PEC Minutes - September 2016

Minutes of Parish Education Committee Meeting – September 6, 2016

A. Call to order

  • Meeting Called to Order at 7:08 PM
  • Present: Father Anthony, Jason Borkowski, Luisa Cenedese, Viola Baptista, Derek Christo, Deborah Harms, Megan Bolton, Chris Brant, Layna Neilson

B. Opening Prayer

  • Opening Prayer led by Viola Baptista

C. Review of June 14, 2016 Minutes

  • Minutes of June 14, 2016 meeting were approved by email.

D. Discussion Items

1. Chairperson’s Update:

  • We will be going paperless at PEC Meetings this year, the agenda will be emailed to all PEC members and also to Jason and Father Anthony, but will not be printed and distributed at meetings.
  • The Education Committee Leadership Conference will be Saturday October 1st from 9am-3pm at Cloverdale Catholic School. All PEC Members are encouraged to attend. Registration will be taking place soon.

2. Principal’s Update

  • Enrollment: Over the summer enrollment went down but then came back up, so the current enrollment is 301 students including 16 international students, with one more international student to start in January. 
  • The plan to purchase new Chromebooks was postponed and will be discussed again after finalizing the budget. 
  • Uniform Policy: a plan to review the wording of the policy was discussed. There are no plans for changes to the policy itself but rather to simplify the wording to make the policy more clear. Enforcing the policy is at the principal’s discretion.

3. Financial Report 

  • No update.

4. Family Service Update

  •  Plans to review the Family Service Policy were discussed. Layna will prepare some recommendations on possible changes to the policy in order to help the program run more smoothly. Many schools have a system where families track their hours online, Layna will look into the possibility of a paperless online tracking system. Any changes to the policy will need to be approved prior to registration for the next school year.

5. Maintenance Update

  • The September work bee had many people attend but not all participated fully. Some problems at work bees include: some people who check in but do not stay to work, some people who are unwilling to do the tasks that need to be completed, small children participating at work bees. 

Ideas for solving these problems include changes to the sign in system, clarifying that the prioritized tasks need to be completed and participants can’t just choose other tasks that they would prefer to do, and clarifying a minimum age of participants. The PEC will discuss further.

  • We currently have 2 committed parent volunteers who look after grounds maintenance, the amount of work is overwhelming for these volunteers, and more volunteers are needed. The possibility of establishing a schedule of tasks that need to be completed on a regular basis (such as trimming hedges, pruning plants etc) was discussed.

  • A plan for a whiteboard outside the storage shed was discussed. The white board would be used by the maintenance coordinator to keep a list of maintenance tasks that need to be done, parents who want to complete maintenance hours outside of a work bee would be able to check the whiteboard at any time and complete tasks, they would then email the maintenance coordinator who will confirm that the tasks were completed.

  • As a result of last year’s lighting upgrades there are areas of the ceiling that need to be addressed, Chris will investigate options for patching the ceiling surface and repainting.

6. Parent Fundraising Group (PFG) Update

  • The PFG met in June and will be meeting again in the coming weeks. 
  • Entertainment Book sales have begun, families will notice that their children did not bring home Entertainment Books and can refer to the information sent home to participate in this fundraiser. 
  • The Walkathon will also be coming up early in the school year. 
  • The PFG discussed strategies to make fundraising better at CCS, this includes focusing on successful events such as the Gala and the Walkathon.

7. Secretary Report

  • Several binders of old PEC files were left by the previous PEC chair at the last meeting. Deborah will review these binders and will put together relevant information and shred outdated information. Deborah will also look into CISVA guidelines as to how long archived minutes should be kept.

E. Closing Prayer 

  • Led by Viola Baptista.

F. Meeting Adjourned 

  • Meeting adjourned at 8:36 PM following the in-camera session. 
Education Committee (PEC)Parish Education Committee