CASC Meeting Minutes, Tuesday September 21, 2010 7pm

Welcome & Introductions

Welcome from chair David Fortier & introductions.

Up coming “elections”

• As an alternative school we do not have formal elections but rather invite you to join us to chose the new school council and discuss the direction for CASC for the coming year.
• We are voting on the following positions at the next CASC Meeting, October 12th
• We invite people to come forward for these positions – the more the merrier!
• The job changes from year to year and this year the focus will be on making changes and improvements within the school.
• There are mentoring possibilities for the chair position for the coming year.

Meetings Protocol – Going Forward

• Lets talk with a show of hands so that we can keep order
• Goal is to have the meetings finish at 9pm

Actions – We need to have Megan change the format for the Calendars that are being sent out so that it is saved in a lower format and available in both .PDF and .Doc formats.

Committees & Events

We need to have the budgets for these committees to the School Board by the 12^th of October. 

We need to think of other other events that we would like to have this year – T-shirt Tie-dye? Etc…

Arts - 

Education - Tuesday, September 28^th at 7pm there is a meeting for the Education Committee

Fundraising – We are still looking for a new Treasurer

Active and Safe Routes to School – Wallace to update CASC at the next meeting

Sports? – Is anyone interested in taking this on this for the coming year? Megan has a book of non-alternative sports that would be a great addition to our School.  If anyone wanted to come forward and help with this it would be most appreciated

Actions – The snow-shoes need to be fixed and they need bigger sizes.

Breakfast – Melanie Burston has stepped forward to shadow Cheyl Brouse and take on the breakfast this coming year.

Pot Luck? - 

Lecture Series – Every second year we have done a large fundraiser  - they are a lot of work for parents.  Last year Alfie Kohn worked really well and CASC made some money as well as being a high profile event.  This brings together the other alternative schools as well as the rest of the community.  

Action - think about ideas of what we could do this year.  Dan Mackinnon says that the Education Committee would express an interest in this type of event.  David expresses an interest that this stays with the topic of education but while still having a broad appeal and be profitable.  

Action - Petra would like to get in touch with the Chairs from the other Alternative Schools so that we can share ideas as well. David to put a contact list on the website where the contact information of the other chairs will be accessible 

Teachers Report

Barbeque - Heather thanks CASC for the family barbecue, the teachers felt it was a great turnout and a good start to the year

Heath & Safety – the deck has nails and screws that are coming up and Heather asked if there were any parents that would be willing to come and nail & screw in the safety hazards.

Action – We need to find someone to do this & a timeframe

Professional Development - A teacher asked if there is going to be any funds for PD, Megan also expressed an interest.  Specifically for writing enrichment.

Action – this will be granted and is to be added to the budget for next month and this can be motioned in the next meeting 

“A-thons”  In previous years there used to be Skate-athons so last year the teachers were tasked with finding new “A-thons” that would be more inclusive and create a more opportunities for the kids to participate.  The teachers were definitely interested in this concept but they were not sure how this would work or when - The logistics need to be worked out.  In the past it was deemed to be too competitive and they were looking for a change.  As an alternative school we need to do things that are more “alternative”  This may evolve into something that other schools are able to adopt as well.  The main concept was as a fundraiser.

Discussion 

• Why is this to be a fundraiser for the school? 
• Why can it be more worldly and broaden the scope?  
• Can there be some curriculum based ‘athons’ that will allow you to talk about the topics that you are raising money for?
• Colin- wants to start the discussion of WHY we are doing fundraising.  Start the discussion of what are the wants and the needs.  Once that is established we need to decide how to go about doing that.  This does not have to be competitive but it can quickly become a negative competitive atmosphere.  We do not have to figure out today what the money will be used for as this will be fleshed out later once we decide what we are going to do.

Technology in the Schools – it is felt that there are some holes that could be improved.

Two media carts on each floor – the one on the second floor just shuts down mid lecture.  They need a new media cart  that will include a laptop at the very least.

Elmo – this is an opaque projector that includes an easier way for the teachers to copy and use overheads and they would be great to have at the school – one per floor (2)

Smart Boards – do we need better training for the board? Where are we going to store this and how can we get this into the classrooms?

Actions – Maria to find out pricing for ELMO, need to see where the smart boards are and get pricing for the media cart

Principals Report

Playground

Daycare - parents and children staying after school is an ongoing problem – it is agreed that parents are allowed to stay until 3:15pm now and then 3pm after daylight savings time.  The daycare rents out the playground so it is their right to use that space.

Action – the signage on the outside of the school conflicts with this agreement. Every gate says that you are able to use this after school hours.

Older Kids After School – an unaccompanied older child has to leave the schoolyard right after dismissal and check in with their parents and are NOT allowed to stay after school.

Skateboards – they should not be in the school yard at all.  

Elections Enrollment 

There are 356 kids enrolled at the school and at the moment it appears that there will be no shuffling of classes.  The final date is September 27^th for new additions.

Discussion Items: Renovation of Westboro United - Not discussed

Recess Proposal – Susan & Joanne

• Run a pilot project for structured activities during the longer recess.  This would occur on Wednesday and Friday during two second recesses a week for a period of 6 weeks starting the first week of October.
• Parent volunteers are needed to go into the school and play games with the children.  They would facilitate an activity with the children and explain the rules.
• After 6 weeks they would re-evaluate if this was working and then they would decide if they would like to roll this out further 
• Megan would like to have the same parents on the same days for consistency
• Joanne & Susan would arrange all the supplies, no parents would need to discipline just have fun with the kids

Actions – CASC to send out a notice asking for volunteers to do this.  Do we need to paint something onto the asphalt to facilitate this?  Ask Ray what the list is of the available templates that the school provides.

Take the Gameboy discussion offline – and discuss it in our November meeting 

Discussion – 

• Kids do not always know the rules of the games that are being played and need some help.  Parents need to be able to explain the rules.  
• Let kids know that this will be happening in the yard – this is a good discussion topic for parents and kids
• If you invite the masses – they may come be careful how this is positioned with the kids.
• Megan has been organizing games on the yard and it has been working well.
• DS Alley – in looking at the uniqueness of the school we have in the past talked about banning them but felt that it gives them something to connect with another child.

Tie Die – Melanie Burston

• We will be doing tie-dye t-shirts this year.  
• This is a very fun process that ALL grades will participate in.
• Our school colors are tie-dye and we will use our new logo on the shirts.  
• The kids will come class by class and have the opportunity to tie die their own shirts
• Not a fundraiser

Actions – book the gym Friday November 5^th & recruit volunteers

Add a sentence on the form that indicates that parents who are unable to pay would still be able to get a shirt.

Subs – Sue Carkner

• The new nutrition guidelines do not come into effect until the NEXT school year.
• Pizza Pizza has already met the nutrition requirements but Subway has not done this yet.  They are surprised about the requirements and they are getting in touch with head office to see what they can do about it.  
• The cookies are not considered to be nut free even thought they are nut free.  It is decided that M&M’s are worse than chocolate chips so it would be preferred that the cookies be chocolate chip.

Actions 

Change the cookie on the sub orders so that it will be chocolate chip 

Can we get someone for the board to come in and talk to us about the nutritional requirements?

Discussion 

• Now that we have a year can we figure out what these nutritional guidelines will really mean to Churchill Alternative? 
• Overall this is a good idea but fairly draconian. 
• It is now going to cost MORE to eat more healthily and for us it is not a big deal but for other schools or some parents this will be a problem.  

Announcements 

Family Breakfast (October 7)

Melanie Burston will be shadowing Cheryl to take this over next year – thank you Melanie!

ASAC (Oct 6)

The meeting will be in the Library 

Frank Wiley is ASAC’s new representative, he is also our school superintendent.

ASAC is interested also in an alternative sports day as well as the lecture series.

Craft Fair

The new dates for the Craft Fair will be November 27^th due to the Glebe Craft Fair

New/Other Business : 

• Insurance – not discussed.

• Fish - thoughts about the arts committee doing a project on the fence with wooden fences – this might be a great project for the students & the arts committee to work on.

• Facebook Site for Churchill – would this be a good idea?

• Trustee Elections – Do your research and make a good choice when you vote – CASC wants to send out a letter to parents about the importance of electing a trustee.

Discussion

• Motioned by Maria Hunter that a letter in some form goes out with wording changes and principal approval goes out to all Churchill parents and cc trustees 
• Seconded by Sue Sparks

Action – Scott to put information on the website indicating which trustees voted positively in the Alternative Review

Changes to the letter - Remove “our Trustee” and change it to “the current” 

Dan to modify the letter and send a copy to Sue Carkner for approval

Next Meeting – Tuesday October12