October 23, 2023 (Monday)
6:30pm-8:00pm
Dixon Library

Attendees: Jenna Newman, Shawne MacIntyre, Vincent Ng, Colleen Reid, Nadine Eade, Jenn McMillan, Beatriz Gwgel, Aniela Daum, Yuko Kitashoji, Rainbow Kou, Charissa Anderson

Admin: Kirsten Wallace; Colleen Orzen

Regrets: LJ Cajigas

Welcome and Introductions

• Vincent welcomed all; Charissa gave feedback on the soil event; gardens are much further along than previously, and the kids had a good time. Education about soil health, worms, etc. were shared with the participants ;some soil is still available to be used.
• Make a motion to confirm intention about the soil celebration community garden so we can write in our grant report;
• Vincent introduced the leadership team to those present; there are three channels of communication with parents (email; What’sApp; WeChat group for Chinese-only speakers); Parent-Education resources are available; RDPA (District PAC) welcomes parents from diff school PACs;
• Agenda was sent in the Dixon PAC What’s App channel but is best if emailed to all leadership members;
• Vincent shared how to make/pass a motion; we follow the “Robert’s Rules of Order”. Attendees can suggest ideas to put forward a vote “I move to ______” to ask folks to consider the action; amendments can be made to this; vote taken and recorded;
• Jenna made a Motion to amend the agenda to include the agenda and the minutes; Nadine seconded; everyone voted in favour;
• Jenn approved and Nadine seconded the minutes from September

Administrator’s Report

• Kirsten reviewed some of the school’s events including: Orange Shirt Day; Turkey Trot was successful and raised $750 for food bank; Candy Bones did a presentation and kids loved it; visit from New Zealand (39 students grade7-8) performance of haka and traditional dances with the Wolf Pack drum dance (Musqueam) who explained protocols and practices of dance;
• OECD School Participation (140 schools around world) teach best practices; the City of Richmond Flood Department is holding an Artist call-out for and will choose an artist to work with three classes;
• Halloween assembly is upcoming and the Remembrance Day ceremony is November 10^th and public is welcome;
• The school will hold two holiday shows on December 14^th;
• Swimming lessons may be happening again in 2024 and will run through the City of Richmond; discussion ensued about how many kids the school will take; we waiting to hear from the City about the details; we will begin with grade 7 students and work the way down the grades; at Minoru for 30 minute lesson daily for two weeks;
• February 12^th is the date for parent meeting with Saleema Noon; February 14^th will be the presentation to confined class groups; Saleema Noon comes every other year.
  • Kirsten emphasized that the sexual health facts are part of the curriculum but parents are able to opt their kids out of the days. For any other information that ventures into the space of opinions, the instructors and teachers encourage the kids to speak to their parents.
  • Parent information night will be on Zoom;
• Volleyball, Chess, Crochet clubs and more are happening;
• There is not much happening right now regarding Seismic updates

Treasurer’s Report
- Jenna will soon have access to bank accounts and is working with the bank

• the first Munchalunch deposit was made successfully;
• $6680 gaming grant received; we’ll want to plan to spend $6,000 to $6,500 for this year; restriction are placed on this spending. Jenna suggests we use grant to support the beach day event (around $2000 for buses, $2000 for food and snacks) as well as the Grad 7 grad ($1000) plus $1,000 to readers’ choice award with the library which allows Ms. Peterson to acquire some things for the library;
• General funds have no restrictions and we can spend with less restrictions; we could put funds to some clubs. We have just under $40,000 presently;
• PAC Savings fund is $5000 to have in reserve and this was because of the pandemic – it was a safety net. We don’t have to keep this any longer and can be allocated now;
• the Emergency Preparedness items for our school is a District initiative and they’re responsible for maintaining and updating;
• Dixon had a Student Support Fund ($500) before the present Affordability Fund; we can support families with this fund (ie: supported some families through gift cards);
• Last year PAC supported classrooms with an allocation of $350 per teacher for project supplies; new idea raised by attendees: does the PAC want to give teachers an allotment for classroom libraries (valuable for all teachers and especially for the new teachers); $250 per teacher was suggested
• Kirsten suggests Laurel Pederson (Librarian) would order the books directly with the money and then she’d allot books for each division. This would be a curated collection of what the kids are reading and would be a ONE TIME SPEND. This will be raised in the November budget meeting.
• Typically, the PAC supports 50% of the Saleema Noon cost (about $1,000-$1,300 total so PAC pays for half of this); gaming funds are available to be spent on this;
• Last year $3,700 was spent on field trips;
• This year we can put half of money from gaming toward the beach day;
• Jenna asked about teacher wish-list items: Kirsten says nothing has come up yet however technology updates are coming (new ipads will need to be leased). This will be an inevitable cost but not sure when ($500/ipad over three years). PAC may want to look at supporting this in addition to school budget at some point in the future. It may be added as a line item at some point;
• Question raised about needing more bike racks – they’re $1,000/each. ( iRide will be about $5/child next year);
• Presently we don’t need additional chess boards or crochet material;
• New ideas can be sent to Jenna at her email address: treasurer.dixonpac@gmail.com;
• Aniela and Charissa will talk about where to house the new Square device;
• Motion to pass the Classroom Allotment of $350 for division supplies from general operations is put forward by Jenn Macmillan; seconded by Colleen Reid and all voted in favour;
• Motion to pass that PAC used the Neighbourhood Celebration grant toward the Garden Celebration (soil, garden supplies to the amount of $1,305) put forward by Colleen Reid, Beatriz seconded and all voted in favour.

Routine Updates

• Craft Fair: Aniela says we need more Volunteer Pins; Aniela will decide about the putting green in a classroom the night of the event and will put out an ask to wrap things for silent auction on November 20^th;
• Purdy’s: Sold $750. November 4^th is deadline;
• Movie Nights: Require four volunteers thus far (3 at concession, 1 at door); A sign-up went out already; Pay by donation; No longer doing the 50/50; Essential messaging to parents is that children must be supervised;
• Spirit Wear: Parent (Beatriz Gwgel) works in the industry and she’ll connect with company called Oddball and we would order directly through their website; she’ll need a vector file for the Dixon logo; Minimum of five garments of one item (eg: five green shirts); this is will be a Digital print, not a screenprint; they will do sample sizes but we’ll need to pay for the mockup; Colleen volunteered to work with Beatriz.

Committee Updates

• Outdoor Learning Space: Teg not present to discuss; we can talk about what a playground will look like in November;
• By-law revisions: Vincent will send Nadine a copy of updated bylaws;
• Grant Writing (New-Initiatives): Vincent interested in the Farm to School Grant (up to $3000 and deadline is November 15^th); Nadine will write the grant for this.

Chair’s Report  

• Student Council: Mme. Kaerne is running this, and student leader is very enthusiastic. Haunted House is being created on the stage for Halloween. Kids going to digitally create door backgrounds on a green screen;
• Additional Parent Comments/Concerns: some parents asking for hybrid Zoom PAC meetings. Ideally, PAC encourages parents to come in person; a hybrid format would require resources/technology that we don’t currently have available (ie: we don’t have speakers, etc).
• Vincent encourages parents to submit their comments to a Google sheet and then he’ll bring them forward to the PAC meeting.
• Beatriz suggested offering child-minding at the PAC meetings so more parents can participate while their kids having something to do. Jenna suggested the Student Council could run that OR previous students at High School that could do that. Some members have volunteered their children to child-mind.
• Babysitting Course for grade 6/7 idea was raised and discussed;
• Beatriz suggested obtaining Pocky Sticks for fundraising during the winter (ie: they’re like freezies for winter). Charissa will contact Pocky directly (located in Mount Pleasant).
• Jenn M. suggested we discuss the dissemination of PAC information at the next meeting.

Adjournment

• Meeting ended at 8:05pm