Lord Roberts Annex PAC – November Monthly Meeting

Meeting Called to order at 6:30

Location: LibraryNotes by: Terra

ATTENDEES

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  • Kyle Smith (co chair)
  • Elisa Baniassad (co chair)
  • Terra Hooyberg(secretary)
  • Alison Coelho
  • Raimey Casimo
  • Sascha Blackford
  • Danny Laufer
  • Maria Donovan (VP)
  • Debbie Sunnus (teacher)
  • Robin Wharram (teacher-librarian)

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1. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS

  • Kyle welcomed everyone to our second PAC meeting of the year.

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDAM/S/C

3. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTESM/S/C

  • Amendment: Elisa motioned that under Item 5, money raised from Garden ventures not be ear marked for garden funds. It is to be used for general PAC funds. Money will be allocated for the garden fund as needed. M/S/C

4. OLD BUSINESS

  1. Business from Last Meeting/Month
  • Halloween Bake Sale Update - The bake sale was a success and raised a little over $300. Moving the location to outside of the school was positive as people were able to mingle and the crowd was easier to manage.
  • Halloween Parade Debrief - Raimey reported that the parade went really well. Lots of volunteers to share the work which was great.
  1. Post Meeting Activities
  • Parent Coffee Time – Informal coffee times are held in the library on Fridays from 9:00- 10:00. We are still looking for two volunteers to set up and clean up.(Young from the Blenz on Denman has offered to bring coffee when available.) Everyone is welcome to attend.

5. REPORTS

  1. Vice Principal (Maria Donovan)
  • We had successful parent-teacher conferences November 5th and 6th.
  • Thank you to Robyn for accommodating Friday morning coffee times.
  • Maria thanked parents for the Halloween decorations. She thought it was amazing and stated that this special event does not happen at every school. It created a lot of enthusiasm and excitement.
  • Students had their first earthquake drill. There will be two per year.The "Big One at Two" earthquake drill on May 7will be discussed at a later date. A fire drill will be conducted soon and there are six each year planned. The fire safety house will be doing a presentation for the grade 3s.
  • The PAC portion of the school web page is working. There are some restrictions. For example, we cannot send requests that elicits funds; however, we can put this sort of request on a Facebook page and have links to this page from the website.
  • The Remembrance Day Assembly was beautiful and very touching. The children did a fantastic job and they were very respectful and proud. It was a great teaching experience talking about how we can make a better world. (Debbie thanked Maria for her efforts in putting the assembly together.)
  • On a side note, the assemblies are open to all parents, but we need to be wary of fire regulations. There was room to stand for the Halloween parade but for Remembrance Day, there would not have been room to seat all parents. Maria will talk about parent attendance at assemblies with staff and will continue to share options.
  • Information has been sent to all parents regarding Kindergarten and Cross Boundary Registration. The downtown core is very full; therefore, the Annex and Roberts Main will not be taking cross boundaries until the in-catchment students are taken care of. Parents should refer to the note sent out by Andrea as there are some important changes to be aware of.
  • The School Plan has a rollover of goals from last year.Maria will go over the School Plan at a Coffee morning. Parents can also view it on the school website.
  1. Guest Speaker
  • Debbie Sunnus (grade 2/3 teacher) is the staff union representative. There are school trustee candidates endorsed by Vancouver School Teachers namely from the Vision Party and two Public Education Project trustees. The trustees are in charge of hiring the new superintendent and this will be the new “leader” downtown. She thanked the parents again for their support and the increased awareness that resulted from the strike.
  1. Treasurer
  • The treasurer report for last month is attached.
  • Unfortunately, our elected treasurer has resigned from the role.We are seeking a volunteer to fill the current role of treasurer.
  1. DPAC – no report(We are looking for someone to take this position.)
  1. Committees:
  • Playground - Allison shared they had a meeting in early November to go over fundraising ideas. She proposed that we need to tap into the downtown businesses for help. The first step is the Robson Street Business Association and the Davie Street Business Improvement Association. A letter/pdfhas been created and can be circulated. We need to target different genres of businesses. Alison may pursue going in to do some face-to-facepresentations. Also, suggestions to target different organizations with donor applications were raised. Corrine has letters and will contact BC Place, the Elks, and the Lions Club. On another note, Danny shared there is a guy who wants to sell canned salmon and once a particular month for sales is determined, this could be used to raise funds for the playground as well.
  • Garden – no report
  • Social – no report(We are looking for someone to take this position.)
  • Fundraising events – will be covered under New Business

NEW BUSINESS

a.Movie Night #1 - We are doing a movie night on November 26th. The night chosen is the evening where there is already a late night engineer so there are no extra costs incurred with facilities. More information will be shared with parents ASAP. Last year it raised $650 on the first movie night and $512 on the second movie night with both events being sold out. It is an awesome event and the kids have a blast!

b.MLA Spencer Herbert is available to speak about funding ideas for the playground –He has information and access to a fund from the Vancouver Firefighters Foundation. Spencer may be able to come to a Friday morning coffee session. He was also talking with building management and developers about initiatives that they have to give back to the community. He just needs dates and a time to visit.

c.Treasurer Election

Tabled. Elisa will continue to do this role until a later date.(Thank you Elisa!)

d.Call for Volunteers

  • Robyn is looking for volunteers to help with the Scholastic Book Fair. Money raised is spent on books and materials for the school. Last year $2300 was made and almost $1200 went back to the Library. If we raise over $3000, we get 50%. Robyn was seeking advice about getting information out to families. Discussions around being mindful of having all kids have access to funds to purchase books ensued. It was shared that “Books for Me” is a volunteer organization where they come to the school and give books away. Maria will look into it.
  • Call for Volunteers for PAC positions tabled due to time.

e.Communication to parents – tabled due to time.

Please note, there is information in the front display cabinet outside of the school, under the school website which includes a link to the new PAC Facebook page, as well as email account ()that has been set up.

CORRESPONDANCE

  • None

INFORMATION ITEMS

  1. Fundraising direct appeal notice to parents – Discussion around sending out a direct appeal for funds to parents before the end of this tax year. It was motioned that we send out an amended version of the direct appeal notice to parents, once approved by the school. M/S/C
  2. Recycling Program at school – Please bring in your non-alcoholic recyclingto the bin at the front of the school as the money goes directly to the school through the PAC.
  3. BCCPAC Leadership Conference – November 21-23 Nanaimo.

Adjournment 7:50pm M/S/C

Next Meeting: Wednesday, December 10th.

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