Clairlea Spring Concert - what a show!

What fun!! The Clairlea Spring Concert was a terrific show. Every parent loves their own children's performance the best, of course, so I have to give a special shout-out to Mme Fahim's SK class and "Je chante en francais." (My kid was the one making binoculars with his hands, apparently searching for his family in the audience.) Mme. Chow's class did a great job with "La saison de printemps," an original creation in French that was performed for the first time tonight. The grade 7 band amazed us all with their impressive three-song performance, and you could tell how proud their teacher was of their accomplishments. Mrs. Small's class offered a very catchy dance number to the tune of "Mama Mia." You could tell the class worked realy hard, with a very snazzy start and some nice added touches like the ribbon dances. I especially liked the performers' sense of style, particularly the boy in the pink shirt with a blue tie slung fashionably low on his neck. Mme. Boudreau's class rocked the house with "Des noix de coco," creating a Hawaiian beach scene complete with palm tree, leis, flip-flops and rolled-up jeans. Their performance went so well that one girl did a little happy-dance when they were done. Mme. Stempiniak's class's adaptation of The Four Seasons by Vivaldi was anything but traditional. Their show was a stirring and energetic interpretation of the competition among the seasons. All the dancers were wonderful. I think I actually felt the chill of the cold, harsh wind of Fall. Miss Lowen's class performed The Very Hungry Caterpillar, complete with sound effects. The painted sets were every bit as beautiful as the illustrations in Eric Carle's classic book. Mr. Landry's and Mr. Mitkovski's classes joined forces for Vois sur ton chemain, beautifully performed in French with enchanting harmonies, great costumes and a haunting violin solo at the close. Mme. Karki's class performed a Spring poem en francais, with each student speaking their lines clearly and with gusto. Mme. Cormpilas's class sang La pluie qui mouille, a snappy and energetic tune performed to excellent choreography. The finish was terrific, with everyone singing together. To close the evening, the Dance Team performed a step dance modelled on the traditional South African tradition, to thundering applause. The three emcees filled the breaks with a bit of light humour, and School Council raffled off seven impressive baskets, generously given by donors including the supplier of Spirit Wear clothing. Starbucks donated the coffee and several School Council members provided the snacks. (We'll report on the amount raised once the tally is in.) Congratulations to everyone involved for a most impressive event! I hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did.

School Board summary of decisions

The Toronto District School Board posts meeting minutes and other documents on its web site. The most recent posting is a summary of decisions from the March 11 2009 meeting. Clairlea is in Ward 18, and our trustee is Gary Crawford. He, too, has a web site.

Clairlea Spring Concert - Thurs Apr 23

The Clairlea Spring Concert is this Thursday April 23, 6:30pm at SATEC (40 Fairfax Cres). Participating classes are listed on Mrs. Park's drama blog. Performers should arrive at 6:15pm. I can't wait!

Teacher negotiations

As you probably know, the Toronto District School Board is in negotiations with the elementary school teachers of Toronto. Anyone who has questions about this can visit www.tdsb.on.ca/negotiations for information. Thanks to Ward 18 school board trustee Gary Crawford for the link.

Scarborough Parent Conference - April 25

School Board Trustee Gary Crawford and his fellow Scarborough trustees are holding a free Scarborough Parent Conference on Saturday April 25. Details are at www.tdsb.on.ca/spc.

Minutes - March 2009 School Council meeting

The minutes of the March 4, 2009 School Council meeting have been posted on the school web site. We will do this regularly from now on. http://www.tdsb.on.ca/SchoolWeb/Clairlea/docs/March_Minutes_Clairlea_School_Council.pdf Many thanks to Mr. Knierim for all the technical support! A friendly reminder that everyone with a child at Clairlea is welcome at School Council meetings. You don't have to be an "official" voting member. Even if you only come to one meeting a year, it's a great way to meet some of the staff and other parents, and to find out about what's happening at the school. Please join us if you can!

School staffing explained

Ginnie Zaromitidis, our School Council Chair, recently attended a Ward 18 meeting on school staffing. Here is a summary of what she learned: For many parents, staffing seems like a big mess of numbers. It can sometimes feel as if your child is always the one affected, that it’s his or her class that has too many students, or that your child is the one stuck in a split-grade class with only three or four peers. The past few weeks our acting principal, Mr. Puopolo, has been explaining the process to the School Council. At the Ward 18 meeting last week, three principals from other schools explained the difficulties they have in staffing their schools. They all have the same problem as Clairlea: they can only work with what they are given. First, principals are given their school’s projected enrolment numbers. Each school’s staffing model must be in accordance to these projections. Not the current numbers, or what the principals anticipate; the models must be based on the school board’s projected numbers, which are usually correct to a margin of 1% (across the board). Then the principals are allocated a certain number of staff. This may sound simple, but students do not come in neat groups of 20. Because Clairlea is a dual track school (French and English), things get even more complicated. It is like staffing two small schools. The numbers are never even, and that sometimes means that primary grades get more staff than junior, or French and English have unequal number of teachers, or some classes have 30 students while others have 20. Unfortunately, there is no way to make the numbers perfectly even, because in most cases, the schools are told where the staff must go. There are three categories (so six for Clairlea: three for each English and French) · JK/SK: we are allotted a certain number of teachers · Primary (grades 1-3): we are allotted a certain number of teachers · Junior (grades 4-8): we are allotted a certain number of teachers. Then we are given allocations for prep time, library, reading recovery, special ed, etc. Schools cannot take a half teacher from primary to use in junior classes, nor can they take from the English side to staff French classes, or vice versa. Primary class sizes are capped at 20. Each superintendent is only allowed a certain number of exemptions throughout the entire ward. To further complicate the situation, principals also have to consider teachers’ qualifications, leaves of absence, LTO (long term occasional) placements and prep time. Staffing is not just about what we can see. It is about what the board predicts for each school. After going through this process, I understand how little wiggle room there is in the staffing model. Parents cannot choose their children’s teachers, but Mr. Puopolo has said that he will listen to parents’ legitimate concerns about their children’s placement. He cannot guarantee the outcome, but he will listen to our concerns.

Swimming pools in Toronto schools

Parents are invited to attend the City of Toronto Community Development and Recreation Committee Meeting on the future of the swimming pools in Toronto schools. A group called Let's Make Waves (www.letsmakewaves.ca) will ask the City to work with the Toronto District School Board to develop an aquatic strategy for the City’s 2.5 million residents before any pools are closed. The meeting is at 9:00 AM on Thursday, April 16th at City Hall, 2nd Floor, Committee Room 2. 100 Queen Street West, Toronto.

TDSB parent information sessions

Hope you all had a good long weekend! The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) is offering a series of information sessions for parents on: · Getting Involved in your child’s education · School Council (Regulation 612/613) · Volunteering in Schools · School Council Budgets/Funding/ Insurance · Parent Protocol (Process for dealing with parent concerns) Tuesday April 21, 2009 Jarvis Collegiate (Library), 495 Jarvis Street 6:30 -Light Refreshments 7:00-Session Thursday April 23, 2009 Richview Collegiate (Library), 1738 Islington Avenue 6:30 -Light Refreshments 7:00-Session Tuesday April 28, 2009 Downsview SS, Library, 7 Hawksdale Road (Keele/Wilson) 6:30 -Light Refreshments 7:00-Session To register: 416-397-3529 or outreach@tdsb.on.ca

Fundraising activities

A big focus of School Council is to raise money for the school. School Council organizes things like pizza day, movie night and magazine subscriptions so that we can pay for those important extras that make Clairlea a great place to go to school. Recent purchases have included: - new volleyball nets ($3,000) - an art workshop for eight classes at the Cedar Ridge Creative Centre ($1,142) - supplies for the Craft Club for grades 1-3 ($200) - a new camcorder and two cameras for the Video Club ($800) School Council really appreciates everyone's participation and support in fundraising events. As you can imagine, these fundraisers are a lot of work to organize. The May School Council meeting will focus on fundraising, and everyone is asked to bring forward fundraising programs that they would like to lead. Stay tuned for more exciting events, including a Dance-A-Thon!

School boundaries video

The video about School Boundaries was made by Miss Lowen's Grade 1/2 class. You can view it here: http://jjlowen.blogspot.com/2009/04/our-video-about-school-boundaries.html. Enjoy!

April 1 School Council meeting - informal recap

For me, the highlight of the School Council meeting on April 1 was Mr Mitkovski's presentation of some of the videos the school has put together recently. He showed us two videos, and I wish I had noted down which classes they came from. The first was a great video based on the Obama/Will.i.am "Yes I can" video that you have probably all seen on YouTube. The kids held signs indicating what they can do. "I can help people," or "I can play in the NHL." The parents were very inspired by the students' impressive and often selfless goals. Another video was designed to show where the school boundaries are. It was very humourous! The editing was creative and the script imaginative, and the kids played their roles expertly. Mr. Puopolo reported on the staffing models for 2009-10. School enrolment is forecasted to be up a bit next year, and the staffing model will accomodate that. As a new member of parent council, I was surprised by the complexity of the staffing model, and am developing an appreciation for how difficult it is for the school to manage conflicting priorities. Teacher prep time must be accomodated in the schedule as well; I believe Mr. Puopolo said teachers will get 210 minutes of prep time next year. Mr. Puopolo assured us that the school will be able to provide special ed support in French next year, which was welcome news to the parents. The special ed teacher allocation is made based on the number of students in the school who have Individual Education Plans (IEPs). The School Council also discussed fundraising plans for the remainder of the school year, as well as next year. More on that in a day or two.

Welcome to the Clairlea School Council blog

Welcome to the Clairlea PS School Council blog! My name is Catharine, and this is my son's first year at Clairlea and my first year on School Council. Joining School Council has been a great way for me personally to learn about the school and the school system. As a working parent, I don't have much of a chance to be present in the school. School Council helps me understand what happens in the school and gives me a way to be involved. Through meetings, I learn from the teachers, staff and other parents. Guest speakers this year have included school superintendent Rauda Dickinson, city councillor Adrian Heaps, and a representative of the Toronto District School Board who spoke about a program to teach the kids about different kinds of families. There is always a presentation from one of the teachers, and it has been a pleasure to hear from each of them. This blog will contain information that Council wants to share with other parents and the school community, but I'll also share my personal learnings and thoughts about Council. For those of you who would like to attend Council meetings but don't have the time, this blog will (I hope) provide you with information and insights into the working of the School. Many of you know much more about this than I do, so I welcome any comments, corrections, clarification and additional thoughts. The more involved parents are, the more successful our children will be at school. All parents are welcome at School Council! Even if you are not a voting member and cannot attend regularly, please feel free to come to meetings when you can. The next meeting is May 6 at 7:00 pm. Childcare is provided in the gym.