Regular Meeting Minutes
VCS Council
February 4, 2021
10:30am Via Zoom
Meeting ID: 475 290 4212
Chair: Teresa Boucher (780) 814-4827
Vice Chair: Stacie Wright (587) 297-4522
In attendance: T. Boucher; P. Braseth; S. Mumert; S. Wright; M. Fricke; T. Fricke;
K. Strand; C. Waldner; E. Dautel; J. Syme; B. Skaksen; M. Gilbert.
Call meeting to order @ 10:34 am
Approval of January 7, 2021 meeting minutes
T. Fricke motioned to approve January 7, 2021 minutes as is. M. Fricke 2
nd AIF
Principals Report:
- Mrs. Lowen still away. Mr. Duinker to finish out this week. Timetable will be
adjusted to cover as no new teacher coming in. Mrs. Mumert to take over LA
classes and EA’s to cover PE classes. - VCS in the beginning of Charter Renewal process – doesn’t happen for another
couple of years but year 3 of the 5-year renewal plan starts with a self
evaluation. - Public speaking this year: nothing open to the public. Still have judges that the
winning speeches will be sent to and still have trophies/medals to hand out. - Outdoor Ed – staff will be taking the March Teacher Convention days to stay at
school and put together curriculum. Targets are to get each core class set up
with related outdoor ed activities. - It was mentioned that “AHEIA” is offering a free fishing course online. T.
Boucher to send S. Mumert the link to look into. - John and Betty looking into offering Hunters Ed.
Chairs Report
-Valentines Day:
they will be allowed to be given out.
In class events likely to take place
Information needs to go out this week.
Staff to touch base with council if they want food supplied.
S. Wright motioned to approve release of funds to cover food for Valentines Day
events. P. Braseth 2nd. AIF
-Teacher Appreciation Day - Start thinking about ideas as we can’t have extra people in to
supervise a lunch this year
Treasurers Report
Treasurer’s Report February 4th, 2021
The Bank totals for this month are as follows:
Healthy Snack account: $4146.53
Healthy Snack/Hot Lunch: $2003.87
School Council Account: $11884.25
Total: $18034.65
There are still a few things to deposit from the Silent Auction. Hoping to have that
finalized completely by next meeting.
Sound System:
Teresa reached out to the company that installed our sound system in the gym and
we got a quote for the new expansion and extra mics and it is quite high.
$14059.51 is the total of what the quote was for. Maybe we could talk more with
him and see if maybe we can just do part of it now and get the expansion part in
and then get new mics and transmitters at a later date.
What price would we be looking at to do that?
Bussing Cameras:
The cameras originally purchased were not actually meant for busses. John the
Director of Transportation has looked into the proper equipment for the camera
system and got a quote for 1 bus for $3300.00. I feel that equipment such as
cameras is not a school council funding issue, but previous council wanted to have
these installed. How strongly does everyone feel they need this? If this is
something that is needed, I think we could discuss helping the school cover some
of the cost. The original purchase included cameras for 3 buses and only 1 was.
installed, the other 2 cameras have not been installed and the council should sell
these other 2 cameras to try to recoup costs from the first purchase. I have emailed
John about it, but he has only been able to find one of them.
Motion to sell cameras if they can be.
Council does not want to cover the cost now as price has significantly increased
from $300 for the camera to $3300 for a system.
P. Braseth motions to sell bus cameras. S. Wright 2nd. AIF
-M. Fricke mentioned that TOG’s offer to install still stands
Sensory Path: Brandie Skaksen has talked to The Heritage Society and they have
given us the go ahead to put it in on the floors. We will have to find out when the
floors are getting rewaxed and arrange for
this to be installed when that happens.
➢ Chromebooks for school
o School has an outdoor ed grant that can cover some of the costs for chrome
books, were thinking at $200 each council could do 5 and grant could cover
5, this would give the teachers 10 of the 18 they requested.
P. Braseth motion to approve purchase of 5 chrome books for VCS. M. Fricke 2ns.
AIF
Board and TAAPCS Report:
TAAPCS- Superintendents met regarding Superintendent Compensation. This is
renewing legislation in August; they have not yet received a meeting with Dept of
Ed.
-John Picard to have a meeting today regarding possible purchase of PowerSchool
($15000/year hoping TAAPCS will purchase for all charter schools so fee is not as
great) Maplewood (current program) possibly going out of business.
-Replacing Bus 105 with a new one.
-Bylaw changes happening to accommodate online meetings.
TAAPCS next meeting is Feb 22nd.
Updates on Committees:
Healthy Snack – Stacie Wright - Healthy snack report: tons of pizza in the freezer and a bunch of nutri grain bars
in each class. Having the leftovers from the hot lunch program stored in the
council freezer for kids who don’t have a Lunch is proving to be a very efficient
way of running that portion of healthy snack.
Hot Lunch – Teresa Boucher
➢ It was posted on Facebook and in the school’s newsletter that we are looking
for someone to take over organizing our Hot Lunches, I am really hoping
someone will take up this position as it can be done any time of the day and
would only take a couple of hours a month.
➢ We also released funds for an extra hot lunch in January and then we missed the
first one due to the kids being at home for online learning, so we decided to add
another one in later in the month. Stacie was able to organize with CowBellas in
Sexsmith to make BLT Wraps for $3.50 each. They went over really well with
the kids.
➢ A few of us on council were wondering if we should release funds to have up to
2 more hot lunches each month if we have parents willing to do them. They
would have to be cheaper ones and not a pickup and deliver as they cost a lot
more.
S. Wright motioned to release funds to offer 2 more hot lunches each month. T.
Fricke 2nd. AIF
➢ Our year end BBQ this year may look a lot different, it will be on June 25th and
we need to plan on it being a plated delivered to classrooms meal. It would be
nice to purchase the meat we are going to use for the BBQ during our H&M
fundraiser. We did beef on a bun our last year end but before that we did
hamburgers and hotdogs. If we are doing a plated service, it might be nice to
stick with hamburgers and hotdogs. Need to have enough to feed 100 students
and staff.
P. Braseth motioned to purchase year end BBQ meat from out own H&M
fundraiser. S. Wright 2nd. AIF
It was mentioned that a fire pit cone has been donated to the school and could be
used during year end BBQ. When the weather warms up the Jr. Highs will prepare
a site for it. Loader/Trailer needed to unload it once it gets to the school, J. Syme
mentioned possible use of a picker truck otherwise B. Skaksen, T. Boucher have or
know of help to to get it unloaded.
❖ February 5, 2021 ❖ Hot Dog
❖ February 19, 2021 ❖ Baked Pasta
❖ March 12, 2021 ❖ Hot Dog
❖ March 26, 2021 ❖
❖ April 16, 2021 ❖ Hot Dog
❖ April 23, 2021 ❖
❖ May 14, 2021 ❖ Hot Dog
❖ June 11, 2021 ❖
❖ June 25 last day of school ❖
Fundraising – Sarah Miller (780) 545-0523
▪ Christmas Concert Auction Update – We are still missing payment on 2
items.
▪ New fundraiser Ideas
• For the love of art – The school is doing a DeVry fundraiser and we
are hoping to roll out a For the love of art fundraiser after that and in
time to have the products back for Father’s Day. One of the things a
couple of us discussed was to have an afterschool art class for each
class, maybe get Shone and Britten in to teach the classes to the kids
with permission to stay and rides home. Is this something we would
be interested in paying for? We might not even make enough on the
fundraiser to pay for the classes, but our kids are missing out on a lot
of their art stuff this year due to the cutbacks in time at school.
T. Boucher to look into pricing.
• H&M – have it done and ready to deliver before Easter. Penny
purchased the envelopes to put the fundraiser in and I have contacted
H&M to see if we can get an Easter pack added to the fundraiser with
ham and that kind of thing in it.
Fundraiser packages being sent out Monday. H&M to keep fundraiser
as is, no Easter pack added.
M. Fricke motioned to reimburse P. Braseth for purchases made
towards the fundraiser (envelopes, etc.). S. Wright 2nd. AIF
Sanitization – Stacie Wright (587) 297-4522
The short of it is parents are still unhappy and the school/board are still saying
there is no budget to allow for the changes in how sanitization is done at the
school. They also made the point that staff have fallen into a routine and changes
may be disruptive. I would like to make a motion to shut the committee down as it
doesn’t make sense to keep this open if there is no parent support. Further concerns
can go to the board.
S. Wright motion to close the Sanitization committee. P. Braseth 2nd. AIF
Communications –
Facebook seems to be our only communications source at the
moment, should we put it out there that we will give the kids at the
school a pizza party if our Facebook page hits 200 members before
the end of this school year to try and get our numbers up? We are
currently at 131 members after our Christmas Auction.
All agreed to posting this. Motion made in prior meeting to release
funds.
Class Reps
Kristin did up a letter that will be sent out ASAP asking for one parent rep per
grade.
Only one response. P. Braseth to talk to parents as well.
Shadowing of Executives
➢ Steve mentioned at the last meeting that it might work to make a short video
presentation to try and get some parent interest.
P. Braseth figured out a video concept!
Advocacy Information for helping keep Charter Schools open
❖ Advocacy Information for helping keep Charter Schools open
➢ Tamara Fricke will be presenting.
Motion sponsored was submitted and split into two motions. Waiting to hear
what ASCA will respond with. Hoping its accepted and be into a vote in
April. Basically, in a holding pattern for now.
ASCA AGM is April 23-25, 2021 and we would like to make sure at least 2 of us
attend. This year because the Alberta government cut 2/3
rds of the ASCA’s budget
they are charging a fee to have people attend. We were hoping to get a motion to
release the funds for up to 4 people to attend from our council if they choose too.
J. Syme motioned to approve release of funds for up to 6 people to attend ASCA
AGM. S. Wright 2nd. AIF
❖ Council Sign up form.
➢ The Council has modified the Engagement Opportunities for to be a Consent
to contact form.
T. Boucher to send to Anna to add into future Registration packages.
❖ Zoom Coffee
➢ I am going to leave this open for discussion and if there is anything good or
bad that arises in between meetings or even at a meeting that requires more
discussion we will have more “Coffee” meetings. I think it was a very
helpful step in gathering information on what has been working education
wise for parents and what has not.
❖ ASCA Course
➢ A fee structure has now been put into place for taking ASCA Courses.
There are certain courses that Board members would like to join to gain
clarity on parent council role.
❖ Advisement to Principal on Education Standards.
➢ After the council held their coffee meet and made our initial advisement to
the Principal, the board has formed a committee to investigate this in more
depth. All the information we have gathered from parents so far has been
sent to the committee. We also gathered some really wonderful information
from 2 other schools we touched base with about how they modified their
programming due to COVID.
This is a regular Board committee. C. Waldner had been forwarded all previous
information on this topic.
❖ Black History in our Classrooms
Posted on Facebook, no response as of meeting date.
❖ Adjournment @ 11:40 am
❖ Reminder the next meeting date is March 4, 2021 at 10:30am via zoom.