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MINUTES School Council Meeting

St. Josephs High School

October 21st, 2008

Sr. Clare Gallagher Library

Attendees:

Colin Slight, Mark Searson, Catherine Helferty, Sister Sheila, Teresa andChris Naismith and Carolyn Hass.

Guest Speakers: Environmental Ministers Michael Mosco and Bohden Tymchuck

Opening Prayer: Mark Searson introduced the prayer A prayer for Tuesday, October21st.

Minutes: Minutes of the September 16th meeting were reviewed by members andapproved by Chris Naismith and seconded by Colin Slight.

Election of 2008-2009 School Council Executive Positions: M. Searson

Mark Searson explained that three positions needed to be filled: theChairperson, Vice-Chair and the Secretary.

Colin Slight agreed to let his name stand for the Chairperson position.Sister Sheila nominated C. Slight and C. Naismith seconded thenomination.

Sue McSheffrey agreed to let her name stand for the Vice-Chair position.She was nominated by C. Slight and Sister Sheila seconded thenomination.

Carolyn Hass agreed to let her name stand for the position of secretary.

She was nominated by T. Naismith and C. Slight seconded the nomination.

Student Council Report: Catherine Helferty (Prime minister for 2008-2009)

New Business

Nick Walters and Miles Rowat are the Finance Ministers for the school year.

Instead of having separate accounts for the Spirit Committee, Student ActivityFess etc. all student council money will be placed in one account.

Spirit Week was successful. There were daily events, a spirit day with games and

a talent show, as well as a dance in the evening. A barbeque was held on theFriday of Spirit Week and it proved to be quite successful.

The Spirit Ministers are planning a colouring contest for Halloween as well as apumpkin carving contest and a costume contest. The Student Council will behaving a Haunted House on Oct. 31st.

The Spirit Ministers have decided on November 21st for the Semi-formal dance.

Party-Cakes fund- raiser has had four parties to date.

A school mass celebrated by Father Siroski from Douglas has been scheduled for

November 25th in the gym.

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The fall food drive was a success. Four trucks delivered food to the Food Bank.

Student Council is planning to change the current constitution. It will be

motioned at the next meeting that there should be one Prime Minister (as opposedto two) and two Spirit Ministers.

Environmental Ministers: Michael Mosco and Bohden Tymchuck Bohden and Michael presented a power-point presentation that outlined and

explained the initiatives that they have put into place at St. Josephs High School.Michael arranged to purchase 30 recycling bins for the school at cost. Eachclassroom has a paper bin and plastic bins have been placed at various locationsthroughout the school. Since the program has been put into place, the custodianshave reported that the garbage collection has been cut in half.

Bohden and Michael plan to investigate composting initiatives and would also

like to look into energy efficiency.

Their goal is to make St. Josephs as environmentally friendly as possible.

Correspondence: C. Slight

The Ministry of Education is once again offering the School CouncilOutreach grant to support initiatives to reach out to parents. T. Naismithsuggested that members think about this grant and try to come up withpossible ideas for next year. Ideas will be discussed throughout the years.

School Council PD Evening On Thursday, November 6th, there will be aPD evening for School Council at St. James in Eganville. A light supperwill be served at 5:45 pm followed by a presentation by a guest speaker aswell as a prayer service. If any members are able to attend, they must let

Mark know by Oct. 29th.

Principals Report: Mark Searson

Mark Searson prepared the following report:

Principals Report

School Council October 21st, 2008Faith LifeWe held interviews for the position of Pastoral Animatorthis morning. The Board

needs to approve the selection committees decision before anannouncement can be made.

His Excellency Bishop Mulhall will be here on Monday, November 17th @1:30 p.m. for an Opening Blessing of our New Wing. It would bewonderful if members of our School Council could be there to join us.Student Council is organizing a Remembrance Mass for November

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Safe, Healthy, Environmentally Friendly SchoolCustodians report that the amount of garbage that we are placing in the landfill has beencut in half since we began the recycling program.We have had two fire drills thus far and the school was evacuate in less than a minute

each time.Received a quote for blinds for side windows. The cost will be $50.00/window for a totalof $500.00. Interior funds?

Success For all StudentsUnfortunately I had to relieve one of our Prime Ministers of his duties.Catherine will act as the sole Prime Minister for the duration of theyear. We will amend the Student Council Constitution to allow for theelection of one PM in the Spring and additional Ministers.Rough draft of the School Improvement plan is complete. I have a copy here for yourreview.

Review of School Council: Colin Slight

Safe, Healthy, Environmentally Friendly School- Environmental Action Committee 50% reduction in garbage- Mr. Searson received a quote of $50.00 per window to place blinds on the

windows next to the classroom doors. C. Slight motioned to take moneyfrom the Interior Funds grant to purchase the blinds. All of councilmembers agreed and accepted the motion.

- The School Improvement Plan is almost ready.

Success for all Students- Student Success initiatives are going well. A practice literacy test will beheld in November for all grade 10 students and any students needing towrite or re-write the test.

- Teachers have been in contact with Mrs. Watters concerning at-riskstudents.

New Business:

Bohden Tymchuck showed council his on-line newspaper called St. Joes Times.

A membership for the year costs $5.00. The paper is quite extensive and coversactivities held at the school, features installments of a novel written by Sarah

McSheffrey, as well as movie reviews and much, much more. There is a Grad Tool Kit on the school web site, but it was mentioned that perhaps

the kit should be published in the local newspaper as well to help to keep parentsinformed.

Next Meeting: November 18th, 2008 at 7:00 pm.