DIXON PAC MEETING MINUTES

Monday, May 27, 2024

Present: Vincent Ng, Jenn McMillan, Colleen Reid, Jenna Newman, Shawne MacIntyre, Charissa Anderson, Aniela Daum, Teg Bains, Nadine Eade, Lisa Kanavaros, Andrea Cade Hall, Nelson, Sarai

Administration: Kirsten Wallace, Colleen Orzen

Welcome & Introductions
- Kirsten gave a Land Acknowledgement to thank the hǝn̓q̓ǝmin̓ǝm̓ speaking peoples on whose land we live (over 16 different groups that travelled along our neighbourhood); we make steps toward Truth & Reconciliation

- Call to Order:

-  6:38 pm called to order

- Quorum has been met per current bylaws
  - Review and Approval of Minutes from last meeting:

-  motions to approve the minutes, Jenna, Colleen seconds it
  - Approval of Agenda:

-  Lisa makes a motion to pass agenda and Nadine seconds

- Presentation of BCCPAC Materials; Vincent has reference material from BCCPAC and it will be included in binder for next year’s committee to ease the transition; will be housed in the PAC closet

- It’ll include PAC Transition Team materials including the District Code of Conduct; Constitution & Bylaws; Code of Ethics; Handbook of General info; Use of Gaming Funds and more

AGM and Exec 2024-2025

• Colleen Reid shared we have a full executive team for next year; Colleen R. will be Chair, Nadine E. will be Vice Chair, Jenna N. will be Treasurer, Simi Malhi has volunteered as Secretary. Jenna made a motion to approve the slate of nominees as the executive, Jenn M. seconded; all in favour

Treasurer’s Report

Jenna provided an update on the PAC accounts.

Gaming account update (restricted funds):

• Balance as of May 26: $8,827; -$353 uncleared cheques = $8,474
• Our voted spending (budget: $6,520) continues on track.
• Only question is whether we will see all the field trip allocation claimed but most of the unspent $924 is earmarked and it’s only the requests for reimbursements haven’t come in.

General account (non-restricted funds):

• Balance as of May 26: $57,104; -$2,839 uncleared cheques = $54,265
• We have spent about $9,292 of our voted spending (revised budget: $19,240).
• Still a significant amount of unspent classroom supplies allotments ($2,018); Jenna feeling optimistic about the field trip allocation ($963). She will check with Sara in the office as many field trips may be actually identified, and then will send one more round of reminders to teachers to submit

• Jenna sent the Gaming application on the weekend
• Jenna suggests we do pre-budget spending in June meeting for the following school year
• Neighbourhood Grant was not approved this upcoming year (was for ice skating)
• Staff IDEAS for possible use of funds next year include: Afro-beats dance workshop for December (more than $4,000; 5 days long); possibility of Taiko Drumming for the whole school (approx. $3,000 for whole school); possibly new sound system (approx. $5,000. range); Andrea Hoff to do school-wide ceramics program; still seeking other ideas
• Jenn M. inquired about some line items that are over budget such as PAC supplies (Jenna says we bought binders and cheques, coffee event); Library Collection (small amounts and we have a surplus so Jenna not concerned) An attendee suggested we create a “percentage over budget” to indicate at which point we would raise concern about going over budget, eg: 1% or 2%
• Vincent asked if any of the Legacy Project ideas gathered were useful to move forward with. Jenna explained that if a Legacy project goes forward, it will span many years, and the PAC could add a restricted line to the budget. She may check the with CRA guidelines on this. We don’t yet need the Legacy project to be a concrete line in the current budget set up.

Administrator’s Report 

• Grade 7 transitions to Hugh Boyd, Roberts are completed and the McMath one is upcoming
• Track meet was great
• ‘Music in our schools’ was successful
• ‘Hop On’ trip was successful – Garry Point trip
• Welcome to Kindergarten went well (~40 families came)
• Camp Jubilee planning going well, 84 kids are going; Water Safe cards coming in so those kids don’t have to do water safe course
• Learning Update coming out on June 25^th; online and hard copies; Admin has fielded many questions about the meaning of  “extending” on the proficiency scale. “Extending” shows that the child is performing in a way that hasn’t been imagined; demonstrate learning with depth and complexity beyond the standards
• Numeracy vs. Computational approach
• Looking at it as ‘reflectional stages’ may be helpful: Now, Not yet, Next Steps
• June 7^th Dragon Day, Ms. Leslie organizing it; June 14^th is the rain-out day
• June 11^th is the Engaging Artists celebration (1:00-4:00); it will be open to the public and stations in the gym after school until 4pm
• Artists in Classrooms grants in progress: $15,000 total budget, the granting agency would fund $10,000 and we will miss the application deadline as we require more artist agreements involved; we can apply again in November; we will need $5,000 from PAC funding and that will be requested in the next school year
• Parent Input for class placements went out in TWA and is open until June 6th
• 9 Divisions of French and 6 Divisions of English for next year
• Beach Day coming up
• Band Concert (June 17^th in the pm)
• Haida Storyteller (June 20^th)
• June 24^th Recognition Assembly
• Grade 7 Celebration Assembly (June 26^th)
• Bike/Scooter to School Week (June 3^rd-7^th); scooters can stay in the school hallways
• Muffin Drop Day May 29^th at 8:15am
• Mr. Mike Murray will be new principal; Ms. Wallace hoping to invite him to June 17^th PAC meeting; Ms. W is going to Tomsett Elementary
• Next year: Temporary grade ½; EA allocation was reduced by 1 for next year; Learning Resource support has been decreased by 1; Round 1 of potential staff changes in finishing and may be additional staff changes
• Seismic Updates: June 17^th PAC Meeting, Larry Hurst will come to present about updates; Gym hallway will begin in July 2024 and each phase will take 4-6 months; 4-6 classes will move out into the portables; keep youngest kids closest to the bathroom; Annex & Library will be next; Library Hallway; Mme Kaerne’s classroom; Office/Staff room/Gym; there will be a heated hallway, nicer washrooms, added workspace (May 2026 it will be complete)
• Everyone will be doing a single move out to a space and back into their own brand-new space after upgrades are completed; kids will continue to be in school during this process
• New flooring, foundations, footing; aesthetics are a bonus
• Structural Engineering Plan is available to view in Ms. Wallace’s office
• Another school window was broken recently plus a BB gun shot through a window and it’s been boarded up; RCMP came and took details; with seismic upgrade, the windows will get shutters; Dixon can request an extra security person to walk around but not yet requested
• Shawne wondered about a term that children are coming home with regarding an employee. Anytime a child has a complaint/concern, they are encouraged to share them with Ms. Wallace in person

Routine Updates:

• Hot Lunch: Rose Ryan, Lynsey Li, Taylor Sims, and Maggie Li will stay on for Hot Lunch duties in 2024/25 year
• For 2024/25, Charissa will continue with Purdy’s Fundraiser and Movie Night; Charissa reached out to the parent who inquired to share fundraising ideas but has not yet heard reply; she received an email from Fresh Slice manager and they are interested in sponsor Dixon with a sporting event and offered to provide pizza to upcoming events; Nadine suggests the Track Team might be a good way to use a donation; Colleen O. suggested badminton club rackets; however, we can’t offer them a sponsorship logo etc. on anything; Kirsten suggests the best way to support Dixon is to make a donation through our Online Portal and it will be go the school and they can get a tax receipt
• Craft Fair: conversation ensued about whether or not we continue with the Craft Fair next year if no one steps up to coordinate it; it was suggested that if is to go forward, the burden should be shared/spread over more people; it will still need an overall coordinator or two even if it were divided up to be smaller chunks
  • Charissa said most of the Craft Fair revenues came in through the Silent Auction; this event could always be added on to another event should we no longer run the Craft Fair
  • It was suggested we send out an urgent call out in email/TWA for the Craft Fair leads and if we don’t get anyone by June 17th, then it may be in danger of not occurring in the next school year; Shawne asked LJ ow many leads we need to call out and two was suggested, with a lead for all components such as Volunteers, Crafts, Auction, etc. We’ll put the call out in the TWA and the MailChimp newsletter.

Committee Updates

• By-laws & Code of Ethics: the team aims to have updates complete by the end of the year; they’ll call a SGM or have the by-laws ready to be passed on the June 17^th; therefore, it would be going out on June 10^th along with the Agenda
• Legacy Project Update: Colleen and Teg indicate they’ve received a few suggestions for ideas; for all suggestions put forward, it will require that person to put together a presentation of their idea and present it to the PAC in September and they’d have to be a key part of spearheading the project; Vincent indicated Mr. Warner dropped off a pamphlet about the outdoor learning project

Follow-Up Discussion

• Discussion ensued regarding the Track Meet allocation of events: parents wanted to hear more back from Administration about how many activities each child participates in and why it was allocated the way it was. PAC heard from quite a few parents who were unhappy about the number of events their child was able to participate in.
• Colleen O. indicated there are different factors: the number of kids, their gender and age in any particular sport event; Dixon takes all students to the meet which means there are less events for every child to participate; eg: younger grades don’t have high jump, discus, shot putt etc.; there are some kids who didn’t want to participant in any activities; there is a lot of practice and training at Dixon leading up the Meet (“Track Attack”) and for this every child does every event twice and are asked by the teacher if they want to participate in that in the Track Meet --  kids may say yes or no and there’s an attempt to make more events for each child; sometimes depends on how many schools go to the meet which results in limitation of lanes
• It was suggested that the Ribbon allotment needs to be communicated to parents as well
• Jenna put forth an idea about Dixon not participating in the Regional Track Meet and have just a Dixon Track Meet for accessibility of all the Dixon kids; Colleen O says they’ve had conversations recently about the purpose of Track Meet and if it’s something that all kids want/want to participate in; Nadine E. said that Dixon excels at school spirit and offered a thought about pushing the track meet as an opportunity to cheer on the school as well/team spirit;
• Vincent asked about impact of the Evan Dunfee visit on sport and the spirit of sport vs. competition; his visit had a great impact
• It was suggested this explanation of participant allocation and ribbons could go into the TWA a week before the Track Meet for the parents

Adjournment

• Adjourned at 8:07pm
• Next PAC meeting: June 17^th