Ballantrae PS School Council Minutes February 27, 2025

Minutes from the School Council Meet held Thursday, February 27, 2025 5:00-6:30 p.m.

Online

Council Executives	Chair: Indu Bains Vice Chair: Kristy Karkanas Secretary: Maggie Kobold Treasurer: Jessica Hackert Social Media Officers: Indu Bains & Shannon Gutcher
Voting Members:	Robyn Hadder Nadia Jackson Shannon Gutcher Navneet Binepal Amanda Williams Cindy Cheng Maggie Kobold Jessica Hackert Ashley Hooke Kristy Karkanas Indu Bains
Attendees:	Kristy Karkanas Navneet Binepal Jessica Hackert Nadia Jackson Maggie Kobold Ashley Hooke Amanda Williams Indu Bains
Regrets:	Robyn Hadder Shannon Gutcher Susan McKnight Haley Martinello Cindy Cheng

Department

Agenda Items	Discussion Notes	Motions and Action Items
Call to order: Kristy Karkanas	Call to Order We have enough votes for quorum tonight Approval of minutes from January 23, 2025 Open Discussion Staff Appreciation Lunch in April	Meeting started at 5:03 p.m. Motion #1: Approval of minutes from January 2024 For: ALL Against: None Motion Passed
Principal’s Report: Craig Barton	Land Acknowledgement School & Board Status no news until after tonight’s election Stouffville Spirit Night 3 grade 7 students have been singing O’Canada over the PA at school and are singing at the game tonight Mr. Virgo bringing in his recording equipment and will record the girls and eventually replace the school version with Healthy Hunger mixed review from the switch to Pita Pit, numbers are a bit lower than Boston Pizza but not significant -will continue for now and may look at other options for later in the year -pizza a clear winner Kindergarten Trip -would love to subsidize this but will vote after we decide on poet funds -going to the zoo Grad -last year we subsidized $500 -hoping to do so again
Fundraising Plan Status Craig Barton	Cost Sharing -money spent but still waiting for items to arrive -items ordered: 10 chromebooks,2 iPads, 1 projector, 2 tv’s +stands Teacher “Wish List” updates -about $100 per teacher -staff that have received items from Wish Lists: Ms. Oirik, Mr. Alan, Ms. Baker for the Pawzone, Ms. Virgo, Mr/Ms McCulloch Ms. Stewart/Ms. Lee, Ms. McKnight, Ms. Ivic Upcoming Grade 8 Grad Subsidy -school hoping for $500 subsidy from SCC as has been done in the past Kindergarten Field Trip -school asking for $400 to subsidize bus costs	Motion #2: $500 to be given to Grade 8 Graduation For: ALL Against: None Motion Passed Motion #3: $400 for kindergarten trip For: ALL Against: None Motion Passed
Financials Jessica Hackert	Review of current financials Current Balance $6,686.45 total profit from Dance-A-Thon was $3,374.14 Healthy Hunger rebates has earned school $735 Kernels total earnings is $52 so far, but expenditures not taken in but balance will be available next meeting spent $1,168.91 on Dance-A-Thon, $690.65 on Wish List items and $1,815.07 on cost sharing
Teacher Report Sue McKnight via Craig Barton	Band for students in grade 6-8, plus at least one staff member small but mighty group meeting once a week Play “Big Bad” started rehearsals happening now, students getting stage directions Thursday May 22 during the day for students and then evening for parents/family Basketball -intermediate just finished -junior tryouts happening next week Art Hub Club -for students in grade 1-3 -meet at Friday morning recesses -group sizes vary week to week Career Fair Gr 6 students investigated careers via my BluePrint and then shared with grade ⅞ it was a great learning experience for everyone grade 6s got practice overcoming their nerves, and worked on engaging other people in their work Floor Hockey -still happening at recess -about halfway through the season Book Fair -very successful, sold $4500 in merchandise -school gets $200 in books for the library and $700 to use for building small group reading sets Snow Shoes -some classes were able to get outside and try snow shoes -lost a day due to the cancelled school day Recess Club -Mrs. Smitten, Mrs. Baker and Mrs. McKnight running it once a week in the library -different divisions are hosted each week -significantly cut down on the number of kids trying to hide in the school during recess Knights in the Classroom -grade 4 class had them visit for a half day and the grade ½ and 3 classes each got to experience it for a period -was very engaging and the students really enjoyed it
Council Business Kristy Karkanas and Indu Bains	Staff Appreciation last year we had an incredible potluck council will put together a flyer for Craig to distribute so people can sign up to send items in and we increase the variety try to set up around 10:45 am and stay on site until 2 pm to accommodate teachers coming and going, set up and clean up April 30th, 2025 is the day -will follow up with a schedule via email -Indu also going to coordinate donations for people who want to contribute but don’t have the time PRO Grant application was completed and approved for $800 discussed which format we want (i.e. only evening event or combined with daytime assemblies for kids) confirmed that spending the money on this (Which is in line with results from parent survey) we still have money to cover other planned activities like the BBQ tentatively holding May 15, 2025 -Indu to confirm after speaking to poets Parent Survey Results 42 responses in total -29 online, 13 on paper 65% say Healthy Hunger is excellent or good and approve of it Mabel’s Labels is an easy to run fundraiser so we need to get more advertising -about 50% don’t participate Curriculum Night Pizza the 50% that participate really enjoy it McMillan’s not very successful; recommending we don’t continue with it in future Fun Scrip has 65% not participate but probably because so many sports teams do the same fundraiser so could be why we don’t have as much participation perhaps not continue with this and try something else in the future Fill a Purse for the most part is received positively Dance-A-Thon only 9% say they don’t participate, otherwise over 70% record it as good and excellent over 50% say they like School Movie night, and about 50% that don’t participate could link food bank or Fill-A-Purse with a Movie Night to encourage families to drop items off at the Movie Night Little Caesars has 40% positive reviews Parent-Student workshops have 33% of people reporting them as good or excellent so we need to make a conscience effort to offer these moving forward -end of year BBQ by far excellent/good with over 85% -direct monetary donation had about 50% of people say they want to participate Poinsettias have a large “do not participate” rate, but the ones that do participate say they like it we could look at Terra Cotta cookies for a future fundraiser a lot of qualitative responses mention people want Spring planters or gardening could we bring back the Lions Community Clean up project, even though it is on a Saturday? more sports nights for families in the future, maybe as a welcome to the school/community -some suggestions were for parent gatherings to help parents connect and work together can also look into Mr. Puffs for another fundraiser in future parents also like fundraisers for things that we can’t get in Stouffville how do we feel about a community garage sale at the BBQ? people would pay $20/25 to rent a table which goes to the school and then they sell their items Craig going to talk to superintendent about logistics of having a school run garage sale before we decide	Motion #4: Book the full package for the PRO Grant workshop, including daytime and evening activities For: ALL Against: None Motion Passed
FUN Raising’ Planning/Acti on Kristy	Movie Night March 6, 2025 only have $52 invested in kernels as of right now Little Caesars -March 14 start March 31 last day to order flyers arrived at the school last week and have been sent home with youngest and only schedule for pick up on April 17, 2025 they arrive at about 1-2p.m. at the school -need at least one person to help Jessica at about 2-3 to help organize and sort -pick up done at 5 pm -school can send small orders with kids directly, especially if families send reusable bags to school to help does have gluten-free options FundScrip -still going on but nothing has come in lately June BBQ -Date if Thursday, June 12, 2025 Grill Gate food truck secured -combos are burgers, sausage, chicken tenders or veggie burgers all come with fries and a drink -can also order poutine instead of a combo -combos will be $20, but we are not charging for anything else that night -Diane will set it up on SCO closer to the date firetruck and ambulance are booked, unless there is an emergency but we won’t know until day of magician has sent options for us to review and Kristy will send that information via email so we can decide -other entertainment will be karaoke and tattoos, also big Jenga let’s take parent survey information into account and offer some sports activities like skills activities (farthest throw, ping pong ball on a spoon, etc.) that we can sign up and offer as well -put a call out to the community to look for volunteers
Meeting Adjourned Kristy	Assign Roles - Kristy to start a Google Doc and share with council to keep track of dates and notes for BBQ for us to communicate, instead of an email chain	Meeting Adjourned 6:16 p.m.

Minutes taken by: Maggie Kobold

Minutes approved by: Indu Bains