Dixon PAC Meeting

Minutes of Meeting of December 06, 2016

Attendance:

PAC Members: Meg Riter, Lyn Yang, Patti Bates, Diana White, Volker Helmuth

Staff:   Bill Juhasz, Tanya Major,

Guests: Various Dixon Parents.

1. Meg Riter opened the meeting at 7:10 p.m. and welcomed guests.

2. MOVED & CARRIED that the agenda be adopted.

3. MOVED & CARRIED - adoption of the minutes of the October 18^th meeting.

4. Treasurer Report

Meg advised that the gaming grant monies approved at the last meeting to be donated to the school for the mural project will now not be applied to the project, as it is not ready to move ahead. 

MOTION: Lynn moved to use $775 of this year’s gaming grant money for “Reading Club Kits”, along with a further $797 (from last year’s gaming grant funding). Seconded & CARRIED (Unanimous).

With the mural project not ready for funding, $4,500 of current gaming funds still need to be spent by June of 2017 and not later than October 2017.  Bill Juhasz was asked to present a wish-list of projects for funding from teaching staff.

Patti presented the Profit/Loss Statement, pointed out that a licence is still required to be approved for Movie Nights, and advised that a vote is needed to approve payment for “Save Dixon” expenses that have not yet been paid for.

MOTION: Volker moved to pay $128.64 from general funds for payment of “Save Dixon” expenses. Seconded & CARRIED (Unanimous).

Meg presented that the Richmond program “Feeducate”, which funds school meal programs, merits PAC support and has, in fact, been supported by a donation in the two years past.

MOTION: Parent Sandra Townsend moved that the PAC donate $1,000 to “Feeducate”. Seconded & CARRIED (Unanimous).

A discussion of email marketing services was deferred.

5. Fundraising

Grant application has been made to the City for a “Canada 150” funding.  Ideas so far are a time capsule project, among other ideas.

6. Administrator’s Report – Bill Juhasz

Funding is being sought for data projectors and for the mural project.  As well, PAC financial support is requested to support students who need support to participate in school life.

MOTION: Parent Sandra Townsend moved that the PAC fund the school in the amount of $1,500 for use by the school to support students in being able to participate in school life and that this become a new budget liability line. Seconded & CARRIED (Unanimous).

With the support of an Innovation Grant, the school is in the forefront of developing a new “student learning template”, a.k.a. report card.  The aim is to be able to report to parents about student development, not just provide a “mark” signifying how the student did last term. 

Division 1, English grade 6 & 7 teacher Adam Stokes presented on the proposed new model.

PAC members and parents expressed various thoughts about the initiative, as well as concerns about the fact that many teachers have not adopted the “student portfolio” process, compromising parents’ ability to understand or contextualize the information in a student’s “learning template”.  It was highlighted that parent/teacher meetings should be held after the new report card is issued so that parents can meet with the teacher to better understand the meaning as reported to the parents.

A strength of the new format will be that is will present a lot more information about what students are working toward, while a weakness may be that it will not be not clear enough where improvement is needed or what learning goals are and whether they have been met.  

11. Chair’s Report

Due to the lateness of the evening, no Chair’s report was provided. 

MOVED, SECONDED and CARRIED that meeting be adjourned, at 10 p.m.

Next Meeting January 10, 2017 in the Dixon library.