Blog

PAC General Meeting Nov 17th 2021

10 exec, 8 general PAC members in attendance

 

Adopt minutes. Motion made and seconded

 

DPAC (Alessandra)

Will put a blurb on website regarding fundraising. Any parent of a side group such as gr 7 grad needs to check in with Alessandra/PAC exec and Mr McLean and make sure we are covered by insurance and that the fundraisers are appropriate Mental health topic… want feedback first before putting forth meeting details. Depression and anxiety a big issue. Loss of community within the school also a topic.

CPF Update (Jason)

Book subscriptions underway (flyers distributed) to French immersion students. However electronic copy will go out to the rest of the school. For every 10 subscriptions purchased, the school gets 1 free subscription. Our membership gives us 3 subscriptions with the $250 literacy grant: each month school gets 3 books Resourcing grant… receipts submitted by staff and reimbursed up to $250 for French related resources.

 

French classes starting again in January

Up to $500 for the rights of a French movie so school can play it

Thanks given to Mme Potyka who is the staff CPF rep.

Budget (Jessica)

Last few months no income but cut a few cheques. Consumables, pumpkin patch. 5 yrs domain name $190.

Field trip refund (gaming money).

Gaming fund gave $8800 for teachers 22 classes at 400 each

 

Gr 7 restricted fund

 

Kelly… explains indoor outdoor boxes. Our budget is 600. We need to spend the gaming money from last year as it can’t transfer years. Motion made to spend the $5200 from the field trip reimbursement

Mr McLean suggests the gym supplier the school uses has better bulk deals. And the boxes holding the items themselves should be replaced.

Rosemary… changed suppliers to buy bulk balls for better price. Colour code for the classes. Intermediate classes get soccer, basketball, football, frisbee and volleyball as well as a mesh storage bag. Primary classes to receive play ball, soccer ball, whiffle balls and scoops and hula-hoops.

Hasn’t looked at boardgames yet. But they are pricey so it will add up.

Q are parents allowed to donate items? Absolutely. Rosemary can figure out which class it can go to. Puzzles. Callout for games from parents. Like new condition only. Teachers can be asked like in the past to see what they might like. Rosemary will poll teachers and communicate with Kelly with specific guidelines and ideas.

Special motion to spend $5200 on indoor outdoor boxes passed by majority vote.

Budget passed as presented.

Other Business: Chair (Kelly)

Tent has snapped. If anyone has one to donate, we’d be willing to take it off your hands. We have one working but need one more. Contact Dave or Rosemary to coordinate drop off.

First aid training course. Depends on when. Right now, its too much. Only through school kids and online payment. School cash is fine if it’s just our school. Other wise too burdensome for secretary (logistical nightmare). Current conditions don’t change then no: No guests into the school at the moment. Let’s revisit in the spring.

We do not have munch a lunch anymore. Account inactive

Parking and traffic is horrible we all know this. We do have a meeting with Bby safety committee and we have a 10 minutes spot to present. One parent will put slide show together of what is happening around the school and neighbourhood. Trying to find ways to help. If anyone is willing to stand outside for 30 mins with a sign to be a presence might help.

Kelly only to do Friday afternoons. She will send out letter to let parents know we need their help. With 3 parents on Hycrest and 3 on Adair that equals 60 time slots a week of 30 minutes.

Mr Mclean had a meeting with a company who walked him through the plan to have a sidewalk on Hycrest. They were there one morning and one afternoon. Lane area: only 2 properties that use that lane. Our fence line is 12 ft away from the lane. They could dig that out and create a space in there for a drop off zone. Would involve city and school board. Most effective strategy is walking sidewalk.

Q: Is this meeting just discussing sidewalks and parking?

Can’t put crosswalk on Adair cause we would lose another 3 or 4 parking spots.

If people want to write in to the city in regards to suggesting a crossing guard they are welcomed to do so. Letter will go home. Can it be in multiple languages?

Parent suggests filling out the survey that the city sent out in regards to Duthie and sperling. Dave sent it out to the school community already

Alessandra… the only way you can check the lost and found is through Instagram. Keep your eyes open. Follow. Spread the word. They are going in once a month to take photos. Arrange to have it brought outside. Will empty in December and donate, so check before that. Look on feed. Tell your child to tell classroom teacher and they can arrange for child to go get it.

Principal’s Report

New staff Julie Crampton who is a Brailist. Hub for braille work.

Winter concert: issues around privacy etc. rather than sending out everyone’s to the whole community, music teacher will record their child’s class and send it out.

Thanks to the coaches to volleyball. Intramural style. Some very strong players this year and we would have had success at the tournaments. Co-ed would have been strongest at sperling to date. Fun was had.

Dance club has started today.

Great academics going on

Primary literacy going well. Great projects and inquiry at the intermediate level.

Parks and rec sent email asking where we are in having after school programming. Staff doesn’t feel comfortable at this time with outside agencies coming into the school. McLean wants to get a sense from parents of what programming kids really enjoyed and he can pass that along to parks and rec. No guarantee this will be done soon. But when we are ready, we will know what we want to provide in terms of activities.

Adjourned 8:04

Meeting called to order at 7:03 pm. Meeting was held electronically (via Zoom). 

Attendance: 37 attendees, consisting of 6 executive members, Principal Mr. Maclean, Head Teacher Ms. Venos and 29 parents

Absent: William Au (Co-CPF Representative, Executive Committee)

The previous Minutes from the annual general meeting (AGM) held on May 19, 2021 was passed and adopted.  Motion was moved and seconded.

The PAC Chair, Kelly, began the meeting with an introduction of the current 2021-2022 Executive Committee Members and each member gave a brief background of themselves and their duties in their respective role:

Chair: Kelly Zecca (returning)
Co-Secretary(ies): Ruth Heyde and Livia Hong (both returning)
Treasurer: Jessica (returning)
Co-CPF Rep: William Au (returning) and Jason House (new; formerly Co-Treasurer in 2020-21 year) (CPF – Canadian Parents for French)
DPAC Rep: Alessandra Pagliardi (new)
(DPAC – District Parent Advisory Committee)

Kelly also introduced the school’s principal, Dave Maclean, and Head Teacher, Rosemary Venos, who were also present to this general meeting. 

Nominations and voting in of Executive Committee members:

Subsequent to the AGM meeting in May, Sheeba Faqih has shown interest to join the PAC Executive Committee in the open role of Vice-Chair. She is fairly active in the Sperling school and community and is looking forward to working with the PAC. Sheeba was nominated for the role of Vice-Chair, which was seconded by a parent. A show  of more than half the attendees who gave a digital ‘thumbs up’ icon confirmed the majority vote.

At this meeting, Naila Heintz was nominated for the co-position of DPAC Rep with Alessandra. Her nomination was seconded by a parent and a show of more than half the attendees who gave a digital ‘raise hands’ icon confirmed the majority vote.

Welcome new members to the Executive Committee!

There are also other PAC committees and many ways to help at the school, such as the Sperling Sprint (fundraiser), Hot Lunch Program, Food and Veggie Program, and more. Please contact Kelly (chair@sperlingpac.com) for more information.

Discussion items:

PAC and the School. The Chair iterated that the school and PAC are great at supporting each other. If there is anything someone is  unsure of regarding the school or community, please feel free to contact any member of the PAC and we will get back to you. Reciprocally, If the school (admin) is unsure of anything, they will also reach out to the PAC to discuss.

Parking. This has been a very heavy topic throughout the years. The Chair reminds everyone to be respectful of each other and respectful of the teacher’s parking (staff lots and also along the streets).  Even coming to the school a little earlier or parking a little further up is helpful. If anyone has any solutions or recommendations with respect to the parking situation, please direct them to the Chair (chair@sperlingpac.com). The principal also chimed in that if there are a group of parents who would like to create or join in a committee to create an effective solution to better resolve the parking situation, he is more than happy to be involved and give time to that conversation.

Over the years, there has been back and forth conversations regarding a ‘Walking Sidewalk’ which is essentially having parents pull over briefly (not park) and drop off their child(ren) at a designated spot along the sidewalk  where there are parent volunteers who will guide them onto the school grounds to line up outside their classroom. It has been a great solution in the past; however, it requires a lot of parent volunteer and people-power. If anyone is willing to put a committee together, please do!

Hot Lunch. The Hot Lunch is a PAC organized fundraiser program that organizes hot lunch orders from various outside vendors on certain days throughout the school year. The program did not run last year due to the pandemic. The school is still waiting on word from the District as to whether a hot lunch program is feasible for this school year. Stay tuned. The principal mentioned that if the committee is able to put forth a proposal on the logistics, that would be helpful to forward to the District.  PAC must keep in mind that students can no longer assist (such as lunch monitors); volunteers must remain outside classroom doors; Covid protocols, including vaccination statuses, must be considered.

Lost and Found. All Lost and Found items will be posted on the school’s Instagram account. The handle is @ecolesperlinglost. Pictures of lost items will usually be posted around the end of each month and if there is an item that you think is your child’s, then your child can ask their teacher to go to the Lost and Found rack (in the school hallway) to retrieve it.

Committee Reports:

CPF (Canadian Parents for French). Meeting going on as we speak (same time as the PAC meeting). William currently attending and will have updates at the next meeting.

DPAC (District PAC). First meeting is scheduled for next week. She will meet with other schools and get information and Alessandra can pass along information from any of us.

Treasurer’s Report. The PAC has 2 budget accounts: 

Fundraising account: majority account based on incoming revenue from fundraising events and programs

Gaming account: annual grant received from provincial funding – before June 30^th of every year; PAC has to submit financial statements and the government provides funding based on every student in the school (approx.. $20/student); the fees don’t come in until October and November – so we don’t have a firm number of the incoming funds until it is received in our account; the account is typically spent only for field trips and classroom learning or extra curricular related things.

The budget and financial statements were shared (onscreen) at the meeting and Jessica provided a brief summary of the proposed Budget and went through each line item in the financial statements for both accounts.

Ian addressed an increase in website fees. The cost of the domain (Word Press site) went from $400 to $470. After a brief discussion, a proposal was made to amend the budget for increased cost to the web fees.

A motion was made to pass the Budget as presented with such amendment regarding the web fees. The motion was seconded by a parent. Motion passed.

Principal’s Report:

Protocols. Things are slightly different this year. The bar has come down (under the technical handbook), ie. no cohorts, no learning groups, no staggered schedules, and capacity changes. To override any of this has to go through making decisions through a “trauma informed lens”. Most of the decisions for Sperling are made with erring on the side of caution. Please contact Dave (by e-mail) with any concerns and he will try his best to respond. The school is still trying to keep non-essential staff as limited as possible. If you wish, please make an appointment with the school and follow sign in/sign out and masking protocols.

Staff updates. A number of new and returning teachers: Julia Tsirogiannis joining as a literacy support teacher (LSS) for ½  day; Mr. Brletic returning as a full-time LSS role (primary grades for both French and English); Mme Potyka and Cirka returning from mat leave; Ms Schulze returning from online teaching last year; teaching gr 3/4 split; 13 staff currently on EA team; a significant increase; currently hiring 5 more EA’s, some of which are on a  temporary contract and hoping to hire those back.  We won’t be able to keep all of them but trying to best maintain as much continuity as possible; Mme Lo has shifted to Kindergarten position (filling in for Mme Rachel’s mat leave); Ingrid Stit is the music/band teacher while Mr. Martin is on educational leave.

On the community front, the principal and head teacher re-iterated that the school can’t function without parent’s help. There are so many ways to enhance the school and community when you have a supportive PAC. Thank you all for being a part of the PAC. Rosemary’s (virtual) door is always open.

General matters/discussion:

Terry Fox Run and Volunteer opportunity. The Terry Fox Run is going ahead this year on Tuesday, September 28^th in the afternoon 1:45 – 2:45 pm. A virtual assembly will be held (unfortunately parents unable to view). All students will be running around the neighborhood, and Rosemary will send an e-mail out asking for volunteer assistance to stand on a street corner to help kids stay on/off the sidewalk and support and encouraging students along the way.

Outside canopy tents. Since the start of last year (September 2020), Liv and Jason have been helping to set up and tear down the 2 large white canopy tents outside between the portables and Mme Day/Lupinacci’s classroom. The canopies are meant to come out on rainy days (except windy days) to provide cover to the students in portables as they line up to use the washroom to wash their hands.  It would be great to get a few more helping hands that are available to set up (around 8:50 just after first bell) and tear down (around 2:50 just before final bell).  Please reach out to Liv (secretary@sperlingpac.com) and she will create a whatsapp group to coordinate.

School team sports. Volleyball will be happening this season and will be all in-house. Cross country/running club has been postponed until the spring, as a precaution. 

Gym update. Added ventilation was put into the gym, which finally opened back up as of today.

Questions raised: 

Will grade 7’s be having trips this year? For Timberline camping – unfortunately not, as the protocols provided did not meet the school’s comfort level. Possibly next year.

Will there be notice of a grade 7 planning committee or is that to be done independently? It would be an independent sub-committee of the PAC and would propose things to Dave/Rosemary and navigate through them. If a grade 7 parent is interested in chairing a committee, the Sperling admin can assist to send a notice out to all grade 7 students/parents to help canvass out.

Any other field trips planned or a go this year? There are some events held in June which the school has engaged in booking but with the condition that we are able to book and still cancel/get refund based on how things roll out.

Any spots open in the French Immersion program? The intake only occurs during Kindergarten and grade 1. All spots have been taken. Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that there will be a spot available in either of these grades. 

What are the extra curriculars at school?  Volleyball, basketball, cross-country, track. There is also safety patrol.  Announcements are sent out to students by the school and depends on the students’ interest. It is also dependent on the teacher’s participation and volunteer of their personal time. ‘There are also bonus clubs, such as sewing club and ski club (although this may be on hold this year, which is catered by teacher passion and commitment. 

Will the Fun Fair happen this year? Unfortunately, no but the hope is for next year. We will re-assess at the end of the year and hopefully we can be ready to start it up asap in September for the next school year.

Is Band happening this year? Yes it’s on! Band is only for grade 7’s and is part of their daily school schedule. They will have 2 blocks (in the gym) and Band Theory (in portable classroom ). 

There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 8:19 pm. The next PAC General meeting is scheduled for November 17th.

Minutes prepared by Co-Secretary (Livia)

Called to order 7:07pm

Kelly introducing the current exec members.

The teacher/staff mini-lunch appreciation in April from Fresh Slice Pizza went very well. May 28th is the annual teacher’s/staff appreciation lunch from Cosmos. They will receive an individually packaged, catered lunch. It was very popular last year so we are doing it again. Supporting local. Should be a smooth process.

New Business :

CPF: May 25th was the Bby CPF AGM, beyond that nothing new to report.

DPAC: no updates other than proposed budget cuts across district and voting in new exec members. Each school can have 1 or 2 reps. District presents at each meeting about different things going on around schools. This year mostly budget and covid related. Anti racism talk, fundraising ideas, schools talk about their community events, etc. Mondays 1x/month 7-9pm. Planning on returning to in person meetings at Bby Central.

Treasurer: Jessica presents budget. The only transactions have been clothing drive and teacher/staff appreciation mini-lunch. Budget approved as presented.

Exec Positions :

Chairperson: Kelly would like to stay on. This person runs the meeting and prepares the agenda based on any new communication and the previous meeting. Signs cheques and liaison between PAC and the school staff.
Voted in.

Vice-chairperson: could prepare the agenda, help setup meetings and assist the chairperson when necessary.

Treasurer: Jessica would like to stay on. Would be good to have a second person. Voted in.

Secretary and co: Ruth and Livia voted in.

DPAC: Dina would like to pass on the baton if there is another person to take this on. DPAC is a good role which helps know how the district makes decisions, and you learn how other PAC’s function. Get to hear from other
schools. Alessandra might be interested but wasn’t able to make today’s meeting. Alessandra voted in.

CPF: Jason offered to help William so we will have 2 CPF reps this year.

Sub-Committees :

Hot Lunch: has 5 people (Jenny, Liv, Kelly, Shannon, Eva, all from last year). Rolled out a new setup with the existing vendors which helped alleviate stress from teachers. Both parents and teachers appreciated it. Uses Munchalunch payment system. Open and welcome to new helpers.

Fruit and Veggie Program: new produce to the school, distributed among the classrooms. Need a new rep for this next school season. Quick spreadsheet to fill out takes 2 mins. Wash fruit and send out baskets. Kelly will help the first few times to show the ropes. Kelly will register for the program again and will see if it starts up again. Was on pause this last year.

Indoor Outdoor Boxes: Eva was in charge last year. We have a budget to outfit classes for equipment to use during their lunch break. This year was used for outdoor education and balls. This position may open as it hasn’t been confirmed as of yet.

Lost and Found: Alessandra posts clothing online via Instragram and you can tell child to go get it. Instagram handle is @EcoleSperlingLost and the link is on the PAC website. She would like to continue but is of course open to helpers.

Sperling Sprint: first week of May. Eugene long standing coordinator but cannot do it this year. Kelly willing to help out this year. Needs lots of volunteers to mind the corners. Eugene has made notes for whoever takes over so it should be a smooth transition.

Emergency boxes: Phil worked hard to get boxes done. Water tank cleaned and refilled. Worked with Ms. Venos to get backpacks into all classrooms and topped up all supplies. He is willing to continue on this year. Info will be sent out when it’s time to clean the bin. Wasps were evacuated this last week.

King of the Web: Ian is happy to keep going.

If anyone is interested in any positions reach out to Kelly (chair@sperlingpac.com) and she can connect you to the appropriate person.

Principal’s Report :

Parent community has been amazing. Protocols. A few exposures but no school outbreaks, so as a community we did an excellent job to uphold responsibility. Entire staff has first vaccines.

Form for child’s placement being sent out. Office form allows to aggregate info and sort by teacher and send to

Teachers in their own spreadsheets: should be more efficient. June 4th is first take at class building.

District put in place a lot of work for anti racism. Survey going out to all staff, gr 6-12 and all parents. For your perception on anti racism in our community. Appreciate your input.

Plan for Sept is phase 1, full time in session. Some things from this year may stick after being evaluated. Things like staff meetings and parent meetings over Zoom may stick.

Summer school has 23 morning classes; 13 afternoon classes. Mr. Maclean site supervisor in morning and Ms. Venos site supervisor in the afternoon.

Initial organization has been set FTE. 12 div French, 10 English. Same as this year but a decrease from 2 years ago. French so full there will be no gr 1 intake this year. English also quite full. 507 at last count. K registration is
down: 87 people on the waitlist. (down from 150’s), possibly due to registration being online.

Staff question cannot be answered yet as they are in the middle of staffing. Mme Rachel (Montague) is pregnant and will be off next year. Mme Lo is taking Mme Rachel’s mat leave kindergarten class; Mme Stan is moving on
from Sperling. One English teacher/class open for gr 4/5. Hoping to get Mr. Stuart back next year. Increasing by 2.5 EA’s. 4 new students in Kindergarten who need support. Mme Potyka is coming back (Mme Funnell was the mat leave). Mme Cirka is coming back.

Kelly thanks everyone who logged on after a long day. Thanks to all who stepped up and to those who have been helping out this year.

Adjourned at 8:14pm

Meeting called to order at 7:05 pm. Meeting was held electronically (via Zoom).

Attendance: (will be confirmed and recorded using Zoom attendee screen names)

The previous Minutes from the general meeting held on June 3, 2020 were passed and adopted. Motion was moved and seconded.

Items discussed:

Introduction of PAC members and Sperling administrators

The PAC Chair (Kelly) provided an overview of Sperling’s Executive PAC positions and other existing committees. General introductions were provided for each member and their role(s). The Chair also introduced the school principal (Dave Maclean) and head teacher (Rosemary Venos), both of whom were present at the meeting.

Unfortunately, the current Vice-Chair (Norm) had to step down from this role due to scheduling conflicts. Accordingly, this Executive position is open again and the PAC welcomes nominations. No nominations were proposed during this meeting and therefore the position remains open.

The Chair further mentioned other various positions are available and if anyone is interested to volunteer to please inquire by e-mail at chair@sperlingpac.com

Committee Updates

Lost and Found (L&F): Two parents (Alessandra and Renee) handle the L&F. In previous years, the L&F area was placed in the school hallway for retrieval and an Instagram account was created last year to post items and remind people that items not claimed by month-end would be removed and donated. The Instagram handle is #ecolesperlinglost The new L&F procedure will be that the items will be rolled outside at certain times for the L&F parents to organize and post lost items on Instagram. Only students will be able to retrieve an item and are to inquire with their teacher.

Emergency (ER) Boxes and Kits: Ms. Venos, Mme. Day and a parent (Phil) oversee the maintenance of the ER boxes and kits. Ms. Venos has prepared all backpacks with ER equipment for each class and is still working on filling them up. Phil will assist Ms. Venos to get the items finalized.

Indoor/Outdoor Boxes: Every year there is a budget allocated for each class to have an indoor/outdoor bin of items, i.e. balls, games, etc. for rainy days or outside play. There is some excess budget from last year, due to COVID-19, since some items to be purchased after Spring Break did not happen. The school is looking at putting together individual outdoor learning activities together. Ms. Venos did some research and found 2 balls (durably quality) per classroom = 25 soccer balls. The approx. cost is $625. It was agreed to have Rosemary go ahead and order the balls for purchase and use the budget funds accordingly.

Hot Lunch Program: Mr. Maclean advised that the District is very hesitant to proceed with PAC-run hot lunch programs at the moment. No Burnaby schools are currently running any. He can continue to bring proposals to the District, if desired. There was open discussion on this topic which led to considering the following steps: hot lunch
committee discusses logistics and feasibility; Mr. Maclean can send pitch to District; PAC surveys parents for interest to decide yay or nay on pursuing the program for this term or year.

Parent Help/Community Building: There was discussion on looking for new ways to support the school and build sense of community during this new normal. Volunteering is a great thing for parents to feel part of the Sperling community. PAC webmaster (Ian) will update the PAC website regarding the volunteer mailbox and e-mail options.

Another idea, which was initially brought up at the info Zoom for Sperling parents, was looking for tents to be donated to the school to help provide undercover at the handwashing station (outside boys and girls washroom doors). One parent has already donated two large canopy tents to the school. Help is needed with the set up (before 9:30 am) and tear down (after 3:00 pm). The PAC will send an email asking for volunteers.

Parent Donations: In the past, a letter is sent out once a year to all parents asking for monetary donations. This letter was scheduled to be sent after Spring Break which did not happen due to COVID-19. For this school year especially, one way this will support the teachers is to give funding for outdoor education, which will need to be supplemented to progress the program, i.e. PE will be more in outdoor settings than usual. The PAC Chair will discuss with the committee member(s) on the timing of if/when this year’s letter should go out.

Fundraising: The PAC does not anticipate to be able to roll out many of the usual and traditional fundraisers this year, and if so, much of the process and logistics will need to be considered on whether it is practical and feasible to do so. Some of the usual events were discussed:

Terry Fox Run (Fall): encouraging online pledges; classes will do runs around the field and record it on large map; families can include any walking/runs they do and send record to the school – this also helps with common goal in helping build sense of community and school culture
*will see how this version goes and evaluate how to perform our Sperling Sprint school fundraiser held in the Spring

Shopfunds (usually once per Term): if this rolls out, first one would be looking at early November ordering, with delivery for early December

Fun Fair (bi-annually, scheduled for May 2021): confirmed that the event will not be able to proceed for spring 2021; will have to see where the pandemic is at down the road and also how we are doing with the PAC budget to determine when to plan for the next one.

Clothing Drive – likely no go for this year

Bottle Depot (Kensington Plaza) – yes, parents can still do this on their own to support the school. Can drop off items in a plastic bag and creating a label at the touchscreen at front of the shop using phone account *6042969030*. There is also an account for gr 7’s separately (account to be confirmed).

Treasurer’s Report

The Treasurer (Jessica) ran down the proposed budget prepared by the PAC Exec team. Various line items were reviewed, and some amendments were made:

Expenses Budget: Suggested decreases: Fun Fair; School buses (for track); YRCA Book Club; Zoom Account.
Suggested increases: Teacher appreciation event.

Gaming Account: May be impacted by the pandemic, still waiting for confirmation. Field Trip budget – suggestion was made to divide up the refunded amount and spread among teachers towards the consumables.

Consumables: This year classrooms were reduced from 27 to 26 (includes LSS/ELL). By adding the refunds from the Field Trips budget, teachers/classes would be provided a larger consumables budget for this year.

Project requiring PAC approval: Two pitches were suggested for this allocation. One was a focused theme of “Give Back” where kids think of others in caring and compassionate ways by giving back in time or volunteering and not just on a monetary level (going beyond fundraising and donations). The focus would not only bring out sense of community, belonging, pride, ownership, but also help raise more awareness to the school and students. The pitch is to have each class come up with a proposal and pitch it to a panel (perhaps PAC members), like Dragon’s Den style. Criteria include identifying an issue, looking at barriers, finding a solution to achieve the goal of helping others, what things (i.e., items) are needed to make it happen.

The other pitch was to use these funds to facilitate COVID-19 related new expenses that were unexpected for this school year, such as more outdoor equipment.

Subsequent addition to these Minutes that was initially missed in the post drafted version:

Motion was moved and seconded to approve the budget including all adjustments and amendments discussed in this meeting. Parents in favour showed a “thumbs up” icon on their screens; no parents expressed not being in favour. Majority vote was in favour and therefore motion passed.

CPF (Canadian Parents for French)

CPF is offering free membership this year and registration can be done through their website. The free tutoring program offered is now full, but there might be another program opening up in the Spring. Teacher awards were presented at the last CPF meeting. CPF also mentioned they have some funding that they want utilize and looking for more online based platforms to run the program through. William confirmed that the CPF grant (for the school) will be open for applications shortly.

DPAC (District PAC)

At the last DPAC meeting, lots of questions were raised about what PACs can do this school year and a question about what can the (gaming account) grant funds be used for this year (if no field trips). DPAC will discuss what and how the school can find ways to fundraise or build community through the DPAC. They want to find other ways on how we can build sense of community and will be continuing these discussions through to the next
meeting.

Principal’s Report

General: The morale is super high with students who are also doing an amazing job with the new protocols. It has been great to see teachers and students settling into their new realities. Approximately 86% of Sperling students have returned to in-school learning.

New COVID-19 policies: The principal thanked everyone for their cooperation on the new policies and procedures. It is a constant balancing act for all schools. An e-mail was sent out with the latest daily health check procedures. The daily check will now be changed from individual questions asked to each student and instead to a general asking of “have your parents gone through the questions with you”. If a child does answer a ‘yes’ to a question, he/she will be directed to the office and screened by the principal or head teacher. If symptoms subside, one can return after 24 hours; if one has 2 symptoms or a fever, he/she will be instructed to seek medical attention through 811.

Staggered Schedule: The staggered start times have greatly helped reduce traffic flow; however, people are coming too early and playing on the playground until their bell time. It is strongly encouraged to come as close to start and end times and not too early in an effort to keep cohorts from being compromised.

Staff updates/changes: Due to online options this year, Sperling was surplused an French Immersion teacher for online services and therefore less a division in the school. Ms. Schulze is our surplus online, but still a part of the staff. Sperling welcomes the following teachers: Mr. Stuart (grade 4/5 in the portable) filling in for Ms. Grundy’s leave position; Mr. Larsen (gr 6/7 English) for Ms. Neumann’s position; Mme. Funnell (Gr 5/6) for Mme. Potyka’s maternity leave ; Mr. Brletic (2/3) for Mme Cirka’s maternity leave. We also welcome 4 new EA’s this year.

There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 8:53 pm.

Minutes prepared by Co-Secretary (Livia)

Called to order 7:05pm

Great turn out to meeting via zoom. Possibility of doing this for future meetings if it makes it easier for people to attend

Address from Chair: this meeting is to secure our PAC executive team for the next school year, even though we don’t know what that looks like yet. More people joining committees is better so we encourage participation. Kelly thanks all the people who have helped in any capacity this year. Previous hot lunch crew recognized for their hard work, and a thank you to the new crew for stepping up and doing a great job.

Minutes from previous meeting passed by show of thumbs up reaction.

Principals Report

• Junior achievement project: Coi masks (group name): all 10 sewing machines were lent to families to make masks. Instructional video how to use sewing machine, permission to use template. Made business plan and sent letters to various companies to get donations. 200 masks made and they are hoping to raise $1000 to send to the Vancouver aquarium
• Remote learning successes: Students are getting great learning opportunities. Raz kids. Some are doing a passion project on their own guidance. One student made her own pair of shoes and has been invited to loves jewels leather to see how their shoes are manufactured. Getty museum challenge has paintings being replicated; examples will be posted on website. Click track Starwars band across the district with 9 schools participating with largest participation from Sperling. Ensemble quite impressive and will be posted for people to see later on.
• Staff has planned on many contingencies to be ready for various scenarios. Met and gone beyond health and safety protocols. This has been very difficult for the staff, as the district has worked to reinvent what learning looks like twice, but the resiliency and creativity of staff has been impressive. Made as smoothly as possible for parents and kids.
• Remaining at 23 divisions: 13 French and 10 English. Circa and Potyka on mat leave. Newman taking leave. Grundy extended her leave. So looking to fill 4 teaching positions
• Grads invited to come one at a time to share favorite memory and that will be combined together to make video montage and have a watch party with open invitation to families. Will maintain all health and safety protocols but if larger groups are allowed then they will look at how to have a few people onsite in a larger group

Financial Report

• last quarter not much going on. 2nd quarter $200 PAC grant. Fundraising monies deposited.
• We can combine teacher volunteer gift and teacher appreciation event. Fundraising acct.
• Gaming account nothing spent since division cheques, so there is no money remaining in that account which was our goal.
• Cash acct 41K
• Motion made to adopt financial report as presented. Thumbs up approval.

DPAC

DPAC was about budget. Half as many international students so budget has gone way down. Confidential info was given which has now been posted after discussion. Most of these are district jobs that are being cut. Next meeting would be the AGM, but unsure where that stands at this point.
McLean: teaching staff not affected. Front line positions have not been touched despite the cuts back scenes. Increased enrollment so teaching staff has actually gone up. Teachers get layed off each year and as soon as numbers of kids come in then they get hired back so we have a net increase this year. Lack of 800 international students. Burnaby always a small conservative district that has done well to mitigate damage.

CPF

CPF nothing to report.

Grade 7 Rep

Money they have so far should be enough to do a yearbook. Georgia has started that process in communication with the school. Not sure if all the fundraising will cover the costs. Delivery expected end of July. Hoping to have a gathering late summer to wrap up if things open up. Pretty sad to have to cancel events and bookings. If anything can be done they would like to do it.

Fundraising

• Unsure if we can do another clothing drive during the pandemic as donations are not being accepted anywhere
• ShopFunds cancelled this season. Will have to wait till Sept to see what happens.
• HotLunch same thing… will wait and play it by ear.

Teachers Appreciation Lunch

In talks with Cosmos as a local small business. 2nd choice could be Little Billy’s Hideaway or Cioffis. Teachers to get menu and pick what they want and it will get delivered to
school. Slide show might be tricky so we may need to skip that. For most teachers tu/th would work. Dave will follow up with Juanita from Cosmos, and Kimberly will message Sabrina. Appreciation week June 15-19 have children take pic or drawing to send teachers individually. Dave will send out on D list which doesn’t go to teachers. Nice message or note encouraged.

Exec Positions

• co chair position is filled by Norm Ells
• Ruth and Livia let their names stand for secretary and co-secretary.
• Dina lets her name stand for DPAC. Will can step in and Jason House is also considering.
  Shannon is also interested.
• CPF William letting his name stand. Having a member from Sperling the PAC receives a grant. Currently there are no meetings but they are usually once every second month.
• Treasurer would like to stay on. 2 treasurers are ideal. Jessica lets her name stand. Jason would be interested if he can find the time in the new school year.
• Kelly would like to stay on as chair.
• All exec positions voted in individually by way of thumbs up on zoom screen.

Committees (Non Exec)

• Sperling Sprint: Eugene and Melanie for May next year.
• Lost and found: Alessandra will stay on.
• Emergency preparedness: Phil will stay on.
• HotLunch: Liv, Elaine, Eva, Shannon and Jenny will stay on.
• Indoor outdoor boxes: Eva has stayed on.
• Fruit and veggie could use a few more volunteers.
• King of the Web: Ian will stay on.
• Parent notices and teacher appreciation: Chi who is also willing to help where needed.

Pancake Breakfast

Was different this year but went really well. Money made for food bank and there were lots of volunteers. Wasn’t chaotic. Some kids had never been before and good feedback from kids who are able to attend the first time. Nice event and worked out really well. Teachers had nothing but praise for the format and were happy that all students were able to participate.

Floor Opens for Questions

• Rosemary Venos reiterates how teachers so appreciate the parents being so flexible, kind, and understanding during this really difficult pandemic time for teachers. Forgiving of teachers who are learning how to do everything differently as this is not how they have learned to teach or have been teaching. Feedback from staff re parade: was a wonderful event and an amazing coming together of the community. Thanks for standing on the street and waving to us and holding signs. It brought us together: rough count was over 300 students
• Thanks to Kelly for a good job as chair.
• Paula suggests future zoom pac meetings. Right now we are using a paid school account. We need to figure out how long we have this account. Zoom is a free membership and there is no cost to run 40-minute meetings. Maybe PAC can pay for an account for the general meetings. If we have 45-50 people it would be great. No problem maintaining if this can stay free.
• Shruthi asks about gifts for teachers as her daughter is in her last year. Dave says send email for process on which it can be delivered. Teachers will appreciate that.
• Eva budget question for teacher appreciation lunch. We have enough funds from the teacher appreciation lunch and the gift line item so we will add it together to purchase the food.
• Lucia question about CommunyHub. Ian can put pamphlet together. People can go home and try it? This was in addition to some WhatsApp groups some teachers have done. Pandemic has made increased digital presence of teachers for classroom communication. Even after the pandemic this can be a great way to feel connected to the school.
• Communication: Parent reps for each class to be set in September. Schedule for fall meetings to be set in June. Minutes and other information posted on PAC website so go check out what’s there. WhatsApp and CommunyHub have been a great help to connect parents and foster friendships that have developed (parent driven)
• Funfair could be postponed a year, but would have been May 2021. Will be discussed in Sept.
• ADST: Printer and Cricut machine were around 4k and are being well used.

Meeting adjourned 8:18pm

Meeting called to order at 7:08 pm

Attendance: (refer to sign up sheet)

The previous Minutes from the general meeting held on November 20, 2019 were passed and adopted.

Items discussed:

Hot Lunch

Kelly and Livia from the hot lunch committee provided an update since the last general meeting. The previous organizers had confirmed at the end October that they were stepping down. The PAC canvassed out for a new group of parent volunteers and a new committee was formed with 6 members. The committee received information and administrative transfer of the Munchalunch accounts from the previous organizers and proceeded with their pre-arranged hot lunch vendors and Friday dates for the Term 2 session. 

The committee sent a callout in January for parent volunteers to assist on hot lunch days for 20-30 minutes and help deliver orders to classrooms simultaneously. The goal was to assist with simultaneous delivery of the hot lunches to all classrooms, which would maximize the lunch hours for the kids and for the teachers. The feedback on the transition and new process was generally a positive one with a few suggestions and tips & tricks going forward. Overall, the first run by the new committee was a successful one!

There was inquiry on whether the grade 7s could be of assistance; however, since it is a PAC event it was encouraged to provide the opportunity to parent volunteers.

The Hot Lunch committee welcomes any parents who wish to volunteer, whether as part of the committee or on the day of help. Principal MacLean will also bring up this opportunity and awareness to parents at the Kindergarten Introduction Day (scheduled in May).

Principal’s report

Recent school events:

1. Hip Hop Dance Week:
   • Overall the week went well
   • Parent turnout for the show is getting trickier; may need a ticketing system in the future; larger audience could have also been from the timing – this year the event was in January; in the past it has been in September (something to consider)
   • Principal MacLean is looking at recording the entire event by video, to be available for everybody; hopefully this could reduce the amount of (phone) cameras and people blocking the views of others
2. Boys Basketball Play Date:
   • Shoutout to coaches, excellent job!
   • Girls Play Date is next week
3. Ski Day
   • Numbers still seem to be down this year; the school will continue to look into it

4. Shrek Play  
   • The students/divisions that attended the play at Michael J. Fox Theater were excellent, even the Kindergarten classes. Everyone loved the play and was a great experience.

ADST (Applied Design, Skills, & Technologies)

The recently bought Cricut machine and 3-D printer have been great – one teacher used the printer to make a name plate! 

The 3-D modeling program, TynkerCad, has been fun for the challenge program kids to ‘tinker’ with. It is online and free.

Summer School

This year Sperling will have full day summer sessions that include free morning (academic) courses and paid (Activity) afternoon courses. Principal MacLean will be site supervisor; Ms. Venos will be morning supervisor. The school is looking to offer 7 or 8 paid afternoon classes. Possible courses are rock band, movie making, cooking, sewing, artist voice class with multi-mediums of art.

2020-21 School Year Registration

February is the month to apply for French Immersion as well as Kindergarten students. Teachers are already looking into class planning for the new year. 

The English program is currently full and maxed out at Sperling. Any catchment students will be directed to Montecito. The French program has some open spots overall, but is still considered limited.

Treasurer Report

The Treasurer (Jessica) was absent at the meeting. The report has been deferred to the next meeting.

DPAC

The DPAC update has been deferred to the next meeting.

PAC Events

Recent events:

1. Pancake Breakfast:

1. The new committee tried something different this year – instead of before school (7-9am) it was held during school hours at staggered times (9-11am); overall good and successful event
2. Kids had fun, most were very excited to eat with their ‘buddies’; acknowledgement made that it is during school hours which is difficult for working parents to attend 
3. Raised approx. $600 to the Food Bank
   
4. Shopfunds:

1. Raised approx. $781 in fundraising; over $23,000 in card purchases
2. Next one is planned for orders due April 14^th (just after Easter); delivery scheduled for April 29^th or May 5^th, but within plenty of time before Mother’s Day
   

Upcoming Events:

1. Clothing Drive:
2. Next one is scheduled for after Spring Break – March 29^th to Apr 5^th
3. Sperling Sprint:

1. Scheduled for May 1^st (first Friday in May)
2. Notice and pledge form will be sent out the week before 
3. Teacher Appreciation

1. Date still to be determined 
2. Suggestion to have it on a Wednesday over a Friday
3. Prefer May as opposed to June – possibly May 27th
4. Volunteer Tea

1. Teachers organize it for the parent volunteers
2. Scheduled for May 20^th; coincides with PAC AGM General meeting so may possible change it

Meeting adjourned (time unconfirmed – approx. 8:30 pm)