24 August 2019 - PAC Executive Meeting

George Jay PAC Executive Meeting
24 August 2019
11:00am-12:20 pm
Café Fantastico

In attendance: Angela Cooper-Carmichael (President), Kim Drapeau (Vice President), Andrea Walker Collins (Treasurer), Roberta Hamme by phone (Secretary), Alicia Power (HWAC rep), Maritia Gully (Member-At-Large)
Regrets: Lilli Bauer Patey (Member-At-Large)
Abbreviations: PAC  = Parent Advisory Council, HWAC = Health and Wellness Committee

Budget: Much of the meeting focused on finalizing PAC budget items for the coming year.  Andrea proposed an initial budget on 19 August based on amounts spent the previous year. Individual line items were discussed at this meeting.  Amounts marked accepted in these minutes will be brought forward at the September meeting for discussion and approval by the full PAC.

• Welcome Back BBQ (proposed $2000, accepted $2000).  Angela has secured an impressive array of donations (see later item), so actual amounts could be substantially less.  If less is spent, the excess funds could be directed to the teacher granting program.
  
• Child care for PAC meetings (proposed $300, accepted $300).  Child care at the PAC meetings is an essential service to members.  Action item for Kim: secure the same excellent person for our meetings as last year.  Check that a second minder would be available if need grows.  Intend to advertise this service more widely in coming year.
  
• PAC printer ink cartridge and postage (proposed $150, accepted $150).  Actual amounts could be lower this year without the printer in the parent room, but the need to print documents and flyers remains.  PAC is likely to be able to use teacher printers for this, but may still need to contribute supplies.
  
• Leila: milk, laundry soap (proposed $200, accepted $0).  Without the parent room, this service can no longer be offered.
  
• Savings for Event Supplies (proposed $1000, accepted $0). This line item was originally meant for all events.  Decision made to reallocate this generalized funding item to individual specific events.
  
• Petty cash (proposed $0, accepted $500).  This small fund will replace part of the event supplies line item and allow for needed small expenses over the year.
  
• Multicultural Day (proposed $500, accepted $500).
  
• Lice check supplies (proposed $100, accepted $200).  Change line item to Lice Treatment Supplies.  Leila will be able to hand these out to parents in need.  Action item for Alicia: approach pharmacies for donations or at-cost agreements for lice treatment supplies.
  
• Gifts and Honourariums (proposed $300, accepted split line item to $150 for emergency gifts and $150 for honourariums).  Example emergency gifts are flowers and gift cards to grieving families.  Example honourarium would be for residential school survivor who speaks at George Jay each year.  Action item: discuss with Melanie (principal) whether school could also contribute funds for specific honourariums.
  
• Power Up science curriculum (proposed $1000, accepted $1000).  Worthy program still on-going at George Jay.
  
• Granting program (proposed $8750, accepted $8750).  Teachers will apply to the PAC for these funds (see later item).  Example use of funds would be to support field trips, fund pizza parties, etc… Each teacher is guaranteed $250 for their class, but will be able to apply for more for special projects.  The bulk of these requests must involve extra curricular activities so that funds from PAC Gaming Grant can be used to support requests.
  
• Halloween Dance (proposed $0, accepted $500).  New decorations are especially needed for Halloween Dance.
  
• Year-End Beach Day (proposed two line items of $500 each, accepted one line item of $500).  Mistake in original proposed budget had this line item twice, so one of them removed.
  
• Year-End grade 5 field trip (proposed $1000, accepted $1250).  Increase funding needed for larger number of grade 5s this year.
  
• Year-End Fun Day (proposed $450, accepted $500).  Increase in funding needed for larger number of students this year.
  
• Movie Night Food (proposed $1000, accepted $1000).  Movie nights also generate revenue.  Last year roughly broke even.  General unhappiness with quality of pizza last year, which did not sell well, resulting in lots of waste.  Other possibilities discussed: Fat Daddy’s catering (reliable?), prepared food from source such as Save-On-Foods, partnering with community restaurants like Fernwood Pizza.  Could charge for more expensive items but give away cheaper items like popcorn.
  
• Halloween Grab Bags (proposed $650, accepted $500).  Event was popular last year.  Discussion whether $650 had really been spent on this, may have been much less.  Line item placed at $500 but less may be required.
  
• Summer Program (proposed $250, accepted $0).  This program no longer exists.
  
• Club Supplies for Drama and/or Choir (proposed $250, accepted $250).
  
• Dance Club (proposed $250, accepted $250).
  
• Swim Club (proposed two line items of $450 each, accepted one line item of $900).  Funds help families in need to participate in swim club program.
  
• Beth's kindie trees (proposed $500, accepted $500).  Beth applies for a grant for this, but PAC supports if her grant is not approved.
  
• EA event for the students at Christmas time (proposed $250, accepted $0).  This is paid for through other means.
  
• HAWC Weekly Fruit & Vegetable Program for 39 Weeks (proposed $3000, accepted $3000).  This amount may be able to be reduced.  Will re-evaluate after a few weeks of the program.  Without parent room, fruits and veg will not be cut anymore.  We need to buy self-contained items only.  Per Leila, apples are not desired.  Kim negotiating with new Save-On-Foods to provide.  Items will likely be made available in the office for teachers/students to pick up.  Will need to communicate with teachers about program.
  
• HAWC Parent Workshops (proposed $2000, approved $????).  Note that gaming grant cannot be used to fund parent education workshops.
  

A more limited discussion of funding sources also occurred.

• Raffle: Fantastic prize (1st prize: trip for two anywhere West Jet flies) is generating a lot of enthusiasm.  Local businesses and community centres would likely be willing to help sell raffle tickets (example Quadra, Café Fantastico, Fernwood Pizza).  Action item for Andrea: apply for gaming license to hold raffle.  License will be good for one full year.  Could be used to do a 50-50 draw in spring, possibly at HWAC fair.  
  
• Thrifty’s Smile Cards: Our application is not active with Thrifty’s currently for some reason.  Andrea has not been able to contact them by phone or e-mail.  Only $475 raised last year.  Need to get new cards and get them out to parents.  Same with Fairways.  No funds from Fairways program received last year.  Likely an application must also be renewed with them.  Question: Is there a funding limit on the Smile or Fairways card programs?  Action item for Andrea: go to Fairfield Thrifty’s store in person to enquire.  Action item for Kim: make up packets for parents with cards.  Note that we cannot get direct donations from companies that we have this fundraising program with, so need to be strategic with which companies.
  
• Silent auction: Suggestion to do a separate silent auction on-line in addition to the in-person one (not on the same items).  This could increase silent auction fundraising by reaching parents who don’t physically come to the school often.
  
• Co-signing of cheques: Due to issues with funds theft by a past treasurer, all cheques must be co-signed by a second person who is not an employee or PAC executive member.  Action item: check in with current signers to ensure they are willing to continue in this capacity next year.
  
• In our budget, it is important we carry over about $6000 from the previous school year into the new one.  This allows for start-of-year spending such as Welcome Back BBQ.  Carry over from last year to this one is approximately $12,000.
  

Update on Welcome Back BBQ:  Angela chairing Welcome Back BBQ subcommittee.  She has been very successful in securing donations.  She sent letters at end of last school year to ensure all requests received in time.  So far: Cobbs Bread - 200 hotdog buns, Save-On-Foods - 1000 hotdogs and 10% off of anything else we need to purchase, Thrifty Foods - All condiments, napkins and more buns, Wellburn’s - Juice boxes and bottled water (not enough for everyone).  A huge thank you to these great community sponsors!  Kim is working on setting up a PAC table that will have a way to sign-up for PAC e-mails, a take home form to provide more info, grocery fund raising cards, raffle and entertainment book sales, etc…  Still needed: 1) Get update from Mel on involvement of Optimist Club.  2) Talk to Fat Daddy about halal dogs.  Determine how many halal dogs needed.  Best to overestimate since halal dogs can be substituted for regular hot dogs but not vice versa.  3) Organize volunteers.

Discussion of new Teacher’s grant:  Plan is to create a transparent and easy way for teachers and others to apply for PAC funding.  Roberta and Alicia are working to develop a form, with input from rest of PAC.  Each teacher will be guaranteed $250 from the program for extra-curricular activities for their class.  This year, an extra $2000 total (possibly more) will be available for requests above this value or aimed at more than one class.   Funds that come from gaming sources need to go to extra-curricular support, so we will need to take care that most applications focus on this.  Suggestion to add terms and conditions to the top of the application form.  PAC would also aid teachers and others in applying for other grants to support their projects.  Discussion of whether a maximum value should be suggested.  $500?  Previously, teachers provided receipts and filled out a form to list the different amounts on.  Teachers all spent their money in the last month, which suggested that many teachers were not aware of the available funds at first.  Action item: a PAC executive member to attend teacher meeting to present info on funds and process to all teachers.

Subcommittees: Suggestion made by Andrea that PAC create subcommittees for each large event to spread the work.  Lead or chair of subcommittee would report updates at PAC meetings.

Building PAC membership list: We need direct permission from parents to send PAC e-mails to them.  Could we put a request for their e-mail for this purpose on the Welcome Back BBQ forms?  A form should be included in the September bundle that goes to all parents.  Sign-up sheets should be available at all PAC events.

Criminal record checks: PAC executive members should see office at start of school year to complete criminal record checks.

Helping future year PACs: Strong suggestion that each executive member keep clear and detailed notes on items / events that they help organize to provide a blueprint to pass onto the next executive.


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