School Council - some thoughts on the March meeting

We had a good turnout at our School Council meeting last week, about 16 people. We've got a terrific group of thoughtful and energetic contributors, but more ideas and diverse opinions are definitely welcome - let's see if we can get even more people out to our April 17 meeting. Even if you're not a voting member of School Council, you are more than welcome to participate. We'd love to have your perspective.

Minutes will be forthcoming. Check the blue bar at right - I've added links to the minutes from all of this year's meetings.

In the meantime, here are a few things I learned at this month's meeting:

• The woodworking workshop was fantastic. (Actually I already knew that, as my son was one of the participants. But it was great to hear all the other parents agree.) The workshop was given in French to the French immersion kids, which is rare and fantastic. The organizer offers programs for older grades too, and the school is looking at that for the future.

• Our fundraising is fantastic. Karen Shah and the many volunteers who work on fundraising projects, including Wendy Whittle and her amazing pizza lunch crew, are doing a fantastic job.

• A proposed staffing model will be ready next month. That's where the staffing committee takes the projected enrollment and allotment of teaching staff and makes a plan of how many classes of how many kids we will have next year, including how many split-grade classes. It's more complex than you'd imagine. A few things are non-negotiable, such as the caps on primary class sizes, and a mandatory 3/4 split in the English stream, and the fact that a split class must have at least 4 children in each grade. Plus, it's almost impossible to have a 6/7 split because the number of instructional minutes changes in grade 7. 

• The labour situation has impacted the school more than most of us realize. For example, we learned this month that the monthly assemblies no longer include character instruction. It used to be that there was a monthly performance, led by a different grade or class, on the character trait of the month as determined by the TDSB as part of their character education program. But it turns out that organizing those performances was considered "volunteer" work on the part of the teachers, and it doesn't happen any more. 

• We also learned that professional development has been really challenging this year. The labour situation has prevented the school from implementing the kind of math and literacy pathways that Clairlea has benefited from in previous years. As Mr. Frenette explained in the 2011-12 school year, these pathways were designed to improve the quality of instruction at Clairlea through co-planning, co-teaching and moderated marking.  

• However, the administration is doing its best to keep things moving along. The character assemblies have given way to monthly Panther assemblies, and the grade 8 graduation trip will proceed although in a different form. 

Stay tuned for a more detailed account of the meeting in the form of draft minutes.