School Council Elections

Hello! I hope you have had a wonderful summer. How could this be the final week of summer holidays already?

This is an invitation to join School Council this year. Several seasoned and hard-working members recently retired, so we need lots of new ideas and energy on School Council, as well as diverse perspectives on our school system. I hope we can count on you to (re)join and help us support the staff and students at Clairlea.

Nomination forms will go home on the first day of school. There are 50 spots available on School Council, so chances are we won't need to hold an election for voting member positions, but just in case, please click here for the election procedures. It's very important that we receive your self-nomination by Monday September 10 at 3:15pm, because nominations will be processed that afternoon. A list of nominees will be posted in the school and on the blog on Tuesday September 11.

The first meeting of School Council will be Wednesday, September 19 at 7:00pm at the school. Elections for officer positions (chair, vice chair, fundraising chair, treasurer and secretary) will be held at that meeting.

Enjoy the final week of summer holidays!

Summer Reading Lists

The Silver Birch Award
best books for children aged  8-12

A school librarian friend of mine recently mentioned the Silver Birch Awards - the Ontario Library Association's awards for best books for children aged 8-12. There are fiction, non-fiction and "express" categories.

It turns out there's a whole forest of children's book awards! Even French ones. They make a great summer reading list for children. 


What are your kids reading this summer? Post in the comments field below. 

Final Assembly

The the final assembly on the last year of school, academic awards and Panthers awards were handed out to Clairlea students. Congratulations to all the winners for their hard work! I'm not sure exactly what a Panthers award is, but it seems to be for the one girl and one boy in each class who exhibited all-round awesomeness throughout the year.

There was a very impressive circus performance from one of the classes, and the teachers surprised the kids with a fantastic flash mob performance. I caught it on video...


It was a great way to end the school year. Happy summer, everyone!

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.

Newsletter for parents of students in French

The French as a Second Language Advisory Committee (FSLAC) to the Toronto District School Board has published this newsletter... Click here for the full version.

For the full version (including remaining pages) click here  http://www.tdsb.on.ca/wwwdocuments/parents/parent_groups/docs/FSLAC%20Newsletter%20with%20graphics-%20June%202012.pdf   

School Council meets Wed June 20

The School Council meets next Wednesday, June 20, 7:00 pm at the school. All welcome. Childcare in the gym. If you are a voting member, please make every effort to attend, as a quorum of 50% +1 is required.

Fun Fairs and Silent Auctions

My apologies for taking such a long time to post this information, especially since some of you have asked.

I don't know how much the Fun Fair raised, but this will be reported at the school council meeting on June 20. The Silent Auction portion raised more than $1,000. Thank you to everyone who donated items and purchased others. I believe that the funds raised at the Fun Fair are meant to buy new uniforms for intramural sports. (Someone please comment below to correct me if I'm wrong.)

Christina included details of the School Council's activities over the course of the year in the May 2012 school newsletter.

2011-12 School Council purchases included:

• two "Elmo" document projectors for classroom use
• two iPads and covers for use in a special education class
• new digital cameras and memory cards for shared use (they live in the library and are signed out by teachers as needed)
• balls for outdoor / recess use
• a pull-down classroom screen for room 200
• nutritious snacks for students who are hungry ($100/month, funded from pizza lunch)
• chairs, rugs and other colourful enhancements for the library 
• supported Winter Activity Day to remove financial barriers for certain students
• pom poms for folk dance club to perform at Black Heritage Month
• Kobo e-readers and other prizes for Family Literacy Day
• indoor shoes for children who could not afford them
• 10 folding transportable tables for School Council events
• Clairlea shirts for new staff members
• four data projectors for assemblies and classroom use
• a DVD player
• Diwali lunch for staff
• fixed scoreboard in gym
• gardening supplies
• supplies for classroom lice checks
• treats & supplies for curriculum night and school concerts 
• graduation dinner and yearbook for the grade 8s (not sure if this has changed, as it was subsequently decided that the yearbook would be for the entire school)
• teacher's welcome packages for fall 2012

The other Silent Auction was the one held at the spring concert. That was organized by teachers to support some priority items within the school - I'm not sure exactly what. If the organizers are reading this and can tell us how much was raised and what it will be spent on, please post details below!