School (Parent) Council Meeting

Last week, myself and two other student teachers went to the Stevensville school council meeting. I had never attended any kind of "parent" meeting at a school before, so it was very interested to see how they were run. The principal was there (which surprised me- boy does he do a lot!), as well as a teacher representative and 5 parents- not the greatest turnout. We sailed through a few of the topics (mostly having to do with fundraising) and we had a great time discussing the school's Christmas Bazaar. During one of the "Parent-Teacher Interview" nights, the school holds a Christmas Bazaar where they serve food (chili and hot dogs- yum!), have a huge bake sale, sell Christmas baskets, do a raffle, and even have something called "Trash/Treasure". This topic brought up some disagreement between the parents.

Trash/Treasure is like a yard sale- the students (and their parents) donate their old ANYTHINGs really (anything you would donate to goodwill) to the school, and the school put its all out on giant tables and sells it for 25 cents- $1. Its a great way for the school to make some money and it helps families de-clutter their houses. One of the parents had a huge concern because apparently some families decide to donate their trash- half-coloured colouring books, broken (non-usable) items, etc. So there was a discussion if it was even worth it to have this event at this year's Christmas Bazaar because they wanted someone to go through EVERYTHING before putting it out to ensure we are not putting out any inappropriate things.

Now, I love garage sales. I would even consider myself the queen of garage sales- when there is one, I am there, and I've been going to them for years and years. Now, myself being this garage sale junkie, I decided to volunteer to collect and organize ALL the trash/treasure before the event so that way theres no giant "mess" out on the tables, and the school is not selling half-eaten chocolate bars. Its great because the event is on November 29th which is our second last day at Block, so I will have all of November at the school to collect and organize the materials. And (something I just realized): I get to see all the stuff before it goes out- do you think I can put items on "hold?" :)

The rest of the meeting focused on EQAO results, and the good news was that our school was above the board and the province- the bad news: there is still lots of improvement that needs to be made- in some cases, the percentages of students at the provincial level was in its 60s- that means that there are still a great deal of students at Level 1 and 2 that need a lot of help. I also found out that the students actually receive their individual results- I had no idea the schools release these to the students and their parents (I thought it was confidential except for the teachers). In a way I think it is good because they can see how they did (since the test was probably very stressful for them), and they can see how they rank compared to the province (and their school)- this may motivate them to try harder...BUT at the same time, for those students who did not do well, they may feel discouraged after seeing these results, and some students still fail to believe that their mark on the test does not go towards their report card.

The meeting was only an hour, and in that time I learned so much- its great to see parents getting involved in their childs' school. Hopefully more parents will begin to do so as well.