Parent Council Meets tomorrow evening at 6:30 with a focus on STEM as well as the usual council and school updates.
In recent meetings, considerable time was allocated to the new field refurbishment project, whose plans are well underway. Ms. Mantia has been working closely with the TDSB Facilities and Sustainability office as well as maintaining discussions with students, teachers, daycare staff and caretakers in the planning efforts.
Current plans include having the field replaced with artificial turf, replacing the 2 baseball diamonds with 1, relaying the 4 lane Asphalt track, reallocation of natural playground elements (such as large stones), increasing basketball court area to accommodate more nets, the creation of a quiet zone, some re-design to the pedestrian path along the west parking lot and general improvements to the state of play structures and enhancements in overall design (i.e more shaded zones and bleacher seating). The project will be phased to ensure kids have outside space. Work is intended to begin in summer 2018. Timelines and budgets are expected this month and the council expressed its thanks to Ms. Mantia who has helped shape the vision.
Also covered was volunteerism, with Community Night leads and Pizza Lunch volunteers identified as areas of need.
The school has created committees covering the areas of Numeracy, Literacy and Community which are being led by Ms. Davis, Ms. Nickerson and Ms. Komlos. These focus on the core goals of achievement, well-being and equity. Discussion focused heavily on the Community committee as plans are underway for Wellness Day on May 11. Committee leads Ms. Nickerson and Ms. Komlos are fielding feedback from last year’s event to shape this year’s format. Hoping to involve the greater community, they’re looking for input from parents and community who have expertise in health and wellness (examples of last year’s workshops included kickboxing, yoga, drumming, beading, journaling, healthy eating and dance.) The committee is also talking to staff about how apply the wellness initiatives in the classroom.
Meanwhile, the Numeracy committee stated goals were set to focus on enhancing communication on mathematical knowledge in order to assist students in expressing knowledge and understanding. Math is based on how you arrive at the final answer and how you communicate the process rather than the actual answer. The Literacy Committee invested in K to 2 levelled readers that will rotate amongst the classrooms. Staff are focussing on writing in terms of assessing and consistency and creating strategies in the areas where students struggle most. Financial literacy sessions have been arranged from K to 8.
Full Minutes of past meetings can be found here.