, the purchase of a microphone, and the balance of $4,604 to be used at the Principal’s discretion. The Principal also has access to another sum amounting to $2,760 that was donated directly to the school through cheques written to the TDSB. $300 of which was to be put towards an auditorium chair and the rest to be used at the Principal’s discretion. The principal will report back to the school council as to how the funds were spent.”
XX seconded.
All in favor, motion carried.
-Future discussion to take place with regard to fundraising next year and how best to allocate of these funds.
Meeting adjourned.