Lou MacNarin Home & School

~ Meeting Minutes ~

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

In attendance:

Chandra Dempsey / Leslie Vallee
Heather DeWare / Sherri Cail
June Leger / Ashley Kelly
Joanne Mills / Tracy Barrieau
Karen Carpenter / Alida Mullin
Rhoda Sturgeon / Sandy Thistle

Chandra welcomed everyone to the meeting.

The minutes from our January 21stmeeting were read and accepted.

Principal’s Report

  • Chartwell’s will be serving an Easter-themed meal for April. The cafeteria staff have appreciated the parent volunteers who help to pass out trays.
  • We are obtaining a site license for IBM Upgrade. The district will be providing us with 20 new iPad Mini’s for the iPad Cart. We now have 28 iPad mini’s in our cart. The cases, donated by the district, will be installed this week. We also have a donation of headsets for the cart.
  • School review – Our internal team is working away at the indicators to assess where we feel we are. The external team will be here in May to visit the school. We will be hosting five visitors from the department, district and schools. They will be here for three days (May 5, 6 and 7) and will engage in lots of conversations about what is happening in and around the school. We will be holding a parent forum, a student forum and a staff forum to get feedback on the school indicators. It’s an exciting process as we get to talk about our school. Big ideas include:
  • 1. Vision, Mission and Goals
  • 2.Educational Leadership
  • 3.Instructional Practice and Curriculum
  • 4.Continuous Monitoring of Progress
  • 5.Learning Environments
  • 6.Professional Learning
  • 7.Relationships
  • Running Club is ongoing in the gym (for grades 3 – 5) during lunch after the children have finished eating. Children have accumulated 64,000 extra minutes of activity!!
  • We are in the top ten finalists for the Majesta Trees of Knowledge…. Vote, vote, vote!!!

Principal’s Report (continued)

  • We have no intercoms or bells in the school this week. Our system is considered old and a part needed to be sent to Ontario to see if it can be fixed. We will have updates later in the week.
  • We are borrowing a class set of snowshoes. Classes will be able to snowshoe during gym classes after the Easter Break.
  • Madame Roy is going to Boston in April to present at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Leslie made a motion to accept Heather’s report; seconded by Sherri.

Treasurer’s Report

Karen reported that the approximate cash balance available is $4,781. This has the two $500 bursaries to be awarded later this school year removed from the total.

Old Business

Staff Appreciation Week

There was overwhelming positive feedback received regarding this year’s staff appreciation week held the week of February 9th to 12th. The teachers and staff appreciated the treats, meal and gift cards available to be won. The extra special treat this year were the personalized, hand-made gifts as well as the home-made Lou MacNarin cake. The teachers and staff greatly appreciated the personal touch and extra efforts that were extended to make this year’s appreciation week extra special. We want to thank Alida for her time, creativity and thoughtfulness in making these special, heartfelt gifts and the beautiful cake. A special thanks to Rhoda for coordinating the staff lunch.

Snack Program Update

Heather reported that the school recently purchased a lot of snacks with grant money for the snack program.

Breakfast Program Update

The breakfast program is going very well. Great feedback on the healthy choices being offered – spinach smoothies, eggs, toast, fruit, yogurt, etc. A lot of volunteers are coming out to help cook and serve. Grant money is currently being used to buy food. We are also receiving a lot of great food donations from local supporters.

Majesta Trees of Knowledge Contest

June shared her great presentation of the school’s ideas for an outdoor classroom. She encouraged everyone to vote for Lou MacNarin @ between April 7th and May 4thand spread the word to family, friends, work colleagues and on their social media.

Majesta Trees of Knowledge Contest (continued)

June asked for volunteers to form a committee to raise awareness of the contest and what it would mean for our school. We would promote the contest at the Math Competition to be held at the school as well as at the Pancake Breakfast. A station would be provided so people could vote at the school.

This learning environment will provide our school and community with an interactive learning space attached to our playground that will provide our community with a go to destination for children with special needs as well as typically developing children. The learning space will be ecofriendly and facilitate hands on learning experiences for children.

New Business

Pancake Breakfast

  • To be held on Saturday, April 25th from 8 – 10 am
  • Karen to purchase the food needed for the breakfast
  • Joanne’s mom (Wanda) to donate the baked beans
  • Decided that the meat would be cooked on Friday evening and volunteers would arrive early on Saturday to start cooking the pancakes
  • Will charge the same as last year; $5/adult, $3/child, free for pre-school aged children
  • Motion made by Sherri to spend up to $500 on the breakfast. Seconded by Leslie.

Requests for Funding

  • Heather made a motion (seconded by Leslie) for the H&S to pay for Mr. Thebeau’s replacement so he can bring the Leadership students from Lewisville Middle School to Lou MacNarin for the End of Year Celebration activities. This would cost $300.
  • Leslie made a motion (seconded by Sheri) that three butterfly lifecycle kits be purchased for the grade one classes at a total cost of $300.
  • Sandy made a motion (seconded by Leslie) for the H&S to purchase two Pinnell Phonics and Word Study bundle kits at a total cost of $431.
  • Sherri requested $200 from the H&S for the Drama Club to help cover costs of the Drama Festival.

Next Meeting

Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, May 20th at 6:30 pm.

Thanks for coming out!!

Joanne Mills

Home & School Secretary - Lou MacNarin

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