Robert Warren School Parent Council Meeting February 23, 2010 DRAFT MINUTES Attendance: Pam O., Anne S., Steve C., Lynn D., Bonnie T. Kel Connelly, Margot Clerkson, Doug Simpson 1. Welcome: Meeting call ted to order at 7:02 pm 2. Additions/Deletions from Agenda Steve C., asked that the council meeting for April and May to be moved to Monday or Wednesday nights instead of Tuesday night or that Jennifer K., be available to chair the meetings. Steve will send an email to council members to see what will work best for everyone. 3. Approval of minutes from January 26 th meeting Motion to approve minutes made by Bonnie T. 2 nd Anne S. 4. School Reports Margot Clerkson: Smart boards are coming. 10 new smart boards should be at the school by the end of March or the beginning of April. The cost will be shared by an Alberta Education grant, the school council and RW School itself. 23 grade 9 students have been warned that their school performance needs to be improved or they will not be allowed to go on the sailing trip. Their assignments need to be completely properly, submitted on time and all up to date. There is a board wide move to a more inquiry based, personalized style of learning. Learning has changed in the past 10-15 years from memorizing to knowing how to find what you need to know when you need to know it. Digital citizenship the school is participating in a pilot project using ipods. The school currently has 35 ipod touch and a cart for storage and syncing. Ms. Pinkerton is the teacher in charge and is using the ipods with her grade 7 class. Teaming Up For Healthy Learners A recent survey done in the school shows that the students and staff have a strong understanding of healthy eating. The survey showed that their understanding is better than the provincial average.
2 Projection for September 2010 enrollment - 271 students. There are 66 students currently enrolled in grade 4 at Canyon Meadows but only 55 or so are expected to attend grade 5 at Robert Warren. It is likely that 3 teachers and some support staff will be declared surplus due to declining enrollment Jana Cameron will be at RW until the end of the school year filling in for Ms. McDougall who is on leave. Sra Herpberger has returned from her leave. Sr. Lopez will stay at RW part time. Kel Connelly January 29 th, Robert Warren hosted staff from 9 CBE second language schools for a Professional Development day focusing on development of oral language skills. Thank you to Linda Vargas and her work around organizing a most successful day. Term Two student report cards went home on February 5 th. Parent/Teacher/Student Interviews were held on February 9 and 10. The high school registration process is currently underway for our grade 9 students. Students should have had all required documents submitted to Ms. Pinkerton by February 22, as she needs to deliver that documentation to both Dr. E.P. Scarlett and Centennial High School by March 5. Students requesting to transfer to a school other than their designated school must have all documentation completed by March 12. On February 19 th, our senior band students, under the direction of Ms. Banke, performed in the Alberta International Band Festival at the University of Calgary and did very well. Our junior band students will perform on March 17 at Bishop Caroll High School. On March 8 th, our band students will have another opportunity to further showcase their talent at they perform in Dr. E. P. Scarlett s Winds from the South concert at the Jack Singer Concert Hall. Tickets for that event are on sale from the music office. Our Leadership students have had a very busy and productive February. Ms. Robertson s gr. 7/8 Leadership class raised approximately $1000.00 for victims of the earthquake in Haiti through their Hearts for Haiti campaign. 6A raised the most money but decided not to claim their prize a pizza party but instead include the pizza money in their donation. They had a lunch time movie instead. As well, Ms. Robertson took 15 students in grades 7 and 8 to participate in a leadership retreat entitled My World Conference held at Diefenbaker High School this past Friday.
3 Mr. Owad s grade 9 class has raised over $800.00 for water systems in Africa. Every Tuesday and Thursday, during March, grade 9 Leadership students will be selling baked goods during lunch hour. The grade 9 leadership is also planning a Spring Fling dance for March 25 th from 3 pm. to 5 pm. Admission to the dance is $4.00 for grade 7-9 students and $2.00 for grades 5-6 students. Part of the proceeds of the dance will go towards the Leadership class s fundraising for water purifying systems in Africa. Our first sailing trip of this year is set for March 8-12. Ms. Pinkerton and Mr. Connelly will have the opportunity to spend 5 days at sea with a great group of students who will learn about marine biology and at the same time develop some solid leadership ability and strong work ethic. The sailors held a bottle drive this past Saturday and did very well. The second sailing trip is scheduled for the week of April 19 th through April 23. The annual Silent Auction that greatly benefits the sailing trip is slated for Saturday, April 17 th. Our basketball season is quickly drawing to a close. Playoff games are slated for tomorrow. Our teams enjoyed a strong regular season performance. Our senior girls finished 2 nd in division play as did the junior boys team. The senior boys finished 4 th. All three teams also had the opportunity to participate in some tournament play. Both the senior boys and senior girls participated in the Centennial High school invitational. The boys finished 4 th while the girls came away with a 3 rd place finish. They also completed in the E.P. Scarlett Invitational this past weekend. The junior boys competed in the Mid Sun Madness tournament and finished 4 th. Our grade 6/7 girls club team also had an opportunity to participate in a small tournament this past Friday at Vincent Massey School. In March we turn our attention to Badminton. We will have two badminton teams this year. There will be a senior team of grade 9 and 8 students coached by Mr. Harris and myself and a junior team of grade 8 and 7 students coached by Sr. Perez and Mrs. Schumacher. On Thursday, February 25 famed Arctic explorer John Dunn will come to address our student body. His theme will be around challenges that help shape one s character. On Friday, February 26, we will hold our second term Awards Assemblies. This is a opportunity for our school community to celebrate students academic, athletic, character and citizenship accomplishments. On March 11, we will host our grade 4 student tours in the afternoon and Open House and Celebration of Learning that evening from 7 pm. To 8:30 pm. There is a noon dismissal for all students that day.
On March 12, there is no school for students as this is a system wide Professional Development day. Our staff will further continue their work around Personalized Learning. Spring Break will be March 29 th through April 6 th. 4 Outdoor school for our grade 6 students will take place April 26 th 28 th at Camp Horizon. Jana Cameron has been our lead teacher in organizing this activity. Parent letters went home today and subsequent parent informational meetings will be scheduled. School sign is slated to be re-installed next week. Doug Simpson - Learning Leader for Technology at RW Mr. Simpson teaches grade 5 and 6 science as well as computer classes Mr. Simpson takes care of the intra-net in the school. The intra-net is the in school web pages that are accessible only in the school. Many of the pages are student build. There are pages that cover all school subjects as well as weather. He works on making technology used friendly through interactive projects and educational games. In D2L the students are working on an eportfolio. This eportfolio is a showcase of a student s best work and it can be carried on to high school with the student. An etwinning project is in the works. RW will be twinned with a school in Murcia Spain. It is a project through the government of Spain. They will be looking at working on projects together. 5. Treasurer s Report Bonnie T. See attached reports 6. Key communicator s report Diana will report at the next council meeting 7. CAPSC Report 8. Volunteer Update Anne S. Teacher appreciation lunch has been set for May 21. Anne will look into the cost of catering this lunch and report back at the next meeting. 9. Casino Report
There is money available to pay for the smart boards. 5 10. Parent Feedback 11. Old Business Ipod purchase update It would cost $219 for each 8G ipod if the school buys them because they have to be purchased through APPLE. There was discussion around the ipod purchase. Could the school council buy the ipods and give them to the school. If council buys them then they could be purchased anywhere - Costco, Future Shop or Best Buy where ever there is the best price. Bonnie made a motion to buy 20 8G ipod touches with casino funds. Anne seconded this motion. All were in favour. 12. New Business 13. Next Meeting TO BE ANNOUNCED 14. Meeting adjourned at 8:25 pm