School Council Minutes
West Oak Public School Council Meeting Minutes
Monday, June 10, 2024, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
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Instructions to School Council: Please review and bold your name if you approve these minutes
Attendees (3 staff, 4 members, 0 guests)
Maria Solomon-Dias (Principal)
Lesley Andrews (Vice-Principal)
Jenny Hay (Teacher Rep)
Vivek Kansel (Chair)
Sarah Reid (Treasurer)
Lori Chen (Secretary)
Kate Kuok
Bianca Smalley
Andrew Gaudet
Bethy Brink
Regrets
Ashley Mohammed
Florence Kan
Jana Jardali
Lynsey Horner
Qian (Cathy) Ma
Ashraf Al Daoud
Olga Klimenkova
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Action items are highlighted in yellow below. Approved items are in red.
1. Review Minutes - Vivek
○ Meeting started at 6:31 PM
2. Treasurer Report - Sarah
○ Available funds: $11,321
○ Subway: March and April profits received. Approx $2204 made this year in total
(excluding June)
○ Move-a-thon: $6113.98 - haven’t received from Professor Jamz yet (but included
in available funds)
○ Funds remaining to be taken out: $313.06 - for community night reimbursement
to be taken out at end of month
3. School Update
○ Principal’s report:
i. Class building has started. Some parents expressed concern around split
classes but there is not much the school can do about this. Report cards
are also being worked on.
ii. MPP Joanna Oliver visited the school - 3 conservative MPPs trying to get
more funding for education. Halton is the 3rd lowest funded board in the
province.
iii. An infinity symbol is being worked on in school for neurodiversity and
inclusion. Students will continue to be encouraged to set goals and
include them on the symbol.
iv. Flag is at half mast because EA Poppy Singh passed away after a battle
with cancer.
v. Funding Request: To take $10,000 in funds for Chromebooks, which cost
approximately $355+tax each. Touchscreens will be slightly more
expensive. Funds available will be able to buy just over 20 Chromebooks.
Next year, will aim to use funding for field trips. $10,000 approved by
everyone in attendance.
○ Lesley: EQAO finished as of today
○ Jenny:
i. Track: Sr done, Jr next week
ii. Walking Wednesday Club started recently
iii. Science exhibition tomorrow (Jun 11) showcasing what students have
built using hand cart tools. Students will walk through to see them.
iv. Special athletes track meet: Jun 14
v. Air band competition: Jun 18
vi. Grad trip to camp olympia: Jun 19-21
vii. School play day: Jun 24
viii. Grade 8 grad: Jun 25
ix. Final assembly to say goodbye to the year & primary choir will present at
that assembly
4. Council Discussion
○ Fundraising for next year: Plan to have 4 major fundraising events next year, as
noted below
○ Food program:
i. Panago wraps: To consider instead of or in addition to Subway for next
year. Council received some samples to try at the meeting.
● Sold to us for $3 veggie, $3.50 chicken Panago wraps so return
would be higher than with Subway. Council found some of the
wraps were a bit bland but they were fresh and kids would likely
enjoy them. However, in the past they were not as popular as
Subway.
ii. PLAN: Start pizza as early as possible (i.e. Oct), then add on something
from Lunchbox and possibly Panago wraps. There was discussion about
whether it would be an issue for inclusion to have so many options with
good points raised on both sides (e.g. families feeling pressure to buy vs
generating funds to help families in need). It was felt that while pizza felt
like a must-order for many kids/families, additional foods felt like less
pressure to order, so it may be ok to have more than two food days a
week.
○ Art Cards by Kids: Teachers give kids special cards for them to design a card
that parents can buy. Council liked the idea of doing this for holiday cards.
i. PLAN: Council to start organizing in Oct and teachers to distribute cards
at this time so parents have enough time to order for holidays
○ Move-a-Thon: Council heard that most kids really enjoyed the foam this year but
there were a few kids who were not excited and at least one who developed
eczema rash. Nevertheless, it was felt this was an improvement to a traditional
dance in the gym as some kids are not allowed to dance and most don’t dance
anyway.
i. PLAN: Continue with this and begin planning in Dec.
○ Make it Sow: This was a good and straightforward fundraiser and we can do this
again.
i. PLAN: Continue and plan in Jan/Feb so they can be delivered by end of
March
○ School council events:
i. Open House - Will be Thurs Oct 3, after reorganization. Book Beavertails
and ice cream truck again. Vivek suggested Tiny Tom’s donuts as well,
so council can look into this.
● PLAN: Ask Bryan and Kendra and rest of the council about how
these were booked and how funds are received from these trucks.
UPDATE about Beavertails and ice cream truck from Sarah
after meeting: The BeaverTails truck was booked through
BeaverTails and did not raise funds for parent council. To have
the truck arrive we had a choice of paying a $500 + HST
deposit as guarantee for $1,400 sales (refunded if achieved) or
$350 + HST flat rental fee to avoid minimum sales. Since we
didn’t know what our sales would be, we chose the flat rate fee
for our event. The truck sold around $1300 in sales, which
would have made us back most of our deposit, and something
to consider for next year.
We did receive commission from the ice cream truck that we
had at the wellness night which was held in May 2023, but
Leanne did not have any record of an ice cream truck for the
September open house.
UPDATE about Tiny Tom Donuts from Vivek after meeting:
Cost would be around $2500 and they implied our event would
be too small to make money.
ii. Parent event - need to use PIC and PRO monies next year (PRO funds
carrying forward to next year and can’t carry forward again). Guest
speakers need to be approved by board. Another option is books - in the
past, council has provided books about growth mindset, the new math,
etc. This could be paired with the community evening
○ School council meeting for next school year:
i. Sept 16 - first meeting. The other meetings will be set on Sept 16.
5. New Business/Parent Questions - None
Meeting adjourned 19:40
