Present:Cappellano, Carmela

Minutes of the meeting of the Parent’s Participation Organization (PPO) of Pierre-de-CoubertinSchool held on Wednesday, November 14, 2012 in the staff room at 7:00 p.m.

Present:Cappellano, Carmela

Castiglione, Betty

De Ciccio, Angela

De Santis, Pina

Consalvo-Petrilli, Natalie

Corsi, Maria

Fazio, JoAnn

Kontakos, Maria

Macri, Pamela

Martino, Josie

Marzano, Francesca

Paulozza, Susie

Petrecca, Johnny

Sciscente, Linda

Vasile-Fedele, Mary

Also Present:Nick Katalifos, Principal

Antoinette Di Rienzo, Governing Board Member

1Approval of the Agenda

1.1The agenda was approved by Maria Kontakos.

2Approval of Minutes

2.1Carmela Cappellano was wondering why there was no mention of Net Nanny, a topic that she brought up at the last meeting. Johnny suggested that she prepare a written report about Net Nanny that can be presented to the Governing Board. The minutes were approved with modifications by Natalie Consalvo-Petrilli and seconded by Maria Corsi.

2.2We would like to make a correction to the October 10thminutes by adding Maria Corsi’s name to the list of members that were present.

2.3The attendance sheet was passed around.

3Word from the PPO Chairperson

3.1Johnny thanked everyone for coming to the meeting. Antoniette Di Rienzo, a member of the Governing Board, was present. She is also part of the Daycare and lunch program at PDC.

3.2Johnny passed around a thank you card for Aurelia Barrasso who was our past PPO Chairperson and did a lot of volunteer work at the school. An invitation will go out to Aurelia to join us at the next meeting which will be a joint meeting with the Governing Board followed by a social. The thank you card and a gift will be given to her at that time.

3.3The next PPO meetings were discussed and agreed as follows:

December 5, 2012: A joint meeting with the Governing Board in the school library at 7:00 p.m. followed by a social in the teachers’ lounge.

January 16, 2013: PPO meeting at 7:00 p.m. The Governing Board is meeting on January 30th.

February 20, 2013: PPO meeting at 7:00 p.m. The Governing Board is meeting on February 26th.

April 10, 2013: PPO meeting at 7:00 p.m. The Governing Board is meeting on April 30th.

May 15, 2013: PPO meeting at 7:00 p.m. The Governing Board is meeting on May 28th.

A June meeting date will be confirmed at a later time.

3.4Committee sign-up sheets were passed around. Johnny asked if anyone is interested in leading one or more committees to let him know. Natalie Consalvo-Petrilli would like to be the leader for the Dress-code Committee. Maria Kontakos and Susie Paulozza approved it.

Josie Martino would like to co-lead the website with Maria Kontakos.

3.5School Pictures: Johnny thanked the volunteers for their help and the level 1 teachers for their cooperation and understanding given that the pictures were taken in the new wing right by the level 1 classrooms. Johnny suggested that we ask for an extra half day giving us two and a half days rather than just two days. The last day seems to be a little rushed especially with the sibling pictures.Antoinette Di Rienzo agreed that the extra half day would be a good idea.

3.6Halloween Activities: Johnny said that a parent videotaped Halloween Idol and asked if it would be a good idea to sell the DVD as a fund raiser. Mr. Katalifos said that we can offer it to parents but they would have to place an order. This way the exact amount of copies can be made. Mr. Katalifos suggested sending a copy to the School Board to put on our website, with parents approvals. Johnny brought up last year’s Christmas concert which was also videotaped and edited by Susie Paulozza. Johnny suggested selling DVDs to parents as a fund raiser. It was agreed that $10.00 per DVD is a reasonable price. Johnny passed the motion which was approved by Carmela Cappellano and seconded by Mary Vasile-Fedele.

3.7Open House was held on Wednesday, October 17thfrom 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. Mr Katalifos said that only 6 parents came to visit during the open house hours but he received many phone calls afterwards asking for individual tours, which he provided. In the end, there were about 40 people that came to visit the school. Mr. Katalifos said that a few teachers suggested having an evening open house. He said that a good idea would be to have it in January, right before school registration. The School Board is projecting a loss of about 700 to 800 children. This is mainly due to families moving off the island, low birth rates and families choosing to send their children to private French schools.

3.8A new committee, School Supply Committee, has been created by Johnny and was approved by the Governing Board. Carmela Cappellano has agreed to serve as team leader of this committee.

3.9Movie in the Gym: Johnny was happy to announce that over 250 tickets have been sold so far. The movie “Brave” will be shown on Friday, November 16, 2012. Tickets were sold for $10.00, which includes two hotdogs, a chip bag, and water or juice. Johnny said that volunteers are still needed, anyone interested should contact him.

3.10The Book Fair will be held on Wednesday, November 21st. Johnnystated that volunteers are still needed and passed around the sign-up sheet.

3.11Teacher Appreciation Week will take place from February 11th to the 15th, 2013. First meeting should take place around mid-December. Johnny will setup the first meeting.

3.12The Science Fair has been confirmed to take place on January 28th, 29th and 30th. The Regionals will be held on March 27th and 28th. Diana D’Amico, a parent volunteer, who has been the team leader for the last couple of years, has agreed to continue as team leader. Mrs. Sonia recruited 6 teachers, one per level. The Science Fair for level 6 students is mandatory and they will be graded for it.

4Word from the Principal

4.1Mr. Katalifos spoke about a discussion that took place at the last Governing Board meeting which requires providing the School Board with a couple of important documents such as, a report on the status of the success of our school plan. Basically, we have to report on how the kids are doing academically in terms of marks, particularly on the Government exams. The stats come directly from the Ministry. Every two years to try to improve by a couple of percentage points in terms of success rate and Mr. Katalifos was happy to report that last week we had three consultants from the School Board that were working on our literary project with cycles 1 and 2. The consultants discussed how well the children did on the exams. These exams are usually given at the end of every cycle. The areas looked at are English, French and Math. In comparison with the rest of the schools in the board, we fall in the top 5%. Mr. Katalifos wanted to congratulate the teachers because they deserve full credit. He feels that they do a fantastic job. When the report is complete, Mr. Katalifos will present it to the Governing Board since they have to sign off on it. He will also provide a copy to the PPO members at a future meeting. The report is due on December 15th.

Another proposal that the school has to put together is, “what are we going to do locally in the school to combat bullying”. Mr. Katalifos wanted to point out that there aren’t any big problems in our school, though we do have individual cases, which are dealt with aggressively. In kindergarten and level 1, we do have a program that the teachers are working on, that deals with the subject of bullying and why it’s wrong. It’s important to get the message out to children at a very young age. We also have people coming in to talk to children in the older grade levels. Mr. Katalifos is very proud of a program that Miss Patricia came up with, which involves her being out every day at recess to run activities with the kids. These activities are designed to get the children to play together properly and are intended to teach them to avoid bullying. Mr. Katalifos said that it’s been working out very well and he would like to commend Miss Patricia on that. Mr. Katalifos said that he will be bringing back Chris Nilan to speak to the kids. It was a huge success last year and he would like to involve not only cycle 3 children but cycle 2 as well. Mr. Katalifos would also like to organize a parent session with Chris Nilan and have Maureen Baron there as well, to talk about cyberbullying.

Mr. Katalifos said that we also have to report to the School Board individual cases of bullying. They want to know what we’ve done about it and what approaches we’ve taken. Mr. Katalifos wanted to make clear that bullying is a systematic harassment being verbal or physical on a daily and consistent basis.

4.2Mr. Katalifos said that Ubisoft Camp, video game developer, will be back this year at spring break. The grade 5 teachers, Mme Isabelle in particular, went to meet with Ubisoft to have them come to our level 5 classes once a week for about a month and a half. They will work with the level 5 teachers and the kids to design an anti-bullying video game. It will be placed on our website. Mr. Katalifos said that they are still reviewing the costs involved but he’s looking into getting a grant. If it works well, we will try to expand it to other grade levels.

4.3Mr. Katalifos wanted to mention that last week we had police officers outside the school with some of our students. Our new liaison officer came to him with an idea for a projectbecause of our complaints about the constant speeding, running red lights, people parking where they are not supposed to be parking, etc. Police officers went outside with Mme Chantal and her level 5 class with radar guns. They stopped drivers that were speeding and gave out tickets. There will be an article in the next Suburban. Mr. Katalifos wanted to congratulate the local police department for doing this.

5Varia

5.1Johnny proposedto make the side street, where the buses park, a one-way street. Johnny said that it would alleviate some of the traffic. Most drivers use that street as a short cut to get to Viau Street. Mr. Katalifos said that they can look into it.

5.2Mr. Katalifos said that our contract for the snow removal ended and he is now looking into getting new quotes. He will ask the new contractor to clear the snow on the back path. This path has always been a problem in the winter because the snow has never been cleared, making it difficult to walk on.

5.3A parent asked about the beautification project. Mr. Katalifos said that it’s already begun by replacing the fence around the schoolyard. He said that they were supposed to put games in the yard but there was a delay with the company that he was in discussion with. The plan was to put up a couple of basket hoops, a track to be painted around the schoolyard and place a few benches for children to sit on. Mr. Katalifos said that they are currently looking for new companies because the company that they were in discussion with went bankrupt.

5.4Mr. Katalifos said that he went to see the director of buildings and grounds at the beginning of this school year. He was told that this year we will finally be on the list to repair the bathrooms. The entire bathrooms will be renovated, the facets, the toilets, the sinks, the fountains, the plumbing etc.

5.5Carmela Cappellano discussed Net Nanny and how useful it is for parents to use this software to protect their children from harmful sites. Net Nanny is a parental control software that protects children from cyberbullying, online predators, and much more. Carmela said that it’s not expensive and can be placed on two or three computers in your home. She was wondering if Maureen Baron has any suggestions about online bullying. Mr. Katalifos believes that Maureen Baron can definitely answer any of these questions.

5.6A parent asked about what happened with the catechism that was supposed to be taught at the school. Johnny said thateverything was agreed upon between the school, the School Board and the church but the superior of the church did not approve it in the end.

5.7A parent asked about the class representative per classroom. Ivana Fulminis, a parent at PDC,proposed the idea last year, so Johnny asked her to get more details from her son’s former school where they were using this system. Ivana submitted a written summary and Johnny placed it in Miss Michelle’s cubby. We are now waiting for feedback from Miss Michelle who will be discussing this at their staff meeting.

5.8Johnny said that he’s finalizing the members of the Graduation Committee and a meeting will be setup in about a week or so.

5.9A parent discussed the level 6 three-day trip that took place at the end of October. She pointed out that a lot of parents were worried about the storm, hurricane Sandy,which was headed our way and wondered why the school didn’t cancel the trip. Mr. Katalifos said that if the administration thought that there was any risk to anyone, they would not let the kids go and the trip would have been cancelled.

5.10A parent had a concern about the upcoming Christmas concert. She said that her child came home very disappointed because she was not selected to be part of the concert. Mr. Katalifos said that all cycle 1 students have been chosen but Miss Carolyn decided to hold auditions for cycles 2 and 3. A reason being that a lot of the children do not want to be a part of it, so teachers are selecting those students who are more motivated. Mr. Katalifos said that there is an intention to have a spring concert where all the children will participate. The Christmas concert will be held on Friday, December 21st.

There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 8:55 p.m. The next meeting of the PPO will be held on Wednesday, December 5that 7:00 p.m.in the library. It will be a joint meeting with the Governing Board.