Dixon PAC Meeting Minutes 

Tuesday, January 13, 2026

Present: Liz Hong, Taylor Sims, Rainbow Koo, Emily, Kristina, Teg Bains, Jenna Newman, Charissa Anderson

Administration: Mike Murray, Margaret Hill (teacher rep)

Special guest: Logan (student)

Regrets: Colleen Reid, Simi, Matthew Ellis

Welcome & introductions

Round table of introductions. Mike offered a land acknowledgement.

Teg called the meeting to order at 6:35, and confirmed we had quorum.

Minutes from our November 2025 meeting had been circulated among exec but not yet posted online, so we deferred approval until the membership had a chance to review.

Taylor moved to approve the agenda, Kristina seconded. Jenna moved to amend the agenda to add a presentation to the PAC from Logan (grade 6 student), Teg seconded. All in favour; motion carried.

Student petition

Logan proposed the PAC add an extra frozen yogurt offering to the next hot lunch cycle. He presented a petition with 151 signatures from the students who supported this request. Logan and his friend Caleb had canvassed students at recess and lunch to build support. Logan noted that kids would be happy and excited to come to school on those frozen yogurt days, as it was a favourite item, and they thought there hadn’t been enough frozen yogurt in our last round. Taylor, on behalf of the hot lunch team, confirmed that there will be 3 frozen yogurt days in the next round of hot lunches. Everyone congratulated Logan and his friends on taking the initiative to present their opinion and request.

Administrator’s report

Mike reports the school is collecting student learning surveys from grades 4 & 7 (separate from FSAs). The surveys include questions like are they learning about such-and-such at school; do you feel safe at school; do you have adults supporting you at school; etc. Data can inform government agencies and support systems; it is also a tool for the school to see what kids think. Dixon also plans to do a student reading survey (recall one of the school goals this year is supporting literacy). This would be a quick online survey for kids to complete (questions like do you like reading, can you name some genres of writing, is there anyone they go to for help with reading, do they read at home, is there help you wish you had, etc.).

Mike wanted to identify a topic for future discussion with an eye to next year’s PAC budget. Mike proposed that of the $350 the PAC historically provided for each division for classroom supplies, that PAC put a caveat on those funds with maybe $250 for teachers to spend at their own discretion, but reserve $100 for books for classroom libraries. Mike is noticing that kids’ stamina for reading is no longer very strong.

PAC expressed general support. Jenna mentioned previous years’ ideas about books for class libraries, when some teachers felt they already had lots of books. We did give an extra $1500 to enhance the library collection a couple years ago. Mike notes the majority of books in classroom libraries are fiction, and he would like to encourage broader genres and varieties of books in there. Mike also wants teachers to go through their existing collections and review: read them, assess them, ensure there is a variety of titles and genres and access. 

Teg suggested teachers could swap among themselves. Or, encourage teachers to give away (to students) 10% of their collection in June and refresh each year. Kristina suggests we could have “bonus” money for books (but teachers still have their regular allotments for other classroom supplies). Kristina also wondered if we would consider having a package, a curated collection to offer the teachers (curated by an external source, or perhaps by our librarian, or...)? Would that make it easier to introduce more variety? We will discuss in May/June when we begin to budget for 2026-27.

Swimming lessons: well underway. First two sessions finish this week (January 16). Next two divisions start in the next two weeks (January 19). Mike noted that there was low registration right now for grade 6/7 next week, not sure why. Mike would be reaching out to remind parents; also suggested the teachers should review with the kids (and Mike could communicate to parents) some of the logistics (e.g., set-up of changeroom facilities and privacy options) in case kids were feeling uncertain how that would work.

Seismic upgrade: Update went out to all parents. There are big changes for office area, staff washrooms, front door, gym area. Our gym will be just like Grauer’s new gym. Update on the new sound system: now we have two portable speakers. Unitech has paid for this entirely, and we may not need PAC support for that after all.

Winter Wonderland was great but it was stressful to get drivers. The early timeslot was hard to manage (icetime at 9). Having all the little kids in the same group meant not enough seals. Winter concert: everyone liked the concert, but staff says it’s a lot of work and they won’t do that every year, which is why we histotrically alternate years between something like this and a workshop from an external artist/group with final presentation. This year it was a bit of a late decision to do a performance due to construction work in the gym, but also juggling teachers’ time against report cards schedules. Wonder about moving the “concert” presentation to another time of year, not December. Maybe January, February?

Dixon Book Club read Freak the Mighty in December. About 20 kids participated: everyone read the book, then had a celebration and talked about it. Kids have asked for the next one! Mike asked if he could do another round. Yes, we already budgeted additional funds for club activities so go ahead. Mike plans to read Safe as Houses, historical fiction about Hurricane Hazel that hit Toronto in the 1950s.

There is a new universal food program being developed, which is part of a national food strategy to help feed all children in school. The province has set aside funds for this initiative. Schools have been asked to set aside one lunch date per month for the remainder of the year, when the province will provide (and pay for) one lunch for each student for each month (February to June?). This is not meant to replace or compete with hot lunch program. Logistics TBC, but we should not have to administer it ourselves, other than maybe using Munchalunch to coordinate orders.

Chair report:

Swimming communication plan already addressed.

Teg raised some questions about door access, made more pointed with our front doors going away soon: teachers are “guarding” doors and not letting kids enter wherever; also someone from the community entered the school recently. Mike responded: usually, all doors are locked throughout the day and are set to open at certain times. Front door is not locked through the day, and staff is there to monitor access. During our construction, we had had some issues with hardware: wiring or locks not set up. Also construction workers are needing ongoing access, and the district doesn’t want to give them all fobs. Right now, all doors are open all day. New plan with the front door during seismic: door location will move, but entrance will still be monitored.

Mike confirmed that a young man from the neighbourhood did come in; he and his relatively new careworker had been on the playground, and then the young man came in the building to Mr Holman’s empty room, where he wanted to look at the storage bins, toys, etc. Staff attended right away. As they escorted him out, he instead went into Mme Tejero’s room and he wanted to look at all the things there. The kids were calm and good, and staff moved the young man out of the building.

About the guarding/door restrictions: we were having too many kids coming in the Gormond door and then kids were running down the plywood, there was excessive noise, collisions, tracking mud and goose poop. Staff discussed this at their January 12 meeting, and have decided kids can use whatever door they want, but don’t run in the halls please!

Some fundraiser options have been brought to the PAC: Brad’s Junk Removal (through parent Rob Jang) offered to return 10% of Dixon families’ bookings as a PAC fundraiser. We also got a flyer from Return-it bottle depot to set up an account that any families can use to donate their bottle deposit refunds back to the PAC. We also received some information about offering a babysitting course for grade 6/7s. General support but no immediate plan for next steps; exec will review details.

Treasurer’s report

Bank balances: gaming account is at $11,712.75, with uncleared cheques for Reader’s Choice and Saleema Noon ($2500). Overall, we have spent or committed about $4483 of the $6885 we budgeted, with grad yearbooks and library resource materials outstanding plus $800 from our school-wide arts/activities fund and about $250 for field trips. Our general account is at $50,825.31, with uncleared cheques for about $2000.

Budget updates: 

• Purdy’s cheque has not yet arrived but assume it is coming. Charissa will follow up.
• Movie licence fee went up a little bit this year.
• Jingle Bell Run: we budgeted $500, but we have already had claims reimbursed for $431.96, plus at least one more expense yet to be paid for $143.64 from the school, plus Ms Evans may have other receipts. Jenna asked: Do we want to allocate some of our “school-wide events” funds to cover the overage? Discussion concluded that yes, this event falls under the broader umbrella of events and activities already approved in our budget.
• Swimming lessons: parents pay the city directly for registration fees (bulk rate), and PAC will cover school bus costs, but do we know how much that will be? Have all our divisions’ lessons been scheduled? Our budget was $2775; is this sufficient? Mike will review and get back to us.
• Are there any school-wide performances, workshops, or special activities planned for February-June that our PAC budget items for these might support? Music, drumming, dance, science, art, architecture, theatre presentations, cooking... Mike and staff will consider.

Reporting obligations:

Jenna will send in our federal charity return this month. 

Nothing new for gaming; we will apply for next year’s gaming grant once the application period opens in the spring. 

RDPAC report

Matthew is at the RDPAC meeting tonight, so report will come next time.

Routine updates

Taylor: new dates and vendors for hot lunch are now set. Feb 5 is first lunch. Lynsey will have things set up in Munchalunch soon. TCBY will be featured at least three times.

Charissa: first movie night is Jan 23, and we need more volunteers. Charissa and Lauren will order pizzas, and will ask Maggie to get drinks/chips from Costco. 

The next phase of construction will involve losing access to the PAC closet. We’re not sure if we should pack things or if staff will do that as they pack staff room etc. We will store critical items at PAC members’ homes for the moment: Charissa took some posters for movie night; Jenna took the cash boxes and Square terminal; hot lunch team may need to follow up about lunch delivery bins’ new locations.

Questions & discussion

Liz has a safety concern: walking to school along Diamond is dangerous because parents are leaving the front parking lot too quickly. Mike agrees, and has already asked for a sidewalk to be installed inside school property along the south side of the Diamond parking lot. Long term, an after school program will be built where the portables are. Mike will see what can be done with Unitech to delineate a walking path (curb bumpers, traffic cones, etc.).

Meeting adjourned at 8:03.