ECE PAC Nov 16 2009 minutes

East Chilliwack Elementary
Parent Advisory Council
Monday, November 16, 2009

Present: Nicole Johnston, Bonnie Kind, Tia LeTexier, Ruth Neufeld, Jen Hansen,
Robert LeComte, Cheryl Hagen, Tara Field, Natalie Sache.


Approval of Agenda:
Moved by Tara; seconded by Jen. Approved.

Approval of minutes from October:
Moved by Nicole; seconded by Bonnie. Approved.

Treasurer’s Report
(See Bonnie Kind’s report for full details)

ÿ We have not yet received a gaming grant. Deposits were made from hot lunch, movie night, float, hockey game raffle tickets, meat raffle tickets.
ÿ A withdrawal of $2000 went to the Bruins to purchase hockey tickets for sale.
ÿ We made a considerable profit from the meat raffle ($3260) and a ECE family was the winner.
ÿ The Hockey game profit was approx. $1156. There were no hot lunch numbers available at today’s date.
ÿ We ended October with a balance of $6661.61 in the general account and $33.22 in the gaming account.


Principal’s Report
(see Ruth Neufeld’s report for full details)

ÿ We have hired Leighanna Potts, Stacey Christianson and Barb Litzenberger and Leanne Fetterly is back from a leave.
ÿ Teachers have completed two smart learning sessions out of six. They reviewed marking using the 1,2,3,4 system in hopes that it will be more consistent between the teachers.
ÿ Students are working on kindness until Christmas, one example is they are encouraged to greet fellow students, etc, as they pass in the hall.
ÿ Mr. Chand is our CAN (Canucks Autism Network) ambassador. Students will do activities to show how diverse we are and also those to heighten their sensitivity.
ÿ I CAN statements are being implemented by the intermediate classes.
ÿ First steps in Math were reviewed by Mrs. Pauls at the last meeting.
ÿ Volleyball games begin November 25.
ÿ Our school has had NO confirmed cases of H1N1 and the absentee rate is quite minimal.

Page Two

ÿ ECE was not chosen to have full day Kindergarten for next year because we are at capacity. We would need a portable or to use the daycare space. The daycare is nice for our community and we do not want to see it go.


Old Business

ÿ The emergency kits are all in and put away.
ÿ Movie night was very well attended. The pizza clean up wasn’t too much trouble but there was not enough popcorn for everyone. We will plan for another one next year.
ÿ Destination Imagination – consistently has a good turnout of 40-50 kids on Mondays at lunchtime. Teams will be put together soon but with this comes a lot of expenses. Each team will need to purchase the package required and register for BC provincials at $100 ea. The district (Bob Patterson) has some funds for this and they are waiting to hear. The leaders have requested $500 from the P.A.C. Cheryl made a motion, Robert seconded it. All members were in favor of donating $500 to this great program. Approved.

New Business

ÿ There will be no Christmas concert this year in lieu of a much larger Spring concert.
ÿ The skipping team won the creative portion of their recent competition (Tara noted that most of these students are in the D.I. program).
ÿ Nicole made a motion to have a Teacher’s lunch to show parent appreciation. Monday, December 14. A notice will go out to all parents asking for contributions of casseroles, salads, and other goodies. Hopefully they will have enough leftovers for the week!
ÿ Hot lunch orders will no longer be accepted if they are late. Sarah will call parents who send them past the date noted for counting.
ÿ The head lice check was done last week and none were found.
ÿ The Grade six class had their shots given last week.
ÿ Sarah Burke Photography fundraiser will be held on Nov.20 and 21st. There will be a $15 sitting fee for the family. $10 will go to the P.A.C. and $5 for the 8x10 supplies.
ÿ Speaking of photography…some were not overly impressed with Mountain West, who did the student photos, and we will look into other options for next year. Sarah will consider whether this is something she could take on.





Page Three

ÿ Mrs. Neufeld is organizing caroling for Thursday, December 17 at 9am-ish. The music class will play their recorders. The P.A.C. would like to incorporate this with the pancake breakfast fundraiser for the skipping club. Santa could also come this morning as well. Mr. Burke suggested Santa arrive via Firetruck.
He will look into this and ask Mr.Yaxley (of pumpkin patch fame) if he might
consider being our Santa this year as Mr. Roos is no longer at our school. The
P.A.C. agreed to have Santa hand out oranges and mini candy canes to the kids.

ÿ Tara questioned all the changes to the fundraising that occurred rather suddenly. The Bruins approached us because they had a cancellation and there was not much time to get it organized. We are not sure if we will do that again as it was a lot of work, we were also upset that there was a $250 table fee that we were not told of prior to the date. Thank you to Lorraine for all your hard work.
The Chocolate letters and Neufeld Farms fundraising was cancelled after the
board office called Mrs. Neufeld. These are not on the list of approved
Peanut-Free companies and we are a strictly peanut-free school.

ÿ After Christmas we want to have a break from fundraising. The Grade 6’s will be doing their run for water soon.

ÿ Sarah noted that the Xmas store newsletter went out with a date change not approved by her. She is unavailable then and will be changing it back to November 16 and 17th. A new newsletter will be sent out ASAP, also amending the fact that we are looking for gifts suitable for an adult only. Mrs. Neufeld believed that the Grade 6’s wanted it earlier to keep the last week less busy. These donations will be stored in the office and Sue has space cleared. We will have it set up in the Hawk’s nest and keep covered with tablecloths when the store is not open. Cheryl suggested having a wrapping station so the kids could wrap their own as this really slowed things down last year. The primaries will require some help.

ÿ The poinsettia date needs to be amended to Friday, November 27.





Next P.A.C. meeting: Monday, December 14, 2009 at 7pm.