SCC Minutes from March 6, 2023 Meeting

Harmony Heights School Council Meeting

Date: March 6th, 2022 Location: Harmony Heights Public School Library

The SCC meeting was called to order by Gurleen Saggu at 6:00pm and a quorum was present.

Members in attendance:

Nadine Thompson

Lydia Roncone

Gurleen Saggu

Karen Jackson

Myanna Adams Branch

Sherry Thompson

Caryn Craggs

Nergiz Ozturk Tony Rizzutto

Christina Rizzutto

Guests: In-person:

Randi Smith

Trina Ongena

Joining Virtually: Dionne Mohamed Nishat Patel Regrets:

Jaunna Rose

Sheena Rason The agenda was approved by: Karen Jackson The minutes of the last meeting were approved by circulation by Lydia Roncone. Seconded by Sherry Thompson.

 TREASURER'S REPORT

- Balance: $6900.88 in the account after holiday event

- Earned almost $2000 from Raffle baskets.

- All raffle basket ingredients were donated.

- Revenue $924.

- Caryn mentions the difference in the amounts is from fees. Principal can re-imburse fees to SCC.

- $2879 remaining in the West Jet account

- Nadine mentions that Caryn and Nadine will be the only ones counting the money at events going forward

 Principals report:

-Mr. Rizzuto mentions that Mr. Savage is starting his leave

-It was mentioned that school did not share that Mr. Money was absent, as it was personal matter and they are waiting for more information from the board.

-Block Budget is shared by Mr. Rizzuto

-While sharing block budget status report, it is mentioned that if school is in a deficit of over 10% you need to report or if you have 10% over, report it.

-For any big purchases, three quotes are needed.

-School admin informs that in terms of sound system principal contacted someone on the board and he said there’s only two companies that do this and you will not get a better price than with Spectro Data. However, the company suggested by an SCC member (vetted by board) was not contacted for comparison of quote.

-As it stands, the principal shared with the community that she will not be asking money from SCC for Sounds system. The budget presented shows $30,000 surplus from previous years (on top of about $50,000 allocated this year to school). The money for sounds system might come out of surplus (as it has it be used by end of this year) but Cristina Cox can confirm on how the sound system will be paid for when she comes back.

-School Admin shares that big box card fundraiser money will go back into the block budget

-Projector and Sound system are installed

-SCC can have a spot in the monthly newsletter

-SCC member asks for upcoming sporting events to be shared in newsletter, so school community can show up to support.

 Previous and New business:

- Item 1 - Margaret Lazarus attended the SCC meeting to answer SCC Member questions

Gurleen: I know that the DDSB puts a lot of focus on parent engagement to make sure this engagement is meaningful in terms of the SCC. What is the role of the Principal in the SCC meeting?

Margaret: The SCC meeting is a parent meeting to make sure goals are being achieved in the school with regards to academics, activities, etc. Anything that happens in the SCC has to be a collaboration between both parties.

Lydia: The meeting is run by the SCC - not the school administration. Can you have a meeting without a principal present?

Tony: In the same way that PIC cannot run without Margaret, the SCC cannot meet without the Principal in attendance. Any meeting where the executive members are making decisions the principal must be present. Ad hoc committees can meet and discuss graduation for example.

Nadine: Why was our last meeting canceled if we could have had someone else sit in?

Tony: I had come on too soon before that. It becomes a bit of a challenge to spring it on someone. Sometimes colleagues ask others to sit in on interviews but we get 2-3 weeks’ notice.

Lydia: Who has a voting say in regards to SCC

Margaret: The executive members of the SCC

Nadine: Does the chair have a vote?

Margaret: No but they can break ties. Referring to the SCC bylaws session that is happening in April.

Margaret promises to send a digital handbook of the updated bylaws to Caryn who will forward it to SCC members once received.

Nadine: Whom out of the school representatives have a voting say?

Margaret: The Principal does not vote.

Caryn: Teachers can vote, student rep can vote, I can vote, parent reps vote

Gurleen: In order for us to have a good role in making decisions as parents what sort of transparency should be there in terms of budgets or what’s going on with the school so we can give meaningful input with what is going on. From your experience, what is the transparency that is expected?

Margaret: I would personally share the budget and the principal CAN share the budget with the SCC.

Gurleen: So it’s up to the Principal’s discretion?

Margaret: Yes

Nadine: What exactly is a block budget?

Tony: I’m going to be sharing this tonight. My practice would be to share the block budget with the SCC. We have both a block budget and the school’s accounts. Picture day for example – photographers would give us 10% of the revenue of the pictures which would go into the school account. There’s a school needs discussion with Staff. I’d then meet with the SCC chair and co chair to discuss the needs list and then you’d determine goals as SCC as to what SCC should/could support. The Principal would take the block budget and determine the SCC’s contribution. The SCC would vote on the things that they agree they want to support. The principal would then say they’d cover other things from the block budget. This is the collaborative process. I will note that going to a new school and it being a single administrator school makes this more daunting.

Lydia: This is more for the SCC, would we have to follow the same transparency in that voting group you talked about so we can collaborate and discuss where the money should be spent?

Margaret: Wish lists are sent to SCC and the process is collaborative. The Principal essentially says “this is our greatest need, can you help?” and the SCC determines what we can do to help with the things the school needs.

Lydia: So for all our funds that go into the SCC bank account that we have said goes to a specific thing, can we change our minds?

Margaret: Yes if you all, as a committee, vote on the change.

Tony: The school community wants to know what the fundraising is for. As a transparent committee we aim to communicate “this is what we are fundraising for”.

Nadine: Should we say in communication/emails what we are fundraising for?

Margaret: As long as your community knows what they’re fundraising for, that's the most important message you can give to them.

Caryn: Sid Lashly asked for our fundraising proposals and they were sent to him in the fall.

Gurleen: It’s very clear in the handbook that the SCC is communicating what we need to fundraise for. Does the school need to do that and be advertising what they’re fundraising for?

Margaret: The principal should let the community know but sometimes this doesn’t happen. The school doesn’t have to but parents should know that the money is being used. This should be communicated to the community.

Gurleen: At the time it’s not clear what the money could be spent on but at the end of the day when it is used, this is communicated to the parents.

Margaret: So a principal could run a fundraiser for a class trip – can be specific to a single class so other classes wouldn’t necessarily know about this.

Tony: Also to say some students are having affordability issues and info can’t be shared because of privacy reasons but the SCC would be aware that it was going towards that cause/reason. [Tony uses an overhead projector to share another school’s budget as an example] This was presented to the SCC and was voted on by the SCC. This can then be communicated to the parents.

Margaret: SCC may say 27000 that we don’t have / can fundraise for but we can select what we CAN do.

Gurleen: Because of the unilateral power that the principal has, is there training given to the principal on financial matters so that they understand?

Margaret: I don’t think there’s any formal training I can ask Sid Lashley. Vice principals are trained by principals.

Caryn: I don't think there’s so much in the way of training but every year I go over with the principal what the previous year’s expenses were. Allocation is based on the year before. It just depends on what’s happening. The board gives the school a block budget, and there are certain accounts like PLP that we have to give money to. I can give this to Gurleen and Gurleen can share with the committee.

Gurleen: [In terms of spending] Is there a number at which point the principal needs to get approval?

Margaret: $10,000. Anything over ten thousand needs a non-compete form signed by DDSB. This includes a requirement to discuss if this needs to happen in a single year or could the school have fundraised and saved over a few years.

Gurleen: Do you need a certain number of quotes?

Margaret: Usually 3. You can connect with the board for quotes from vendors that are board approved. If you are making large purchases you need to get multiple quotes.

Nadine: Does the 10k include taxes or is it exempt? Margaret: It includes anything over $10,000. Nadine: Does the SCC need to get the same confirmation from the board for its spending?

Margaret: The SCC needs to prove multiple quotes to ensure they’re not being led wrongly.

Gurleen: If the SCC wants to fundraise for something, are there any grounds that the Principal can deny us fundraising a particular cause?

Margaret: There are personalities in play. We bring it back to it being a collaborative process. This is really important to the staff, benefit the kids. It is up to the Chair or Chair and Co-chair to have sidebar communication with the principal and then can bring it to the SCC for discussion.

Lydia: When a new principal comes into the school they take time to familiarize themselves with the school. Does it say anywhere that the SCC can be collaborative with the principal about what Is possible for the demographic of that school?

Margaret: Absolutely. We never say no to collaboration. What I would do as a new principal is I would have a meeting to talk about goals, vision, expectations. In the past I organized a meet the principal night. This was NOT an SCC meeting but a meeting with all parents.

Nadine: Can a payment be split into two payments to circumvent the process of approval?

Margaret: No. We are accountable as a board to be given to the schools and as an organization always need to be transparent.

Tony: Say for example a school wanted to purchase a digital scoreboard which is a very large purchase. The most important thing Is that there are no surprises. There would have been awareness in the SCC of what was being purchased.

Nadine: As a first year as treasurer, I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to be doing. So I wanted to quickly reach out –

Margaret: To Sid Lashley?

Nadine: Ok perfect

Margaret: I will get Sid Lashley to connect with you.

Nadine: We didn’t have a treasurer last year so I don’t have anyone I can go to and say “Show me the ropes.”.I tried to reach out to other school treasurers.

Margaret: There’s a ledger in the manual.

Caryn: We (Nadine and Caryn) sat together and went over it.

Tony: You can visit other SCC meetings to shadow how they do it. Nadine: Oh I didn’t know that! Margaret: They can present the treasurer's report and see how it’s done by them.

Gurleen: With regards to accountability with money, are there audits randomly done to make sure the money is being spent where it’s supposed to be and not on lavish things. Margaret: You have to be wary about from whose lens determines that it’s not needed. Principal has the say on what is bought and what isn’t but the principal cannot take SCC money without the collaborative process with SCC.

Gurleen: Anyone else have questions? Thank you Margaret.

Margaret: This is one of the best committees you can sit on because what you’re doing is really going to have an impact on your kids so whatever you do as an SCC has to have a lens of student achievement and wellbeing as a focus and you can’t go wrong

with that. Of course we do need stuff in the gym as well but focusing on academic achievement.

- Item 2 - Student Voice representative Gabby Roncone attended to give a report on a survey of the intermediate students on the grounds of school safety, bullying, inclusion, and suggestions for activities.

- Item 3 - June 22nd Grad Dance. The students have advised that they don’t want their parents there and don’t want a mother/father/child dance, need a DJ, Subway sandwiches, Candy Bar (Covid Friendly - individually packaged). Keep everything the same as last year except for the slip n’ slide.

- Item 4 - DJ is $800 for both dance-a-thon AND grad events total.

- Item 5 - Dance-a-thon date tentatively set for May 5th, 2023. Dance-a-thon costs will include glow sticks, little bags with their names on them, DJ ($400). Estimating $1000 in total costs.

- Item 6 - Prizes for fundraising for Dance-A-Thon include a Pizza Party for whichever class raises the most money and gift cards for top fundraisers. Estimating $200 for winner gifts.

- Item 7 - Discussion on the concerns of supporting World Vision as a cause due to religious affiliation. Estimated cost is around $500 per year. This year is already committed and SCC agreed to continue supporting this year with the understanding that this will be brought up in the next meeting to discuss further.

- Item 8 - Teacher’s wish list item: Soper Creek Field Trip where they come to the school. $7 per student involved was requested from the SCC. $430 total requested.

- Item 9 - Teacher’s wish list item: iPads. The current set is 10 years old and can no longer be updated to support learning applications required. One iPad is $659. Requesting support for the purchase of 5 iPads ideally.

- Item 10 - Teacher’s wish list item: School Chromebooks are dying and unusable. One Chromebook is $417.07 including tax.

- Item 11 - Teacher’s wish list item: Bank amount of money in Kindergarten classes for STEAM and inquiry programming. Requesting $200 per class ($600 total)

- Item 12 - Teacher’s wish list item: Headphones for EQAO evaluations.

- Item 13 - Teacher’s wish list item: Music stands for the music department. Each stand costs $80. Requesting 10 music stands. Also requesting Snark clip on tuners to support ukelele tuning. 10-15 tuners requested. Tuners tabled as Mr. Savage is not back in school until mid-April

- Item 14 - School Safety Discussion. School volunteers Trina and Randi discussed school safety concerns with the bus loop and parking lot needing more support and an incident where a parent was walking their kid across the field on school property during the lunch period rather than using the dedicated path.

 Motions

- Lydia puts forward a motion to release $1500 towards Grade 8 graduation. Nadine seconds. All in favour: Nergiz, Sherry, Gurleen, Myanna, Karen, Caryn, Melissa. Motion has passed.

- Myanna puts forward a motion to release $1000 towards the Dance-A-Thon. Lydia seconds. All in favour: Nergiz, Sherry, Gurleen, Nadine, Karen, Caryn, Melissa. Motion has passed.

- Nadine puts forward a motion to spend $400 of the $1000 on the DJ. Lydia seconds. All in favour: Nergiz, Sherry, Gurleen, Myanna, Karen, Caryn, Melissa. Motion has passed.

- Melissa puts forward a motion to spend $600 to supplement Sopher Creek field trip. $512 to cover $8 per child and $88 to cover students who cannot afford to pay. Nadine seconds. All in favour: Nergiz, Sherry, Gurleen, Myanna, Karen, Caryn. Motion has passed.

 Next meeting is scheduled for April 3rd, 2023 at 6:00pm at the school library. All are welcome.

Agenda items will include: next steps and scheduling subcommittee meetings for dance-a-thon and grad, and tabled discussion of World Vision support. Meeting was adjourned at 9:20pm.