Wendat Village PS - School Council Agenda
Wednesday, May 28, 2025 / 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Location: in-person: Library Learning Commons (2nd floor)
Virtual: Meeting ID meet.google.com/xic-kxmq-neb
Attendance: Sheryl Grey, Laura Casquenette, Marilyn Madjarian, Corey Carter, Keziah F, Scarlett Barnaby, Natalie Chan, Janet Shulist, Sarah Hathaway, Kristy Spiriopolous
Online: Tim Trant, Liliana J.
Agenda
● Land Acknowledgement - Corey Carter- Co-chair
● Approval of last meeting’s minutes - Marilyn Madjarian - Secretary
Approved by Keziah, Seconded by Corey.
● Meeting Norms - Sheryl Gray
● Treasury Report - Kosta Arvanitopoulos - Treasurer – sent by email, not able to attend ● Teacher report – Sheryl Gray
May happenings:
Clubs, Field trips, Grad trip to Niagara, Hawk’s House, library recess space, Mental Health and well-being day, Metis Cultural Presentation, Sewing Studio & new sewing machine for school, Talent Show, Teams, Track and Field, Walking Wednesday, Ontario Skills Challenge.
● Principal’s Report - Sheryl Gray
Safety Concerns:
A LOT of jaywalking is happening
York Regional Police Safety Presentations on June 13th
1) Community Helpers (Kindergarten)
2) Road Safety Grade 1-5
3) Bike Safety Grades 5-8
○ PRO Grant – We will look at this for next year.
○ School Council Annual Report – due by the first week of July, YRDSB form to be completed ○ Communication re: School Council and elections
○ 2025/2026 Meetings – School Council elections must be in the first 30 calendar days of the school year, the first School Council meeting must be held within the first 35 days of the school year. To become candidates for the Council, they must complete an in paper or online form requesting to be up for election.
Proposed Elections meeting- September 10th, 2025 – dismiss 2024/25 council, elect 2025/26 council Proposed first meeting date of September 17th, 2025 – council elects oƯicers
Sheryl- We will send out information in the Wendat Weekly and also at scheduled dates over the summer to inform the school community about what School Council is, and how they can get involved.
Keziah- Maybe send it out ahead of class placements going out, when everyone is watching for emails from the school.
○ Fall BBQ (on curriculum night?)– Do we want one this year?
Last year was M&Ms that came and set up for that night. Perhaps this year we look into Lion’s Club this year for cost-eƯectiveness, have used them in the past.
Possible date of October 8th, 2025? Sheryl will check with staƯ to see that that works, and then we can inquire with Lion’s Club.
○ School property- We had a visitor from the board regarding the condition of the property, ie: the hill degrading, the cracks in the sidewalks, driveway, and tarmac etc. We are on the list, however this could be sometime in the next 5 years, we are unsure of our position on the list.
● Committee Update
○ Fundraising
■ Lunches
Ran 3/4 lunch options again, in alignment with our numbers all year. Hard to run without volunteers, our numbers dwindled as the year went on.
Cookie sales are still on on Fridays, about a case a week. Price has been lowered to get them sold. ○ Graduation Fundraising Committee
Keziah and Scarlett:
Events have been very successful, thankful for the community support. Less than a month away from graduation. Sold snacks at track and field, it was a hit and students requested that it is done again next year. In-school sales: Basket Fundraiser, Rummage Sale, Hot Dog days, Movie night, Frozen yogurt, Track and Field.
Movie Night- Maybe next year we can do a kindergarten night separate, and then an older kids night, as we have the movie license now for a year.
Grad Theme is Hollywood, booked at Sleepy Hollow.
Kristy- The fundraising is great, and helpful for grad, however I think we need to focus on in-school fundraising, and not coming to parents with so many “asks” at one time. Most parents I think would want to invest in the school as a whole. If the grad fundraising starts earlier next year in September, it should be better.
Sheryl- The shift for next year will be a more gradual process, it will start earlier. The accelerated timeline will not happen again.
Keziah- Ideally, we could have started sooner, this was just January to May, so it was a lot in a short period of time. It was an accelerated timeline this year.
Sheryl- The kids really got involved this year with their fundraising, and it would be great to see that again moving forward.
Laura- It was a lot of emails coming through to parents, asking for funds. It also seems expensive for the cost of it.
Aside Q:
Janet- Does the school community have a say in what we are fundraising for?
Sheryl- The Fundraising Plan helps us guide where the funds will go, and we have done well with this year’s plan. We look at where we need to allocate more funds to help our students, this year the big area is Math. In September, we want to have more alignment from this experience with the Fundraising Plan, and combine it with the School Improvement Plan (SIP).
The communication goes both ways, there’s areas where the school team has expertise, and then on some things the school council has good input as parents.
Sarah- Did we have enough for the $15,000 and $5.000 discussed at the last meeting? Sheryl- The funds are there, but we are waiting for about $20,000 to come out of the account. When the cheques clear and funds are transferred, we can proceed with the plan for these new items.
○ Constitution and By-laws
■ Approval of the Constitution and By-laws
Sarah- Maybe we can send out a summarized constitution to parents, and then have an imbedded link in the email to parents with the Constitution on our website.
Janet- Is it possible to have a calendar link embedded in the email, so parents can add it to their schedule.
Sarah- We made some notes and changes, Heather had some great notes added, we boiled it down to a few questions. We want to clarify wording constitution around voting via email. This can be done after next year’s first couple of meetings.
Laura- Wording needs to be flexible for each new year, and reflect that the decision making model may be diƯerent each year.
● Other Business
Sheryl- We should have an updated website soon, we are on the list to have that done hopefully by the end of the year.
● Q&A
Laura C- There were rumblings of us getting new students, to the number of about 200 students, can you answer if this is actually the case?
Sheryl- We are now holding for Barbara Reid that live west of 10th line, south of Mantle. Since we became a holding school on March 18th, we have received about 20 registrations. There are 54 students from that area that are held at Summitview. If we have a kindergarten enrollment for example, and their sibling is at Summitview, we may get both students enrolling here.
Laura- Is there any way that you can advocate for the board moving the portables? They take up so much space on our tarmac which is so small, and it would give more space for our students.
Sheryl- This is an assessment that Planning services look after. Even if portables are closed, it can take years for them to be removed as there is always a chance that enrollment can go up. It takes a long time, and then they usually start one at a time.
● Adjournment
Motion to adjourn by Corey, seconded by Keziah.