School Council

Minutes

Tuesday, February 20, 2024 – 6:00pm

Present: Danielle Becks, Mandy Boomsma, Amber Jolie, Mekcal Williamson, Emma Wynia, Christine Storoschuk, Kristina Corrado, Lee-Anne Stevenson, Michelle McCallum, Erin Quondam

1. Welcome & Land Acknowledgement

2. Opening Prayer

3. Principal’s Report
4.  

• There has been a PA Day change due to the solar eclipse. An email was sent out recently to parents with the changes.
• On March 5^th Notre Dame is hosting Kickstart to Kindergarten. Kickstart to Kindergarten is a wonderful opportunity for our school to participate in. Students who will be starting Kindergarten in the fall will be invited to come to the school to meet with Brantford’s Kickstart to Kindergarten partners who specialize in children’s health and development. Parents will be offered a 20-minute appointment, which will allow them to meet with the Kickstart team to help ensure future students have the best start to school possible.

Culture Caring Wellness

• Sarah Westbrook event went very well! The students seemed to really enjoy it.
• Grade 7 & 8 Valentines and Volleyballs fundraiser raised $385 to put towards the purchase of new volleyball nets!

Student Achievement

• Family Life learning will begin shortly and information letters will be coming home to families with students in Grades 1-8.

4. Finance Update

Account balances:

• General account: $13,320.23
• Lotto account: $2,160.65

      Approved expenses so far:

• Teacher Wishlist items- $2000
• Funfair deposits/fees- $2500
• Sarah Westbrook- $2000
• Interactive Projector- $2000
• Assisting a student with the costs of Camp Celtic- $650
• Supporting Grad expenses (e.g., decorations, food, awards etc. with a portion of this split with Branlyn)- have traditionally contributed $500-$1000; official contribution total TBD

Funds still to be withdrawn:

• Fun Fair expenses- Most of these expenses will occur closer to the Fun Fair date.
• Interactive Projector will be about $2,000 and will go to the Grade 1 classroom.
• Camp Celtic- $650
• Grad- official contribution total for this year TBD

The parent council discussed some potential options for the remaining funds.

Would the Parent Council like to sponsor a student award for grad? If so, how many and what would we like that award to recognize? Would we like there to be a gift attached?

How much would the Parent Council like to donate towards grad? Parent council usually donates anywhere between $500-1000 depending on what is needed.

5. Council Business

Education & Wellness

• Workshops & Guest Speakers- Sarah Westbrook- presented to the students during the day and parents in the evening on February 7^th 2024. Parent council would like to have Sarah come back next year as her presentation was very engaging, informative and helpful for children and parents alike. We discussed having a broader advertising campaign and provide more information to parents on what to expect during Sarah’s presentation and the insights they can gain by attending.

Social Gatherings

• Shrove Tuesday - Pancake Lunch (Tuesday, February 13, 2024)- Thank you to our parent/guardian volunteers who donated their time to make this school-wide event a success! It went very well. For next year, there was interest in serving the pancakes in classrooms to reduce syrup spills in the hallways.
• Fun Fair (Tuesday, June 4, 2024)

Fundraisers

Major 2023-2024 Fundraiser: Gift Card Calendar

• Updates:
  • Fundraising calendar will begin May 1 and plan to run for the entire month, pending level of donations/prizes received.
  • Parent Council members will continue to contact local businesses and organizations to ask if they would be willing to donate a prize to the fundraiser with all donors being advertised on each Fundraising Calendar sold.
  • Voted Yay for calendars to be sold for $10 each to keep them as affordable for families as possible.
  • Parent Council had initially requested that a request for donations be put up on School Cash Online, however, collecting donations from parents/guardians through School Cash Online has been put on hold by request of the board. Any parents interested in donating a gift card to the school fundraiser are asked to reach out to the school office.
  • There have been several businesses that have agreed to donate prizes towards to fundraising calendar, for which we are very grateful! Thank you to all who have put time into contacting local businesses.
  • The full list of donors as well as businesses that we are reaching out to are being tracked on a Google Sheet so that everyone can work collaboratively and not duplicate any inquiries to businesses. If anyone would like access to the Google Sheet, please contact Amber or Mandy to be sent the link.
  • If any parents would like to help collect donations, we have a donation letter that we can use if businesses want a copy.
• Action Items:
  • Parent council members will continue to contact businesses.
  • Veronica/ Mandy will put together some sneak peek emails to generate awareness of the fundraiser.

Major 2024-2025 Fundraiser:

• Updates: Kristina looked into the possibility of booking Krispie Kreme for next year’s major fundraiser. They do not have next year’s calendar ready yet.
• Action Item: Kristina will call Krispie Kreme again in the future.

Minor 2023-2024 Fundraisers:

• Pizza Day Wednesdays – are continuing each week with the help of our dedicated parent/guardian volunteers.
• Pasta Hot Lunch Day was trialed. 196 out of 329 students ordered. Overall, things went well and feedback was positive. There were some logistical items that could be adjusted to look improve the efficiency and ease for parent/guardian volunteers if we offer a pasta lunch option in the future (e.g., having the company separate the order by class). We will look into adjustments/alternatives and decide at a later date if pasta is something we wanted to offer as a lunch option more frequently going forward.
• Sub Day- Parent Council would like to offer a sub day in lieu of a pizza day in May. Nicole or Kristina will call Mr. Sub to make arrangements. Danielle suggested we not host sub day on May 22^nd due to the last school mass of the year happening.
• Community Food Day (e.g., Harvey’s, Dominoes, OMGoodness Ice Cream) - will look into these businesses as options for community food fundraisers. Emma emailed OMGoodness Ice Cream. They are closed for the season so we will try contacting them again in the spring.
• Mabels Labels - Christine is working on setting up a school discount code that can be used all year long.

• Action Items:
  • Christine will set up the Mabels Labels account.
  • Emma will touch base with OMGoodness in the spring.
  • Kristina/Nicole to call Mr. Sub to pick a date (not May 22^nd) and then liaise with Ms. Toste to get the orders set up on School Cash Online.

• Fun Fair Update:
  • No new meetings have happened. There is a planning meeting happening March 7^th at 6:15. If you would like to join us please contact Kristina Corrado for more details!
  • Next Sub Committee meeting: March 7^th at 6:15

Additional Business

• Grant Applications- Parent council brought forward some grants that we would like to apply for. Danielle was very much on board with us applying for them if someone was willing to fill them out. One grant the deadline has passed for applying but we will be applying for a grant from Canada Post. Council votes Yay to apply for the grant to be put towards the cost of purchasing some new interactive projectors for the school.
• Action Item: Mekcal has volunteered to work on the grant application with support from Amber and Danielle.  

6. Next Meeting Date

March 19^th, 2024

Notre Dame Staff Room