Minutes Pine Ridge Middle School Home & School Meeting
February 26, 2018 6:30 Called to order by Jennifer Vaino
In Attendance
Cathy Rafuse Leila Vokey
Jennifer Vaino Dawn Lesperance
Malinda Ogilvie Caroline Winter
Maria Carty Regrets: Jacqueline Foster, Debbie McComber
Approval of Minutes
The minutes were read from the January meeting. Approved by Cathy Rafuse. Seconded by Leila Vokey.
Treasurer’s Report See Attached
The account balance as of February 26th was presented by Leila Vokey the Home & School Treasurer. There were no cheques written this month. Once the bank fees of $2.50 was taken, the account balance is $12,101.22. Mindy Ogilvie made a motion to approve the treasurer’s report. Seconded by Caroline Winter. All present voted in favor of approving the treasurer’s report as presented.
Board Report Jacqueline Foster was absent.
Maria Carty reported that school board not ready to talk to groups about new school hours for the 2018-2019.
Principal’s Report Principal Maria Carty presented her report.
●NSU is in talks with the government concerning proposed changes to the education system.
●The Commission on Inclusive Education report is due at the end of March.
●School administration is getting student numbers ready to determine staffing for next year. Currently there are 14 homerooms. Next year it looks like 15 homerooms-new homeroom being an Immersion class.
●Numbers for the French programs look good, the response to continuing in French next year was strong and most students in the grade 7 integrated French program are going on to grade 8.
●School is still waiting for Intensive French interest numbers from the feeder schools.
●School is actively working on goals from the school success plan through the following 3 actions:
●March 7 will be Wonderful You Day where the school will focus on identity, diversity and acceptance. There will be a pancake breakfast, trips to the Zedex to see the movie Wonder, various workshops and Subway sandwiches for lunch.
●To improve numeracy skills, the Resource teacher is now working with 4 new Grade 6 groups on Math intervention. The school also purchased 75 licences to grant access to IXL Math for parents of Grade 6 students. Between 60 and 65 families have signed up so far.
●To encourage literacy skills, everyone in the school has participated in the Pine Ridge Reads program by reading daily in class for 20 minutes. Every student has also been encouraged to read a book between the end of February and the beginning of March Break to gain points for their class.
●Term 2 ends before March Break. Report cards will come out after the break.
●Attendance awards will be presented on the Thursday before March Break. 34 (10%) students haven’t missed a single day this term. 65.5% have 95% or higher attendance rate. 84% are missing 10% or less and 16% have missed more than 10% of school.
●Last school dance was cancelled due to illness. Rescheduled for March 8th. Mindy, Leila and Jen. will help chaperone.
●Near the end of March, two pots of money (money left from last year and money from a 1 day strike) will go into the Home and School playground fund.
Committee Reports
Playground & Grant Application Committee (Cathy Rafuse)
●A grant request was submitted to King’s County for $25,000.00.
●We are waiting for a response.
●If we get this grant we will likely have enough money to do the playground this year.
●Mindy, Tanya, Cathy and Maria will meet with Gerry Wilson (from the board) on April 5th from 10-11 to prepare for the playground installation.
Aylesford Lions’ Fundraising Dinner with St. Mary’s
●Raised about $4,000.00. There was a lower turnout than last year, but there was more money per person given so we raised about the same amount as last year.
Dinner with Kingston Elementary
● Tanya is working on coordinating this fundraiser.
Other Business
●Government restructuring means that we will no longer have a representative from the board at our meetings. Maria suggested that we acknowledge the many years of dedicated service Jacqueline Foster has given to our school by presenting her with a gift certificate from a local nursery. The committee voted unanimously to give $50.00 toward this gift. The school will match the donation. Leila will call the nursery and arrange for the gift.
●Jen. presented the Village of Kingston’s forms looking for nominations for Volunteer of the Year. The nominations are due by March 16th.
●The Spring Dance is an outside dance which will take place on May 24th from 7-9 pm. Parents organize and chaperone this dance. There is usually a canteen that sells freezies, subway cookies, water and chips (chips have been donated in the past). Bill Cox (a DJ) is hired for around $200. Activities at the dance include sidewalk chalk, dancing, bubbles and a limbo contest.
●Various Fundraising ideas were discussed:
● Offering lunch to teachers on Inservice days
●Roast beef dinner from the Kingston Leigon
●Spaghetti dinner and auction
●Gift card trees (good to ask for donations from businesses at the beginning of the month)
●Toonie Toss/Number for Life Lottery - Mindy will call to find out what kind and the cost of the Atlantic Lottery licence necessary to run this type of fundraiser. Someone would need to organize spreadsheets and track payment (either FET or paying the school directly) for people playing. It could be drawn monthly at a rate of $10/month to participate.
Next Meeting Monday, March 19, 2018 6:30
Motion to adjourn was made by Cathy Rafuse at 7:42 p.m. It was seconded by Caroline and Mindy. It was passed unanimously.