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MORTON WAY P.S. SCHOOL COUNCIL MEETING – January 20, 2016

7:00 p.m. Vinita Mongia, School Principal, called meeting to order

Present: Vinita Mongia, Principal,Daniel Elias, Vice Principal, Sumbel Malik, Mrunal Shah, Terence Choutie, ManpreetAhluwalia, SupreetMonga, KulwantRathor Singh, Fatima-tuz-Zahra, SyedahNaqvi

Regrets: None

Approval of Previous Minutes: As this was the first meeting of the year, no previous minutes were discussed.

School Council Updates:

Principal’s Introduction: V. Mongia

Council meeting begins at 7:00 after some beverages after light refreshments are served. Ms. Vinita Mongia introduces herself and reviews the past several months. She reviews that work sanctions involving teachers, custodians and office staff are over, and now Ministry and Board initiatives are beginning again (with many deadlines to meet). Mrs. Mongia explains that she is getting to know Brampton and getting to know the students, and the wider school community and has been very happy with what she has learned thus far. She stressedthat teamwork with students, teachers, and parent community is very important, and she was looking forward to working with everyone.

Review of School Council Report from 2014-2015: D. Elias

Mr. Elias read over the Annual Report written by council chair Pam Biring, summarizing the work of council for the 2014-2015 school year. Highlights included consultations for the new school timetable (Energy Breaks), assemblies introducing language for the Leader in Me program, Education Week, fundraising work, Asian Heritage and Black History Month assemblies. Mr. Elias also spoke about improvements to the school Kiss and Ride procedures, and the work of students and teachers on our EcoSchools program.

Mrs. Mongia and Mr. Elias spoke about the power of Parent Council and how important it is in children’s lives to see parents taking an active interest in the school. Your work makes a huge difference and thank you for all your efforts.

School Newsletter Review:

The school Newsletter was discussed and how one page of the newsletter is dedicated to school council. Stay tuned for information in February.

Election Process Review: V. Mongia

Election process. Mrs. Mongia Vinita spoke about the process of adjusting our bylaws to form council,so that all 7 self-nominated parents could be on council. Seven members at large were chosen. After an introduction of attending parents, a Chair and Secretary were chosen. SyedaNaqvi will be the School Chair, and Fatima-tuz-Zahra has agreed to be the secretary. Neelam, our settlement worker will be our community rep. We will need a teacher representative and a non-teacher representative and these will be chosen in future.

Member Introductions:

  1. SupreetMonga
  2. Manpreet SinghAhluwalia
  3. Terrence Choutie.
  4. Fatima-tuz-Zahra
  5. Kulwant Singh
  6. SyedahNaqvi
  7. Sumbel Malik
  8. Neelam Khan, School Settlement Worker
  9. Mrunal Shah

Meetings in future will be kept to one hour or slightly longer if need be. By will of council, SyehadNaqvi appointed CHAIR of council, and Fatima-tuz-Zahra appointed SECRETARY.

Principal’s Report: V. Mongia

  1. French Immersion, Grade 1, possibly including 2 classes for the 2016-2017 school year.

2. Parent and Family Literacy Center; Mrs. Mongia highly endorsed the program “It’s a gift that we have it.”

3.Character Assemblies

4.Black History Month – Feb. 19th, 2016. Kathy McDonald will be doing short presentation.

5.French Cultural Appreciation – Duffle Bag Theatre. 1000 grant will pay for this. Little Red Riding Hood. French presentation for all grades, even though French, Core, taught in only 4, 5.

6.Extra-Curricular activities. Karate Kids is winding down.

7.April 11th, 2016. An additional PD day. May 13th, 2016

8.Parent Communication. Calendar, Newsletter, Website, Synrevoice. We want email addresses updated. Newsletters sent electronically. Calendar should be done by paper as expressed by many parents attending. Website address should be big and bold on the calendar.

9.Numeracy and beyond, April 2nd, brought to the attention of school council.

10.Lab will have more modern technology. Computers previously in the lab will be moved to classrooms.

11.PRO Grant – Family Education Center – Jan. 31st 2016. Many good ideas to follow regarding how the money will be spent. Some in the day, some in the evening.

Open Forum:

Question raised aboutwhat can the kids do outside? They get bored. Mr. Elias and Ms. Mongia address the question discussing Energy Breaks making a positive difference and the PALS (Program Activity Leaders).

Question raised about best practices utilizing technology (e.g. Instagram). Some teachers have it, some teachers don’t. Can this best practice be expanded? Ms. Mongia speaks about “Remind” and how she can inform teachers about how receptive parents are to these programs, which provide a great “eye item” the classroom.

SyedahNaqvi – Raz Kids computer program. She loves it, can we expand this technology? Mrs. Mongia mentions thatRaz kids should be expanded. Prodigy was mentioned as another great math program which is engaging for students and instructive at the same time;University of Waterloo computer program initially and the Program can be tailored.

A date was set for the next council meeting and it was decided that future dates would be set at the next meeting.

The will of the council was toconclude the meeting

Meeting adjourned at 8:15 – moved by V. Mongia, seconded by S. Naqvi

Next Meeting – Thursday, February 25th, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.

Minutes recorded by D. Elias, Vice Principal.