CASC Meeting Minutes, Wednesday April 14, 2010 7pm

Attendance

Dave Fortier, Pam Dilworth-Christie (co-chairs)

Connie Downes, Cheryl Brouse (co-secretaries)

Connie Daymond (Principal), Sandra Burton (Teacher Rep), Suzanne Amenta, Wallace Beaton, Dan McKenna, Wendy Boland, Maureen Clarke

Minutes by: C.Downes

1) Welcome and Introductions (Dave Fortier)

2) Approval of March minutes

- deferred to next meeting

- Suggestion: in order to reduce use of paper we should circulate electronic copies only for minutes and agenda

3) Approval of Agenda

- Approved: Dan McKenna; seconded: Suzanne Amenta

4) Discussion Items

a. Plant Sale (Suzanne Amenta)

- Gemmel’s (sp?) Garden Center for plants; Donna to do ordering

- 10” pots only (less impressive, though less expensive)

- this year we need to pay up front; decided to buy ~ 20% less than what was sold last year

- if plants left over, will have a second day of sales

- New Date: Thursday, May 20; second day/rain date: Friday, May 21

b. Westboro United Church Update (Dave Fortier)

- building will be sold this year or next, as of June facilities will not be available (for daycare, scouts etc.)

- co-chairs will be meeting with Church reps to get update in coming weeks

- no heritage designation and not on list for assessment

c. School Travel Planning (Wallace Beaton)

- writing formal plan for school, applied for $2K honorarium (requires surveys)

- family survey letter sent to parents this week with report cards;

- next step is classroom survey (to be administered by teachers); Wallace needs confirmation of survey distribution to students and confirmation of teacher representative (Lynn?)

ACTION: Wallace to send digital survey and instructions to Connie Daymond who will distribute hard copies to teachers. Connie will confirm survey date and teacher rep with Wallace. Teacher rep to contact Wallace.

d. Alternative Renewal Committee Update (Dan/Wendy)

- Committee was formed at last CASC meeting; Chairs: Dan and Wendy; Staff rep: Connie Daymond and Roy

- met twice so far

- next meeting: Tuesday May 4

- next steps: reviewing Churchill’s mission statement, 7 tenets of alternative program, brainstorming, rewrite “Inside Churchill” document; will involve staff, families and kids

- one goal is to find better ways to communicate alternative philosophy with staff, parents and ASAC

ACTION: Dan/Wendy to submit article for next newsletter to include information on the committee goals and invitation to get involved

e. School of Rock Update (prepared by Ray)

- Date: May 14

- Location changed: Fisher Park auditorium

- Costs: will need buses ($125 per bus); equipment rental (p.a. etc.)

- Connie Daymond mentioned there is access to equipment via the board; Dave explained already looked into and this is more expensive

- will be selling t-shirts for $15 this year, DVDs at $25 again, collecting donations etc. to alleviate costs

- Connie Daymond suggested the Board media person can send out announcements

- need volunteers to hang posters day before

- Suggestion: the event should be included in our Trustee’s annual report

- Suggestion: in future, this event should be included as a regular item in the Arts Committee funding requests in October

5) Treasurer’s Report (Wendy for Donna)

- Funds doing well (money available and much of it allocated)

- Donna suggests $7K be carried over to next year as done previously because this is needed as a float at the start of the school year;

- Donna recommends we consider having big fundraiser to begin to save for future play structure expenses/replacement

- Connie Daymond explained that any safety issues on play structure will be covered by Board

- Can money be put aside for future purchases such as this? In the past, this has been contentious. Parents need to be better informed on how funds are used. Info is available in the Treasurer’s report but not widely circulated.

- Suggestion: publish summary in newsletter of how money has been spent throughout the year and what is planned for future

- Suggestion: need to investigate the ban on “directed” fundraising; is this actually a policy or just habit? It makes fundraising more difficult because people are more supportive if they know the goal.

- Suggestion: need a system for listing and prioritizing items requiring funds; need overview of fundraising activities; Should we have a fundraising committee?

- Suggestion: though the play structure would most likely be the largest of the purchases, we should look into other things first the create a short list before earmarking long term funds.

ACTION: Pam to find “Constitution and mission statement” document

ACTION: Connie Daymond to get estimate of lifespan of play structure

6) Teacher’s Report (Sandra Burton)

- Thanks for dance and puppet events, everyone loved them!

- Ray did large reproduction of art piece in hallway; teachers suggest more of this be done. Are there parent volunteer to support this? Would there be funds to buy supplies? Yes, should be put in as an Arts Committee request

- Suggestion to get Lunch Lady as a fund-raising item; concerns raised about disposable containers (especially in relation to our “litterless lunch” policy) and possibly food allergies

ACTION: Pam will look into Lunch Lady as a fund raising option

7) Principal’s Report

- report cards and travel survey have gone out; teachers to collect travel survey and place in CASC mailbox

Review of staff allocations:

- lost 0.6 position (0.5 staff/0.1 needs); same number of kids although more in kindergarten (kindergarten is a half-day program so staff allocation reduced)

- No final decision made yet on grade organization and teacher placement, and no clear idea of what final outcome will be. There is still a good possibility we will get the 0.6 allocation back. However, Connie Daymond needs to provide the Board a preliminary picture of where full-time teachers will be placed by end of this week.

- Connie explained she is working on a variety of options; one possible option is to have a few single-grade classes; concerns were raised about this because multi-age grouping is a basic tenets of our alternative school

- General agreement that this is a last resort but is there is no other option there may be other means to incorporate multi-age grouping other than combined classes

- Suggestion: need discussion on how to better use volunteers or other strategies to help teachers implement alternative practices

- Suggestion: In order to prevent a single grade class from missing out on teach teaching or other classroom groupings, we will be conscious of how events, and activities are handled to insure all students in that grade, either single or multi-aged are treated equally.

- Summary: CASC reiterated that the commitment to multi-age classes is fundamental and we appreciate Connie Daymond’s effort to retain this. If there is no other possibility and we are required to have a few single grade classes CASC will discuss ways to encourage multi-age groupings through other facets.

8) New/other business

- none

9) Next Meeting: May 12, 2010

Meeting adjourned: 9:45 p.m.