Salisbury Morse Place Community School Association

Monthly Meeting Minutes

Jan. 21, 2016

Present: Danielle Beaudry, Heidi Wiebe, Marjorie Millman, Marcela Popowich, Sherry Brodie, Christa Simard, Olga Barnes, Helena Klippenstein

  1. Welcome

-meeting commenced at 6:34 pm

-reviewed minutes from November meeting; Motioned by Marcela, second by Danielle, approved

  1. Administration Report: (M. Millman & C. Nazeravich)

Current enrollment – approximately 560 students

  • Our winter concert was a great success. We were very proud of all of our staff and students
  • We’ve started basketball with our middle years students
  • Mme. Gagnon has started the Tumbling Rally club in the gym for students in grades 5 - 8
  • In late November, we had an anti-bullying presentation for our middle years students. This presentation was sponsored by our school division and very well received by our students
  • We have new photocopy machines in our office. We have changed from Xerox to Konica Minolta
  • Our school conferences were well attended. We appreciated having our leadership students to help people find their way around the school and gather feedback on our “Chalking About SMP” boards
  • We have been working to involve our students in more of school life. Now our MY leadership students are doing announcements in the morning
  • We are putting together an EY green team to manage school-wide recycling and to offer our younger students leadership opportunities. We’ve already been working with our younger students to provide some opportunities i.e., candy grams
  • Builder’s Club did a fun activity before the break for our younger students with the “Touch and Take” to raise money for Free the Children
  • SMP staff and students prepared 5 Christmas hampers for families in our community. RETSD Transportation and the Elmwood-Kildonan Legion also support our school by providing 2 hampers from Transportation and 1 from the Legion
  • A big thank you to our CSA for the donation of hot chocolate and oranges for every person in our school before the break. Our leadership team along with our community connector organized this lovely treat
  • Our January school-wide assembly for positive behaviour and attendance saw 274 of students being celebrated for perfect attendance. That’s half of our school!
  • Please take the time to notice our viper boards throughout the school. They are examples of the many students who are being safe, responsible, and respectful every day
  • We’re “Making the Move” in 2016! Our grade 5 French Immersion students will be joining their peers in grade 6 at John Henderson Junior High. You can learn more about this move on the divisional website
  • Munroe Jr. High will be offering late immersion beginning in grade 6 starting in September 2016
  • We were so proud of our grade 1 – 3 students who attended the WSO concert on Monday, January 18th. Mrs. Neufeld was proud to report that our students were amazing and very well behaved
  • We had a spoons workshop over two days for all of our grade 4 – 8 students. This workshop was conducted entirely in French. The kids and the adults all had a great time
  • We welcomed the Prairie Theatre Exchange to SMP on January 14th to present their show Munsch Possible – a collection of Robert Munsch stories done in theatre

COMMITTEES:

  • Education Practices –Our Ed Practices Committee invited consultant Leigh Stachniak to SMP to lead our staff through a growth mindset workshop. It’s about changing our staff and students’ mindsets from an “I can’t” belief to an “I can” belief.
  • Safe and Caring Schools – All classrooms have a response cycle posted in the room that helps students understand the process their teachers will use to get them back on track. Every classroom has also established a “chill zone” where students can go or teachers can direct them to go to calm down and refocus on their learning. This is still a learning process for both teachers and students. Have you noticed the silver boards located beside every classroom? Teachers use these to tell us what they’re doing in class and to celebrate learning.
  • AAA – The AAA team has been attending divisional treaty training and cultural awareness. We are now learning how to transfer our new knowledge to the classroom. Some teachers are further ahead in this process than others, but the goal is that we will all learn more about indigenous culture. SMP has purchased a number of books depicting indigenous people in authentic situations. We have also received the government treaty kits to help with our learning and teaching.
  • French and French Communication and Culture – The French Immersion team had an assembly today for all French Immersion students. A number of our French Immersion and French Communication and Culture students will be attending the Festival du Voyageur in February.

STAFFING UPDATE:

  • Welcome to Ms. Lockenournew library technician
  • Mrs. Sobie has returned. She and Ms. Anderlic are sharing the position for the rest of the year

-N. Gagnon is requesting an IPod and receiver for the gym; motion for a maximum of $450 made by Helena, second by Heidi, approved.

  1. Lunch Program Report: (O. Barnes)

Staffing and Attendance
Unchanged.
Other Matters
Over the Christmas holidays I calculated payments made by parents and issued receipts the first day of school. Financially we are doing very well. December did not quite make payroll but it was close. January is generally a good month with parents paying for the term and half way through the month, I had already deposited just over $3,000.
Our second training session of the year will be held on February 3rd at Bernie Wolfe. Eight staff will attend.
We are training a number of Grade 6 students to assist with Lunch Monitor duties and will combine them with the existing Grade 4 students.

  1. Financial Report: (S. Brodie)

-$578.55 from the bake sale for Ms. Robson’s memorial

-$150 for the Show and Save incentives

-$450 for patrols

-$107.15 for hot chocolate and oranges

-$137 for Nov. babysitting, supplies, etc.

-balance is $6,387.14

-$950 for Fabuki Diako and $500 for the breakfast cart still needs to come out of the balance

-profit for the Pizza Hotline cards was $1,815

Meeting adjourned at 7:25 pm. Next meeting is on Feb. 18, 2016.