McKenzie Towne School Council Establishment Meeting & MTSPA AGM

On Monday September 14th, the McKenzie Towne School Council was established in a meeting held at the Haultain library. The attendance for the meeting was quite good and we thank everyone who took time out to come for this important meeting. There was a lot of rather formal, but necessary business to attend to in order to establish the school council, specifically, discussions and decisions on Membership, Governance, and the Executive. Future meetings will utilize and build on this foundation.

The executive positions were voted in as follows:

Chair – Sherri M.
Vice Chair – Sean T.
Secretary – Jamie N.
Key Communicator – Tiffany V.
Volunteer Coordinators – Kerrie S. and Jenn H.

It was determined that the executive positions will be held for a period of two years.

Annette Sarginson and Patrick Murphy provided an informative leadership report. Highlights included an update regarding school enrollment and a reminder of upcoming events such as the Terry Fox run happening at Acadia and Haultain. The school is looking for feedback as to interest for an in-line skating program and regular gabuccino times where parents can meet with Annette and Patrick to discuss topics of interest. Patrick talked about the change to Lifetouch Photographs for the upcoming school pictures and a possibility of some fundraising opportunities with this company.

We were also informed of the generous donation from the Haultain Memorial School Parent Association of $5000 for McKenzie Towne students as well as a fieldtrip bus for every class at Haultain. The McKenzie Towne School can provide a fieldtrip bus to the children at Acadia. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Haultain Memorial School Parent Association for this donation. It is greatly and truly appreciated.

The McKenzie Towne School Parent Association (MTSPA) also held its AGM following the school council meeting. The MTSPA was officially registered and received its certificate of incorporation June 5, 2009, enabling work to occur over the summer. A few areas of the bylaws were reviewed, specifically with respect to the Membership and Executive. It was agreed that the MTSPA executive be per the MTSC (and existing MTSPA bylaws). The additional/unique MTSPA executive members voted in are:

Treasurer – Sherry T.
Fundraising Director – Tina P.
Casino Director – Jenn H.
Playground Chair – Annika C.

Annika C. provided an update regarding the playground. The playground committee has been busy over the summer obtaining site approval, researching grants and generally preparing for the work that needs to be done to start the playground process. There are plans to begin requesting corporate donations and applying for funding grants. The playground is estimated to cost $200,000 and the goal is to build in September 2010.
Sherri M and Sherry T discussed the current SUTP fundraiser (details can be found on our website).

Finally, Sherry T. provided a Treasurers report including some discussion about budget, banking and the wish lists of parents and the school. The budget will be built as revenue sources are identified and come in and expenditure items are prioritized. Items will be brought forward at future monthly meetings.

Future meetings of the school council and the parent association will be held monthly on Monday evenings beginning at 6:30 pm. Meetings will be held in the Haultain library until such time as we can begin to hold them in our own school. Please watch the website calendar for updates regarding meeting dates. For those that were unable to attend this meeting, minutes will be approved at the next meeting and then posted on our website.