February Meeting Minutes

Minutes of Meeting
NMS – PSSC Committee Meeting
February 9, 2009

Attendees:
Tracy Allen Sherry Thomson Shauna Miller
John MacKenzie Alan Atkins (Staff) Mitch Claybourn
Andrew Rowe Carol Coleman (DEC Rep) Tracey Grattan
Heather Touchie-Blakely Pat Campbell

Regrets: Anne Small

Guests:
Mary Rowe (Co-Chair of Friends of NMS)
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Call to Order:
The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm.

1. Welcome and Approval of Minutes
• Minutes of the January meeting were presented and approved

2. Friends of NMS Update- Mary Rowe for Vicky Patterson PSSC liaison
• The Annual General Meeting was held on January 13, 2009.
• As part of the fruit and vegetable grant, a fruit trifle including mixed berries, melons, peaches was provided to the students.
• Raised $190.20 at the Bake Sale. Proceeds to go to the Anti-Bullying program.
• Teacher appreciation is this week including a luncheon on Tuesday. There are 20 volunteers involved in this.
• Meeting with Alan to discuss future activities for NMS for the remainder of the year.
• Go to http://friendsofnms.blogspot.com/ for more details on the activities of the Friends of NMS

3. D.E.C Report - Carol Coleman

• Refer to attached written update from Carol Coleman for DEC activities.

4. Principal’s Report
• Alan gave an update on the school review at Barkers Point School. He indicated it was a valuable exercise for him however it was quite time consuming
• Annual General Meeting for Friends of NMS was held on
• Developmental Assets program held.
• Peter Clark reading held with Grade 6’s .
• Press conference with Microsoft signing was held. The program being offered is phase two of a three-phase plan of providing educational software packages to schools
• There were approximately 350 kids at the school dance last week. Dance was well received.
• Alan gave an update on the survey -Tell Them from Me (TTM) which is administered three times per year. This is a national survey which gives a snap shot of the student’s perspective of the school in the areas of student engagement, student wellness, and the school climate. Last week the second round of surveys was administered involving approximately 210 – 240 students. The third time that the survey will be administered this year will be in May. One observation was that the language in the survey was too advanced for grade 6’s, which might have an impact on the results. To resolve this, grade 8’s will be sitting down with the grade 6’s to help them understand the survey. From the survey results, it was recognized that NMS needs to look at how to address the below average scores in the category of participation in sports and other clubs. Some of the information from the survey will be shared with students.
• Geography Challenge to be held this week.
• As part of School Improvement Plan, teachers will be working on a vision for the school as part of the professional development days this week.
• French Immersion meeting with Alex Dingwall to be held this week.
• Variety Show is scheduled for February 20.
• The annual Winter Carnival will be held the last week before March break. As part of the carnival, the drummer from the Crash Test Dummies will be coming in to do a motivational speech (grade 7 & 8 only)


5. Follow up to Previous Action Items

Action – Alan will talk to the secretaries and guidance councillor and determine how to get the message out to the girls about the availability of these products and how to request them. COMPLETED.

Action – Shauna to advise the parent who approached her on this issue to tell his/her child to discuss this with the guidance councillor. COMPLETED.

Action: Alan to get back to Anne about a comparison of sports fees between schools. COMPLETED.
Alan did a survey of other 3 middle schools. We charge $80/student/sport. Devon charges $40/student/sport. Albert charges $50/student/sport and for varsity/JV up to $250. George Street charges $25/ student/sport and up to $250 for varsity/JV.

Action – Friends of NMS to spread the word that we need coaches/more parental involvement in order to establish more school sports teams. – Friends of NMS have not met to discuss this item.

Action – Alan to have the meetings dates noted on the BLOG. COMPLETED.

NEW BUSINESS:

6. Nutrition

Concern was raised over how NMS is adhering to the nutrition policy. There was a grant started through the Department of Wellness, Culture & Sport. The purpose of the grant was to promote students eating more fruit and vegetables. Funding is provided as a flat amount per middle school as well as an amount per student. Schools need to request yearly for the grant and provide a report of what was done with the last year’s funding. Discussion was held around what should be provided under this program.

Concern was raised that there were non-nutritional items sold as part of a fund raising event. It was identified that many other nutritional items were provided as part of the fund raising event as well.

Request that the removal of non-nutritional items from vending machines be expedited.

Action – Add students to the committee on fruits and vegetable Grant proposal along with Kim and Alan.

Action – Alan to talk to teachers about options to food rewards (i.e. instead of pizza parties).

Next meeting – March 16, 2009 7pm.