Fundraising Committee Members Needed

Are you interested in playing an active role in your school community?  Are school field trips, fun lunches, artists in residency, etc. important to you and your family?  Parent Associations support these activities through volunteering and fundraising.  Without fundraising, these types of activities may not occur.  The fundraising committee is looking for volunteers to help plan and implement its fundraising activities.  This could include attending fundraising committee meetings to help with the planning process or volunteering for any one of the fundraisers, such as SUTP book sales, November trade show, Fundscrip gift cards, etc.

Our next fundraising committee meeting with be held on October 4th, beginning at 6:30 pm at the school.  Please consider joining us for this meeting or email fundraising@mtsparents.com for more information.

Meetings Recap

Thank you to all who came out to the MTSC meeting and MTSPA AGM on Monday evening.  We had a great turn out and it was wonderful to see so many interested parents.  Thanks as well to Malik Amery, Carol Bazinet and Wendi Moore for speaking to us as candidates for trustee in the upcoming election.  If you'd like an opportunity to hear more from each candidate, you can attend the forum tonight at Lord Beaverbrook High School.  Check our calendar for details.

Another thank you goes out to Nicole D for volunteering for the role of Co-Volunteer Coordinator.  Our other co coordinator, Kerrie provided an update and advised that classroom parents will soon be in the process of meeting with teachers and making arrangements for classroom volunteers.

The Grade 4 teachers were able to give us an update about how their classes are learning about the concept of story; something each grade is learning about in their own way.   In the leadership report, Mrs. Sarginson announced the next gabbucino is scheduled for November 16th from 2-3pm at the school.  All parents are welcome to attend.  Director's Cut residency will be starting in October; each student will have an opportunity to create their own video as part of this residency.  It was also announced that the school will be holding a mad science themed celebration on October 29th. 

In the MTSPA AGM, we heard that at the next meeting there will be an opportunity to establish some  committees such as fun lunch, yearbook, events and schoolyard naturalization.  If you are interested in joining a committee, please consider attending the next meeting.

We received a report from our Treasurer, Sherry T. and were able to review the school's wish list provided by Mrs. Sarginson.  A motion was passed to financially support the Director's Cut residency program to reduce the fee for parents.  Spending decisions are made in the parent association; if you would like to be involved in these decisions, please attend a meeting.

Our Fundraising Director, Tina, provided a report regarding last year's fundraising successes and the plan for this year's activities.  Stay tuned for more information coming soon about Fundscrip gift cards, litterless lunch products and a trade show at the school. 

Annika, our playground Chair provided an update about the playground.  About 150 volunteers will be helping with the build this week and it is expected that the playground will be ready for use October 15th.  The grand opening is scheduled for October 23rd with exciting activities and entertainment planned. 

The next meetings will be held on October 25th beginning with a meet and greet at 6:15pm at the school.  Starbucks in Copperfield has generously offered to support our school meetings and events, so please come out to meet other parents, learn and make decisions about what is happening at the school and enjoy some free hot chocolate or coffee!

CAPSC/PAC Public Service Annoucement

A public service announcement received regarding the upcoming trustee election.

23 September, 2010

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

The Calgary Association of Parents and School Councils and Calgary Public Teachers ATA Local 38 are encouraging all members of the school community to cast an informed vote for their public school in the upcoming October 18 municipal election. Now, more than ever, your vote counts!

•Our educational system is experiencing transformational change.
•Inspiring Action and Setting the Direction are moving forward.
•The Education Minister is opening up the School Act.
•The Calgary Board of Education works with a budget of just over $1B.
•The board of trustees make decisions that impact over 100,000 students and 9,000 employees.
•Education is facing challenging economic times.

We need to ensure the best candidates are elected to our board!

CAPSC and ATA Local 38 have collaborated on a candidate questionnaire. Trustee candidates’ responses to that questionnaire will be available on line at www.calgarytrusteeelections.com beginning Monday, September 27.

CAPSC is sponsoring forums in all city ward pairings beginning Monday, September 27. The complete forum schedule can be found online at www.capsc.ca. 

The Calgary Association of Parents and School Councils is an incorporated non-profit society whose membership consists mainly of public school councils. We meet monthly to learn about and discuss a variety of educational issues with expert and informed guest speakers.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Leslie Newton Fern Schmidt Heide Doppmeier
Vice President Public School Trustee Forum Coordinator Political Action Chair
CAPSC CAPSC Calgary Public TeachersLeslie.Newton@capsc.ca Fern.Schmidt@capsc.ca ATA Local 38
HEDoppmeier@cbe.ab.ca

Reminder - MTSC/MTSPA Meetings Tonight!

Tonight is the first meeting of the McKenzie Towne School Council and is also the AGM for the Parent Association.  Whether you can attend some or all of tonight's meetings, we strongly encourage parents to join us.  We will be beginning with a meet and greet at 6:15 pm and the council meeting will begin at 6:30 pm. Please have a look at the agenda for the council and parent association and bring them with you to the meetings.  

During the school council meeting, we will be holding elections for a co-volunteer coordinator position and all three candidates for school board trustee will be joining us.  The parent association will have updates regarding the playground and a discussion about fundraising goals and spending priorities.

Hope to see you all this evening!

Key Communiqué - September 24th

Click here to read the September 24th edition of the Key Communique.  Of note is the System Parent Meeting being held later this week on September 30th at Central Memorial High School, from 7 - 8:30 pm.  There will be a presentation by CAPSC, information regarding the Career and Technology Strategy at the CBE as well as information about school councils and parent associations.  All parents are welcome to attend.

September Key Communiqué

The first issue of the Key Communique for this school year is now out and can be viewed by clicking here.  There is an upcoming System Parent Meeting on September 30th at Central Memorial High School and the next CAPSC meeting is this week on September 15th at AE Cross Junior High.  Details of these and other events are found in the Key Communique.  We also try to keep our calendar on this website as up to date as possible, so check back here for meeting dates and times. 

Councils give parents the 'in' on their kids' schools

(Thanks to Jaime for sending this article in.  Our AGM is coming up soon on September 27th.  Come out and get involved in your childrens' school!)

Source: Shannon Sutherland, Calgary Herald

When Janis Giroux comes cruising down the corridor at her 16-year-old daughter's school, she doesn't necessarily expect a shout-out and a great-to-see-ya.

After all, teenagers often tend to tolerate parents at home, but at school, parents are just plain embarrassing. But the dedicated mom volunteers as a school council member at the schools of both her teenager and her seven-year-old -- like it or not, she says with a laugh.

"If you want to know what is going on your kids' schools, that is definitely the place to go," says Giroux.

"And gett ing involved in a parent council gives you a chance to be 'they.' Instead of saying why don't 'they' do that or why don't 'they' do this, you can do it yourself."

She says sometimes people misunderstand the role of a school council and use it as a forum to voice concerns about staffing or other issues, but she says it is a place for parents to partner with the school.

Giroux says an effort to att end meetings and a willingness to help out is all that is required.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

PT Interviews

Parent Teacher Interviews are coming up this week on Thursday and Friday.  Please remember there is early dismissal on Thursday (no school for kindergarten) and no school on Friday.  You can log on to Pick-A-Time on the school website to schedule your appointment.

SUTP Volunteers Needed

Welcome back to school!!  Beginning Tuesday, September 7 order forms will be going home for students to begin selling the Student Union Ticket Paks (SUTP books)  The books will sell for $20/bk with $10 staying with the Parent Association to be able to provide resources and activities for the students throughout the year. The books will be for sale until October 15, 2010.  An incentive to get your students to sell the books is that for every book they sell, they will have their name entered into a draw for a WII gaming system.

We are looking for any volunteers who can come into the school to assist us in processing the orders. Our goal is to process the orders Tuesday’s and Thursday’s and shouldn’t take any longer than a couple of hours.  One of our fundraising team members will be there to oversee the process, but we would like to have a 1-2 additional volunteers for each day to be able to get the sales processed.  There is no commitment to commit every day, if you can do one day, or three days we would welcome you.

If you can volunteer for any of the days above between September 14 and October 21, please respond to Kerrie at kerrie.is.not@shaw.ca.

Welcome Back & Playground Update

On behalf of the McKenzie Towne School Parent Association, I'd like to extend a welcome to all those returning to MTS and to those who are new to our school.  We hope everyone has had a smooth transition back to class.

By now, you've probably seen work underway in the playground area.  We have completed the first step excavation and sub-surface prep and the machines have been moved off the grounds.  We are arranging to have construction fencing installed later next week.

The build will take place beginning on September 29th until October 2nd and we will need approximately 150 volunteers to complete the build.  You can sign up by clicking on the form to the left of this post.  A volunteer sign up form will also be coming home from school shortly.