BISHOP MARROCCO/THOMAS MERTON C.S.S.

Catholic School Advisory Council

Meeting Minutes of TuesdayJanuary 28 2014

Attendance:

Parent Members:Leonor Viveiros, Joanne Yano, Mary Bianco, Joanne and James Turbach, Alda Negalha, Maria and Dwight Ali, Carmela Pimentel, Annalisa Perri

Regrets:

Paula Ramos, Elena Teixeira, Lorena Freire, Barbara Okowiok, Susan Majocha, Paul Macarico, Jinette Cesaire, Tanya Costa, Jo-Anne Lex, Fil Melo

Staff:

PrincipalDerek Chen, Mr. De Quintal, Mr. Bonnici

CSAC Minutes:

  1. Opening Prayer:
  • A group prayer read by AnnaLisa Perri
  1. Review Minutes from Nov 19 2013 CSAC Meeting:
  • Motion to approve minutes by Alda Negalha, seconded by James Turbach
  1. Uniform Exchange:
  • Mr. De Quintal leading program to recycle uniforms at BMTM to keep costs down for families in our school; cost of uniform is significant for a lot of families
  • The program would also help students who outgrow their uniforms, uniforms needing replacement due to damage, students forgetting their uniforms, etc.
  • Recycling uniforms might be viable for solution for all the above
  • Perhaps host a uniform drive- CSAC will support
  • Mr Di Prospero will help with doing posters and advertise uniform drive
  • Mr. De Quintal suggest we reach out to other schools to do the same; ask the school chaplin to make a donation to our uniform drive
  • Host uniform drive after March Break, during Lent
  • Donated clothing will be laundered prior to being distributed
  • Staff will know how best to disburse to families in need
  • Good to advertise uniform drive in newsletter—submit to Mr Chen in two weeks (De Quintal)
  • Mr De Quintal offered to secure donations for our fundraising activities
  1. Treasurer’s Report:
  • Congratulations to the fundraising committee on the completion of successful initiatives
  • Gaby doing a bank deposit today
  • AnnaLisa suggested we keep a CSAC minutes binder and a treasury binder
  • James suggested we have an audit committee at the end of the year
  • Need to show $100 donation to family (CSAC family donation from basket raffle)
  • James will put together a statement on expenses for each event alongside profit margin
  • Alda suggested we have prizes for cookie sales; incentive to purchase
  1. Fundraising Committee Ideas Update:
  • Committee has decided on cookie sale for Valentines
  • Committee still has some restaurant vouchers as prizes as incentive to purchase cookies
  • Like idea of cookie gram but may need more students to volunteer to sell
  • May be too challenging to do St Patrick’s Day but falls soon after March Break
  • We will commit to St. Valentine’s Day cookie sale
  • Lots of activities at school with student council as well as other groups such as free the children
  • Principal Chen will ask student council to present activities at next CSAC meeting
  • School dances were not as popular due to all ages activities in the community they can attend instead
  • Start selling cookies on Feb 12, 13 and 14; goal is to sell 200 cookies
  • Alda needs to have a float; supplier had to wait quite a while to get paid
  • If we are doing more activities - having a float gives more flexibility in running the event, allowing for items to be paid for sooner
  • Carmela suggested students from International Business to help with sales; Leonor will follow up with Ms Cordeiro who runs this course
  1. PIC(Parent Involvement Committee) Grant Workshop Apr 10 2014:
  • Review of flyer prepared by Joanne Yano; add availability of daycare by request via RSVP
  • Will be advertised in newsletter, website, family of schools in area, board, our own personal contacts
  • Goal is 60 attendees
  • Speaker will be given $50; balance of funds available for event
  • Sandwiches, salads, desserts, drinks (for crowd of 60)
  • If we do hot meal, may need to dip into CSAC funds; will stick to budget of $10 per person
  • People sign in at the door
  • Staff room for dinner and auditorium for speaker
  • Joanne will dress up the flyer
  • Leonor to provide Joanne with email lists previously used by Fil Melo for such events
  • Leonor will forward list of RSVPs to Joanne to coordinate
  1. Mindset YouTube Video:
  • This video will be moved to next CSAC meeting for presentation
  1. Principal’s Report
  • Lots of work done to get students ready for EQAO; changed school scheduling, having other grades start later so that they had a quiet space to write; EQAO score counts up to 10% of math mark
  • After School Literacy Program- Mr Bonnici, starts up next week after school
  • Currently have 85 student registered for program to get ready for grade 10 literacy test; students are understanding how important it is and are therefore more engaged
  • Feb 18, report cards go home
  • Hosting a summer program to transition students from grade 8 to 9; earn a credit; literacy, numeracy and physical education; full day program running month of July
  • Be sure to collect parent email addresses when students are registering; Mr Chen will confirm if form has space to add email—good idea to update all forms to make sure it contains email address collection
  • See attached summary for more details
  1. AOB
  • James advised that Centennial College hosted an all high school students day workshop for auto shop- James Turbach will follow up with guidance to make sure events such as this are advertised at school given the auto shop program; Guidance is the best point of contact for such information, with copy to dept lead
  • Alda shared that students 12 to 17 can get a free gym membership to Good Life for July and August; can also lead to job and co-op opportunities; Alda will forward info to Leonor to share with us
  • Cafeteria update: meeting with purchasing group who will be working with Pina foods as a foodservice provider to bring in food; Cafeteria has been cleaned up, equipment sold; may reuse space for other purposes
  • Main floor signage: perhaps ask art students to provide navigational signs at main entrance—request to sign in at office must be bigger than navigational signs
  • Failed to get green grant to update front of school; better luck next year
  1. Move to adjourn by Leonor, seconded by Joanne Yano

Meeting adjourned at: 8:30pm

Next CSAC Meeting: Feb 25 2014

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