April Meeting Minutes

Minutes of Meeting
NMS – PSSC Committee Meeting
April 20, 2009

Attendees:
Anne Small Pat Campbell Shauna Miller
Sherry Thomson Mitch Claybourn John MacKenzie
Andrew Rowe Alan Atkins (Staff)

Regrets: Heather Touchie Carol Coleman (DEC Rep) Tracey Grattan Tracy Allen
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Call to Order:
The meeting was called to order at 7:05 pm.

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

2. Friends of NMS Update - Mary Rowe PSSC liaison
• See attached submitted written report.

3. D.E.C Report - Carol Coleman

• None. Carol was unable to attend the meeting.

4. Principal’s Report
o Full day vision statement workshop to be held this Thursday. The mission statement may be revised.
o NMS participated in speeches both school wide and District wide in both French and English. Alan advised that the Oratorical contest is often held at NMS
o Tony Cox, a guitarist from South Africa performed to selected school students, particularly those that play guitar.

Action: Mitch to send an electronic copy of the Parent’s Conference Planner to Alan.

o Tell them from me program. The last 1/3 of NMS students will be participating in the survey. Bullying is still an issue at the school.
o Turn around achievement awards will be held this week. Travis Augustine is the recipient of this award from NMS this year. Alan will be attending the awards event.
o Members of PSSC, Friends of NMS and Alan will be going to a meeting to see how to get more volunteers into the school. This program is being run by the DEC.
o The National under 16 boys and girls wrestling championship was held here. At one point there were 1400 people at the school. The NMS infrastructure was not sufficient to handle the large number of people. Recommendations will be brought forward including to divide large groups into two different venues. Parking was an issue.
o Parent teacher interviews were held April 8 & 9th. There were a number of no shows. The District is always looking at the number of contacts during this period including e-mail, phone calls and face to face interviews.
o Fredericton is becoming a smart city. An individual from New York was here to evaluate Fredericton as part of this competition. Of 6 NMS classes he visited, 5 of them were on the laptops. He was very impressed with the school.
o The Tatoo will be on with all the grade 8 classes. Also having a grade 7 presentation about abuse – It’s not your fault.
o Leo Hayes peer mentors are here this week on April 24th to give the grade 8’s some information on what to expect in High School.
o SIP – Positive learning environment issues; meetings will be held with students in the theatre to advise them about focusing until the end of the year.
o A team will re-write the curriculum for 2nd Step – This is an anti-bullying program in the school.
o Finishing evaluation for “D contract” teachers. Haven’t heard yet who we will be getting back to the school next year.
o On Wednesday students will be wearing green in recognition of Earth Day.

NEW ITEMS

5. Discussion: Use of outdoor areas around the school
o PSSC has endorsed the suggestion to try the large field as a trial outdoor area for the students. Moved Sherry Thomson, seconded Pat Campbell.

6. Student Improvement Plan (SIP)

• Request was made for all members of the PSSC to have a copy of the SIP so we can see how we can better support the items on the plan.

Action: Copy of SIP to be distributed to PSSC members. Discussion on this to be held at the May PSSC meeting.

7. Follow up to Previous Action Items

o The Leader in Me –Pat to provide a website address to Alan on this program so the administration can explore whether this program would be an option for NMS. Theleaderinme.org. Pat to resend the link to Alan.

o Schedule presentation on the Developmental Assets program for the PSSC. Alan to talk to the students and Valerie who attended the program.

o Alan to forward article on sexting to PSSC members and also will have it posted on the BLOG. Articles on sexting distributed at the meeting today.

o Andrew to send note to the DEC for support and direction on the cell phone policy. Completed. Received a response today. Andrew advised that the note will be on the agenda for the May 7th DEC meeting.

o Student Voice – Administration has not heard anything on this to date. Alan will forward information when he receives it.

o Alan to arrange to have information on the Green Matters essay and Earth Day hour posted on the BLOG. Completed.


Next meeting – May 11, 2009 7pm.


Friends Report to the PSSC - April 20, 2009

1. Teacher Appreciation Week- We had 20 volunteers who contributed to our luncheon on Feb. 10,2009. The teachers and staff were very appreciative of the vast amount of food our volunteers served up.

2. Feb 13,2009- We informed parents of the need for coaches at the school in part of an email we sent out, as per PSSC request.

3. Talent Show- Feb 19/20, 2009. Two of us helped with the final preparations for the Talent Show back stage. We spent Thursday and Friday organizing the kids, working with timing, calming pre performance jitters. It was a lot of fun.

4. Pink Shirt Day Feb 25, 2009- The office and hall were decorated by parent volunteers and kids as part of the national anti bullying campaign. All staff and hundreds of kids participated by wearing pink. It was a fun way to promote Anti bullying. The school was spot lighted on CBC, the Gleaner and Northside News.

5. Women's CIS Volleyball Trip- 3 parents supervised 46 students who went to UNB to watch the game.

6. Winter Carnival Feb 27, 2009- A group of parents served hot chocolate to children participating in outside activities on the 27th. We used the home ec room to heat up the hot chocolate. Special thanks to the cafeteria and to Janice MacFarlane for loaning the urns to do this with.

7. Knitting- A parent volunteer, Lynn Thibodeau has graciously offered to teach the kids to knit at lunch hour. It was on the announcements. Hopefully we will start this week.

8. Easter Decorating- We put up a few decorations in the office to make it more festive on March 26, 2009.

9. Easter Eggs- For Easter/PT interviews the teachers were treated to Easter eggs with chocolate and an inspirational quote.

10.Healthy Eating Initiative- Taco Soup- prepared Thursday April 16, 2009 in the evening and served
during the morning of the 17th. We had volunteers come out Thursday and then volunteers come out Friday. The volunteers really appeared to enjoy themselves and the kids had positive feedback on the soup.
11. Volunteer Week- This is national volunteer week. We had planned to have an event Thursday the 23rd over noon hour but have cancelled it. Due to conflicts for the time and many didn't feel they had done enough to warrant recognition, we have put this on hold. Many of our volunteers just want to help out .....

12. School Dance- April 29, 2009 will be the next school dance. An email was sent out today to volunteers regarding supervision of the event.

13. Grade 8 celebration- will get involved once information is sent out to the grade 8 parents.