A message from the School Council Chair

Dear Clairlea Families….

The Clairlea Fun Fair is a month and a half away! We hope to see everyone there on Thursday June 22nd from 5:30-8:30pm. Bring your neighbours, friends and family all are welcome. All revenue generated from the Clairlea Fun Fair will go towards the Clairlea STEM/STEAM Program (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math). Please see below how you can help to make the Fun Fair a Success. Email us at clairleacouncil@gmail.com.

Lego competition at the Fun Fair.

I want to let you know about one of the NEW things we are doing this year at the Fun Fair. We are having a lego competition! Attention all lego fans we are having a competition and all you need to do is build a lego creation starting NOW. This creation could be anything; a monster, your favorite scene or even your room whatever you like. There is only one rule….. You cannot build your lego contest entry from a kit or any instructions it must be something you create fully on your own. You can use any pieces of lego you like and combine different lego. Once you have created your lego masterpiece bring it to the Fun Fair and enter it into the lego competition and the judges will determine the winner on the night of the Fun Fair. We look forward to seeing the lego creations!

How can you help make the Clairlea Fun Fair a success?

1. Make a cake or 2 and donate them to the Cake Walk Room, email clairleacouncil@gmail.com.

2. Volunteer your time to help out from 5:30-8:30pm on Thursday June 22nd for any of the Fun Fair activities, email clairleacouncil@gmail.com.

3. Donate a basket or items that we can include in a basket to be raffled off at the Fun Fair, email clairleacouncil@gmail.com

4. Donate an item or service for the Silent Auction, email clairleacouncil@gmail.com.

5. Make a cash donation to sponsor part of the Clairlea Fun Fair, email Clairleacouncil@gmail.com

6. Purchase a spot for $25 in our Clairlea Fun Fair Market to sell your homemade items or services, email clairleacouncil@gmail.com to make a reservation.

7. Donate little candy filled jars/bags and large lollipops to be used for the Candy Pull game at the Fun Fair, email clairleacouncil@gmail.com

8. Help us advertise the Fun Fair to the Community, post it on your blog, announce it to your group, let your soccer, hockey, baseball and gymnastics groups know about it and invite them to come. Email clairleacouncil@gmail.com

9. Donate costumes that we can use in our SuperHero Dressup room at the Fun Fair, email clairleacouncil@gmail.com

10. Do you want to help but don’t know what you could do, please email us at clairleacouncil@gmail.com

11. Come enjoy the BBQ and have dinner at the Fun Fair!

What will you see at the Fun Fair? Come see your favourite teacher at the Fun Fair!

We have some new items as well as returning favourites to the Fun Fair this year. Some items include, The Rock Wall, Cake Walk Room, Raffle Basket/Silent Auction, Obstacle Course, Big Slide, Super Hero Room, Freezies, Delicious BBQ (Halal and non Halal options), Face Painting, Fire Truck, Bouncy Castle, Clairlea Vendor Market, Lollipop Pull, Candy Guess, Lego Guess, Mounted Police, First Aid and Baby Care Station and much, much more….. WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!!!!

OTHER EVENTS COMING UP…

Clairlea Spirit Wear…

The spirit wear just arrived so we are sorting through the order and seeing if there are any missing items. We will distribute what we received over the next week.

Pizza Lunch…

Pizza Lunch has been a tremendous success please remember to get your orders in on time on the dates specified on the envelope to help our volunteers run the program smoothly. Starting in September 2017 we will be moving the pizza lunch to an online ordering system as part of the school moving to a cashless system. Please sign up online through the emails that have coming out from Ms. Carson in the office so that you are ready to go when we start.

School Council Meeting…

We will have our last school council meeting of the year on Wednesday May 17th as there will not be a June meeting. Please see below the agenda for the May meeting.

Agenda (May 17th) for the School Council meeting:

7:00 – 7:10pm Introduction (Irit)

7:10 – 7:35pm Administration Report (Mr. Mcgilvray and Ms. Karsh)

7:35 – 7:45pm Treasurer’s Report (Denise)

7:45 – 8:00pm Fundraising Report (Irit)

8:00 – 8:25pm Open Discussion (All)

Things we are working on….

French Immersion Pathway…

If you have children attending Clairlea P.S. that are in French immersion you are also aware that our French Immersion home school pathway after grade 8 is Cedarbrae Collegiate. It has come to our attention over the years through opinions voiced at school council meetings, emails and varied conversations with parents that Cedarbrae was not the preferred choice for a multitude of reasons. In an effort to voice the concerns of the Clairlea Families we as a council with the help and guidance of Parthi Kandavel our School Trustee have escalated our concerns to the appropriate areas within the TDSB. Due to this effort in early April we were granted a tremendous opportunity to meet and present our concerns to the Chief Planning Officer and Teaching and Learning Department of the TDSB. These are the areas of the TDSB that analyze and decide school pathways. The meeting was deemed a success in the sense that we as a council felt heard and they acknowledged our concerns. We also gained a great understanding of how decisions such as changing a pathway of a school is determined and how complex a process it is. In order for this to happen a Feasibility Study has to be conducted by the board. This process can take up to two months as understandably there are many factors to consider. The good news that I would like to share with you is that the planning department has officially identified Clairlea as being in need of a feasibility study and their aim is to have it completed by mid October 2017. If the results of the feasibility study show that our pathway should change given the concerns we have raised in addition to a buildup of French Immersion grade schools in the area west of Victoria Park which will need a high school to attend as well given that Malvern, Agincourt, and Leaside are at overcapacity and not accepting entries and therefore a new High School in the area would need to take on a new stream of French Immersion. That high school would be East York Collegiate. We are cautiously optimistic that our French Immersion home school pathway will change effective for the grade 9 students starting in September 2018 to East York Collegiate. I will provide further updates as I learn them in the months to come.

HOW TO REACH US…

If you would like to unsubscribe to this email (we hope you don’t) or know someone that would like to be added to the distribution list please send a request to clairleacouncil@gmail.com. We would like to hear your feedback and suggestions. If you are not able to come to the next meeting and want to contribute ideas please email them to us or drop a note in the council box in the office and we can bring them forward to the meeting. You can contact us via email at clairleacouncil@gmail.com, on the blog at http://clairleacouncil.blogspot.com, or have a look at our bulletin board outside the office for the latest news.

Best Regards,

Irit

Chairperson, Clairlea School Council

2016/2017

clairleacouncil@gmail.com