Message from the chair

Dear Clairlea Families…

The school year is well underway and things are getting busy and we as your School Council are working hard to put forth a fun year!  We have had our first School Council meeting which included the elections for the School Council executive.  Congratulations to our 2015/16 elected positions:

Vice Chair – Wendy Whittle

Treasurer – Russell Preece

Fundraising – Joanne Benson

Secretary – Reka Nicholas

WHEN DO WE MEET…

School Council meetings take place every 3^rd Wednesday of each month.  The next school council meeting is on Wednesday October 21^st from 7pm-8:30pm. Free child minding is available.  All are welcome and we hope to see you there! 

The Agenda for School Council meeting usually follow this format:

6:50 – 7:00pm Sell 50/50 tickets (optional)

7:00 – 7:10pm Introduction and voting in the past minutes (Irit)                              

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

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

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

8:00 – 8:25pm Open Discussion (All)

8:25 – 8:30pm 50/50 draw

WHAT'S COMING UP.....

I’ve outlined below some key dates coming up as well as where we could use your help for the upcoming HALLOWEEN HOWL FUNDRAISER on Friday October 30^th!  Please have a look through and as always we want to hear your comments so please contact us via clairleacouncil@gmail.com   Other places to look for information about Clairlea School Council Events are; The School Council bulletin board located outside the Main Office  and the School Council Blog http://clairleacouncil.blogspot.com to keep up to date of what is going on! 

PLEASE HELP! VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR THE HOWL… We are looking for volunteers to help out during the Halloween Howl Event on October 30^th.  The Howl is one of our largest and most popular events that we run at Clairlea.  In order for it to be a success we need people to run the many moving parts that make up the fun event.  Year after year we have had the strong involvement and support from the staff at Clairlea but this year given the work to rule situation that is not possible even though the staff want to be involved the situation does not allow them to do so, which makes parent involvement even more critical.  If you want to help out please email us at clairleacouncil@gmail.com.

WHAT IS THE HOWL? Please save the date and bring the children out for a fun time on Friday October 30^th from 5:30-8:00pm.  We encourage the children to dress up in their favourite costume so that they can participate in the contest at the end of the evening!  Bring your own loot bag/recycle bag to the Howl to enable the kids to collect all their goodies when they travel from room to room and partake in fun activities – featuring our very popular “HAUNTED LIBRARY”.  Entry is only $5.00/per child and parents are free.  We will be offering the option of a pizza dinner during the event so there is no need to make dinner.  Make things easier on yourself and leave the dinner to us and you just need to enjoy the event and pick up your dinner in the gym. Check the backpacks over the next couple of weeks to look for a preorder dinner envelope along with a map featuring all activities for the night.  In order for this event to run we need your help and I have listed below ways you can help make the Halloween Howl a great success!

 OTHER WAYS YOU CAN HELP:

1.        DECORATION DROP OFF: We need Halloween decorations to get the school ready for the Halloween Howl!!  Starting October 5^th there will be a large blue bin in front of the main office of the school where you can drop off all items.  Spend $5 dollars in the dollar store and drop it off in the bin.  We are looking for:
-  Spider Webs – many of these
-  Black plastic dollar store Table Cloths – many of these

-  Candy Lollipops for the Lollipop Pull Room
-  Lots of Candy (nut free) to hand out or in small jars or baggies

2.       PERSONAL AND/OR CORPORATE DONTATIONS:  We are always looking for gift donations that we can use as prizes or raffles during the Halloween Howl.  If you or your company would like to donate a prize or gift to be used as one of our prizes during the event please contact us at clairleacouncil@gmail.com.

3.       HOME MADE CANDY JARS/BAGS:  We need many candy jars to be used as prizes for the Lollipop Pull room.  You can help by filling any sized jar or little baggy with (nut free) candy and bring it to the school office anytime between now and the Halloween Howl.  The more jars we have the longer this room will be able to stay open and it is definitely one of the favourite rooms.  In past years we have needed approximately 400 jars/bags to have this room open for the entire event.  Feel free to decorate your jars as well.   

4.       HALLOWEEN CANDY:  We need peanut free Halloween candy to be used as prizes in various rooms.  Please pick up a bag of candy and drop it off in the blue bin in front of the main office.

NORCARD…  (DUE FRIDAY OCTOBER 9^TH)  Over the last few days you should have received a Red and White Holiday Magic Norcard Fundraising Catalog.  This shopping catalog is filled with items you can order such as; calendars, greeting cards, stationary items,  jewelry, kitchen items, phone charge cords, USB adapter wall chargers and much more just in time for the holiday season.  The Ordered Items will arrive approximately the end of November 2015 (perhaps sooner).  All money (cash or cheque) and order forms (with completed legible contact information and order details) must be returned to your classroom no later than FRIDAY OCTOBER 9^TH 2015.   Cheques must be made payable to “Clairlea School Council”.   If you have not received the Catalog or need an additional order form we have left extras in the Main Office.  This fundraiser enables Clairlea to receive up to 50% of all orders made.  Late orders will not be accepted and will be returned back to you.

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
2015/2016

clairleacouncil@gmail.com

Curriculum night

In case you missed the notice over on the school blog: unfortunately curriculum night has been postponed until the work-to-rule situation has been resolved.

Pizza lunch - September 30

Pizza lunch is on Wednesday September 30. Orders are due Friday September 25th. You should already have received an order envelope; if not, you can download and print a copy. Please circle the Sept 30 date.

Pizza lunch is one of our School Council’s most important fundraising initiatives. Thanks to the hard work of some very dedicated volunteers, pizza lunch raises thousands of dollars for the school. The proceeds fund things like library books and e-reading materials, iPads for classroom use, sports equipment and more. Attend an upcoming school council meeting to share your views on what the school needs most.

Thank you very much for your support. 

Supporting student achievement

We had a productive school council meeting last Wednesday. We have a new executive, which includes chair Irit Hartman, vice-chair Wendy Whittle, treasurer Russ P., secretary Reka Nicholas and fundraising chair Joanne Benson. These are time-consuming volunteer commitments and and on behalf of the rest of us -- thank you to the executive for taking them on!

As there were funds left over from last year's fundraising, the council approved some new spending to support student achievement at the school:

1. We've allocated $3,000 to purchase 10 new Chromebooks for the school. These join the ones that we already have (40, I believe - please post below if I am mistaken). Teachers can sign out a group of these computers for their class to use for a period of time, then they are returned to the administration to be recharged for the next group. Students usually use them in pairs, so 15-20 are usually sufficient for one class. The goal is to have 60 by the end of the school year, so that more classes can use them at once.

2. We also assigned $100 per homeroom class ($2,700 total) to be put toward an experiential learning activity of some sort. This can be either a field trip or an in-class activity such as Scientists in Schools, music or art workshops, an author reading or musical or theatrical performance. Classes can use this money individually or pool their spending to take best advantage of these funds. We will report back later in the year on specifically what activities these funds supported.

None of this would be possible without the incredible volunteers who organize our fundraisers. If you can help too, please write to clairleacouncil@gmail.com. Volunteers are needed for various one-time events, both daytime and evening, throughout the year. Even an hour or two is a huge help.

It also wouldn't be possible without you, all the great Clairlea families who buy pizza, attend fund fairs, come to movie nights and order through our Norcard shopping campaign (coming soon). Thank you!

As you know, the Clairlea snack program is moving to 5 days/week starting in October. Thank you to everyone who sent in their donations. You should be aware that your donation of $10/month covers approximately one-third of the total cost. One-third is funded by a grant from the Toronto Foundation for Student Success. The remaining one-third must be raised by school fundraising - so your active participation is greatly appreciated by those 600-odd hungry mouths at Clairlea! thank you! 

Phase 3 of teachers' work-to-rule strike begins Monday

The ETFO has directed teachers to escalate their work-to-rule/strike activity starting Monday.

CTV news has the details on what this means. In a nutshell: no meetings with parents unless there's a specific concern; no blogs, websites or newsletters; no changes to IEPs after the initial deadline; no report card comments; no extra-curriculars on Wednesdays.

The TDSB posted this information for parents about the labour negotiations.

The union is threatening rotating strikes in October if no agreement has been reached by then.

School council tomorrow!

Welcome back to Clairlea, everyone! I hope that all the kids are settling nicely into their routines. I would like to introduce myself - I'm Catharine, the parent of a grade 5 student at Clairlea. I write this blog to share information about the Clairlea School Council and the school community.

This year's first school council meeting is tomorrow evening, Wednesday Sept 16, 7:00pm to 8:30pm at the school. Child-minding is available.

Please join us as we elect our school council executive and begin to plan the year's activities. Everyone is welcome, whether or not you wish to become a voting member of school council.

What is school council?

School councils are a way for parents and guardians to get involved in their children's education. Their primary function is to improve student achievement and enhance the accountability of the education system to parents.*

Every school in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has one. According to the TDSB, school councils "advise the principal and the Board on a variety of issues and activities relating to student achievement, curriculum goals and priorities, school budget priorities, school safety, renovation plans, after school activities, and criteria for selection of new principals." School councils can make recommendations to their principals and school boards on any matter.*

School councils also raise money to help improve the school. Come to tomorrow's meeting to find out what Clairlea School Council's 2014-2015 fundraising accomplished!

Who gets to be a member?**

Any parent can be a member (up to 50 parent members)
The principal or vice-principal is a (non-voting) member
One teacher (elected by his/her colleagues)
One non-teaching employee of the school (elected by his/her colleagues)
One student can be a member, if appointed by the principal
One or more community members, if appointed by the council

Who can attend meetings?

Anyone in the Clairlea community can attend meetings. That means you! Whether or not you are a voting member, please do come and share your views on how we can enhance the school. Join us tomorrow, Wednesday Sept 16, 7:00pm to 8:30pm at the school. Child-minding is available.

*School Councils: a guide for members (p.1.1)
**School Councils: a guide for members (p.3.1)

Two more weeks of summer!

Hello everyone -- I hope you're having a wonderful summer. Can you believe there are two more weeks left?

You've seen news reports on the status of negotiations with the teachers' unions. Here are the details of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario's work-to-rule campaign, phase 2, which begins in September. This FAQ for teachers provides more detail.

School support workers (members of CUPE) are also in negotiations and may be in a strike position in September.