Notes from School Council

There was a terrific turnout at the year's School Council meeting last night. Thank you to everyone who attended.

Minutes will be forthcoming but here are a few notes: 

Staffing and class assignments: There's always a bit of class shuffling in September as our numbers settle, but it should be relatively minimal this year. We're at just over 600 students, as projected. The school is at 105% capacity. We have an extra portable; it will be used for band and primary music.

Facilities: The upstairs hall will be repainted. The parking lot will be repaved. Please remember that the bus loop is "kiss and ride." There is no parking in the bus loop, ever. 

Bussing: The TDSB changed bus carriers this year, causing significant problems in the first week. These have mostly been resolved. Contact Michelle or Carin in the school office with any concerns. 

Events, activities, sport: A number of field trips are already being planned. Sports/teams underway: Girls and boys softball, co-ed flag football, run club/ x-country team, house league soccer gr 4-8 (gr 1-3 will follow). Picture Day is Wednesday October 5. Oct 7 is a PA Day. There will be three school concerts this year: kindies at the winter holidays; grades 1-8 either winter or spring. Stay tuned. 

Curriculum night: Details here. Please visit the book fair; 50% of the proceeds are returned to Clairlea in books. 

Snack program: starts in October. This "morning meal" includes a protein, grain and fruit/vegetable. The program is one-third funded by a grant; one-third by parent contributions and the remainder needs to be fundraised. No one will be refused for inability to pay, but you must sign the permission form for your child to participate. 

New superintendent: Peter Chang. Our trustee is Parthi Kandavel who is hosting a ward forum on Sept 27. 

Upcoming fundraisers:

• Catalogue sales - information to come home soon
• Pizza lunch Sept 28 and bimonthly after that
• Spirit wear - watch for order forms in mid to late October
• Halloween Howl - Friday October 28, please let us know if you can volunteer
• Movie night - dates to come

Questions/concerns from parents:

Playground equipment: The broken bridge on the play structure remains boarded off. Despite the fact that the playground inspector deems the structure to be safe, parents are aware that children frequently climb over the boards to play on the unsafe area. The school budget cannot absorb the cost to repair the structure. Mr. McGilvray committed to speak to the facilities team leader before our October meeting to determine whether the TDSB is willing to repair the structure. 

CCAT: Parents of grade 3 students have been asked to consent to a cognitive abilities test which is a pre-screening for gifted exceptionalities. This is an effort by the TDSB to make access to the gifted program more equitable. It has nothing to do with EQAO. 

High school information: We were reminded of last year's discussion about providing families of all grades information about the high schools available to students in our area. Ms Karsh will arrange for our guidance counsellor to lead a session for parents on this topic. 

In-school daycare: For the third consecutive year, there was not sufficient interest among JK/SK parents to run a daycare in the school. 

Next meeting Wednesday October 19, 7pm in the staff room. 

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. 

The end

Well, well, well, well, well.

It's the end of the year! How did that happen?

The school council met last week. We passed new by-laws, which include a new election process - more on that next year. There are 50 spots on school council, so please think about whether you'll have some time to join us next year. We'd love to have many, many, many of you - even if you can't join every meeting, we'll appreciate your inputs and help, advice and ideas whenever you can.

We also made a plan for a school-wide snack program next year, which will include fruit and other healthy snacks in every classroom throughout the year. It's a simple program designed to promote healthy eating and make sure no one at Clairlea ever goes hungry. This will require funding, so we'll welcome any eager new fundraisers who might like to help us achieve this!

Lots of other news, including the departures of our two longest-standing members, Ann and Laura. They've been dedicated volunteers for 15 and 14 years respectively, since their oldest children were in kindergarten. Now that their youngest children have completed grade 8, we bid them a fond farewell and thank them for their energy, hard work and dedication to making Clairlea a wonderful place to learn. I know you'll all join us in extending special thanks to Ann for managing pizza lunch lo these many years! Hers will be hard shoes to fill, but if anyone can do it, Wendy can; she'll be taking on the task of pizza lunch next year.

Mr. McGilvray updated us on next year's staffing, but it's all still in flux. That's why there were no room assignments on the report cards; it's too likely that the situation will change, leading to disruption and disappointment. We'll just have to be patient until September.

Thanks for a great year, Clairlea! Have a wonderful summer. See you in September.

Classroom placements for 2009-10

A letter is going home today from Mr. Puopolo regarding class placements for next year. He has also provided the following documents: Staff and room list for 2009-10 (who's teaching what) Classroom organization (projected class numbers) The school will be doing student placements the week of June 7. Although Mr. Puopolo asks that parents do not request specific teachers for their children, they are welcome to send him a note with any special considerations that he should be aware of in making the placements. You should also have received a notice yesterday that Clairlea will be getting a new principal and vice-principal in 2009-10. While we will miss Mr. Puopolo and Ms. Bismilla (and of course Ms. Phillips), we look forward to welcoming our new principal Ms. Persaud and vice-principal Mr. Frenette.

Notes from May 6 School Council meeting

Some notes from the quick and efficient School Council meeting last night: Staffing / school activities: - Mr. Puopolo is interviewing teachers to fill expected vacancies in the school for next year. The staffing model will be complete by the end of May. Some timetable adjustments may need to be made due to the 210 minutes of prep time (weekly) agreed upon in recent teacher negotiations. - Ms. Phillips will retire this year. We wish her very well. A new principal will be announced this Spring - probably by the end of May - by superintendent Dickinson. - The Grade 8's are going on a four-day class trip to Quebec, accompanied by three teachers. - EQAO testing takes for grades 3 and 6 will take place between May 25 and June 5. (Grade 3 French immersion students are tested on math only.) School Council projects: - Council will fund the Grade 8 graduation, dinner and yearbook, as in past years. - Council will fund the kindergarten graduation, as in past years. - The Primary Math Club sent a very nice thank you note for the games provided by School Council. Fundraising: - The baskets at the Spring concert raised about $775! Together with proceeds from pizza days, movie nights and other fundraisers, this money funds projects like the ones listed above. Thanks to those who coordinated and to everyone who participated. - The dance-a-thon I mentioned in an earlier post will not take place after all, for logistical reasons. - The next pizza lunch is May 28. Planning is well underway for next year's fundraisers. Volunteers are needed to lead fundraising activities both large and small, including: - manage a barbecue or treat table at curriculum night in September - organize a treat table for the December concert - manage a read-a-thon in January - organize the 2010 Fun Fair - a big job but lots of fun! - volunteers are also needed to help out with fundraisers throughout the year, including the above and many others. Come to the June 3 School Council meeting to learn more about what you can do to help! If you're interested in volunteering, please seek out Ginnie (School Council chair) or leave a message for her at the office. I think that was about it. Official minutes to come once approved. Click here for the minutes from April's meeting. p.s. I apologize for listing the wrong day for the Clairlea Park opening! I know at least one family was inconvenienced and I hope there were not too many others.

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.

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.