October 6, 2025

BHESStaff

Heather Schreider (Principal)

Ms. Georgia Petinarelis (Vice-Principal) Ms. Leder (Teacher)

Ms. Lisagurski (Teacher) Ms. Kerry Meyers (Teacher) Ms. Lori Wilson (Teacher)

Ms. JaneSawchuk (Teacher)

BHES2025 - 2026 School Council

Pegita Ghasemi(Co-Chair) Devika Mathur (Co-Chair) Anita Li (Treasurer) Daphne Chen (Secretary) Parisa Bahrampour Shelley Binder

Scarlett Choi Raymond Chong Anabela Costa Zehra Haier

Rick Lew Karen Li

Atty Mashatan Mona Moineddin

Guests

Ali TasneemKanchwala Qusai Kanchwala

Regrets

Pegita/Devika

• Pegita welcomed everyone. We were expecting more people based on last week’s numbers. We will vote in members near the end of the meeting. Voting for minutes also at the end as we do not have enough voting members.

Anita

• We are juststarting our lunchprogram this week.
• Recap – 39K carried overfrom last schoolyear.
• Milk , Pasta,Pizza and Cookie(Council Item)
• Milk 5k, Pasta8k, Pizza 32k, Cookie 3k,
• Mondays LittleDuck numbers as we decided to start after Thanksgiving.
• 88k to work with but that is withoutall of our earmarked items.
• With deductions we will haveroughly 64K for the year.
• Skate Night $600 / Dance-A-Thon $1200/ Multicultural Night $2250/ Carnival $6500/Grad $5000/ AngelFund

$5000 /Front Garden $300/EQAO Snacks $300 / Lion Dance and Nowruz Dance $1500

3. Admin Report

-School update

Heather/Georgia

• Heather said that all request from school staffwill be presented next week (after new members voted in)

• Georgia spoke aboutprograms that we would like to bring in parent engagement…what are we interested in learning about?

• Suggested a survey to send outto the community and asked that we create a subcommittee.
• Mentioned art activity, therapist, engagement event that she went to (an option)
• Atty spokeabout having a brainstorming sessionlast year and asked how we used it.
• Georgia mentioned Jennifer Cassa Todd who visitedand spoke about the internet and AI effects on kids, how to stay safe online. Unfortunately I wasn’t a well-attended event and this year we really want to take advantage of this opportunity.
• How is school attending? This year we will try to balanceit out more.
• It is important to attend eventsbut it’s alsoimportant to sit in on events regarding curriculum.
• It’s time to startthinking about thingsthat will empower parents and how we can show passion to our kids.
• Heather askedhow we arereaching out to find outabout interest.
• Heather suggests the Executive team to reachout and Devika said she would be happy to help.
• Devika said we’vedone the speakerevent and it’sa lot of

money to have onlya few people show up.

• One of the thingswe spoke aboutin the brainstorming event – MultiCultural event.
• Zehra asked how the info was collected.
• Heather saidlast year we felt we had representatives from the council speaking to the community but we can send out a survey.
• Atty saidshe spoke withother parents andthe general feeling is that if the kids are not included in the event, parents don’t really take part.
• Heather said the grant is specifically directed to parents.
• Atty askedif it’s something that parents canshow up with their kids. YES!
• Georgia mentioned X-Movement where parents came in for conversations but the kids had a chanceto get up and get moving?
• Do we preferadults only or family?
• There wasbabysitting for thekey note speaker that came in but again was not well attended.
• Mona asked if we coulddo a hybrid. YES!
• Pegita saidwe did thehybrid thing (during covid) and 20 people showed up online.
• Heather asked whatare folks interested in learning about?
• Atty saidshe would liketo be in the brainstorming subcommittee.
• Devika said even when we do fundraising. I.e. Poinsetta, no interest from kids = no interest from parents.
• Georgia askedthat all interested persons reach outto her and they will get started.
• No formalschool update reportper Heather, but asked if there were any questions??
• Ms. Wilson saidno changes for 6-8 regarding reorg.
• Pegita asked aboutMuskoka?
• Ms. Sawchuksaid info wouldbe sent out by the end of week.
• Ms. Wilsonspoke about a musical, 4-8will be auditioning and they will be putting on 2 shows for the community.
• Devika asked when we wouldbe doing this.
• Parisa asked if there is anything foryounger grades.
• Ms. Wilson said that she does things with the 1-3s, but right now she’s focusing on giving the 4-8s an experience.
• Shelley asked how the soft entry is working.
• Heather saidit is awesome. They love it.Instruction is happening at 9. Students are out of the halls, they’re getting into the routine.
• Starting in June was a greatidea and kids knew what was coming.
• Georgia saidit is veryorganized, kids aregetting an opportunity to connect with their friends.
• Atty said the traffic isn’tso terrible because the weather is

nice. Onceit gets colder,we’ll see a truer picture.

• Rick spoke about traffic calming. The intent is to get it done beforethe end of construction year(October) but not sure yet.
• Devika spokeabout the meeting we had withthe Council and by-law officer. She asked about the parking?
• From theemail shared it looks likenarrower lanes and parking on the right side of the street.
• Signs havealready been putup but someare still covered.
• Speed is alsobeing captured as well as traffic flow.
• Mona spoke about a stop sign at Spadina and Chadwick but no stopping guard.She asked if there was any way to get one there.
• Shelley said she triedlast year and schools cannot request it.
• A surveyis done regarding foot and cartraffic, and city planning and board place the guards.
• Heather askedif the emailthat was sentfrom city planning would be sent to the community.
• Devika did say that neighborhood watchhas a WhatsApp in the community and Castro did mention.
• Atty suggested that because we have not received communication regarding new implementation, thisdoes not look well for timing before the end of year.
• Anita spoke about the frozen cookie dough fundraiser. She has penciled in a date for delivery. RH only delivers on Tuesdays.
• Tuesday, December 9 will be our delivery date. This is a week earlier than last year to allow time for pickup.
• The campaign will start beforenext month's meeting. She asked for the IG team post.
• Sale price is 15$ (frozen) / 10$(premade). Profitis 6$ / 4$.
• Anita will send a link for Lisa to add to SC. Whatever commission we get, a check willbe sent directly to school.

Devika/Pegita

• Rick spoke aboutSkate night
• March 30, Mondayat 6-8, ElvisStojko.
• Pegita mentioned that Georgia had asked aboutreaching out to the community to see if we can source skates for families who do not own.
• Devika suggested we also askfamilies who haveextra to bring along.
• Rick suggested we speak with a thirdparty to see if we could get a school discount.
• Heather said as a school we have to be awareof liability (size, sharpening). They will need to be shared for the evening only. We do not have space to store skates.
• Ms. Wilson suggested that someone takecare of a swap

closer to the skatenight.

• Georgia saidthere was somefeedback regarding accessibility to skates.
• Shelley mentioned that last year 3 families showed up with skates that had not been sharpened.
• Georgia said the underlying message for everything we do is how accessible is this for all families?
• Pegita mentioned we have MovieNight, etc.
• Ms. Leder suggested once the info is sent out, for the families that may not know what skate night is, mention that skates arerequired, they needto be sharpened, etc.
• Rick saidhe would be happy to coordinate a skate swap outside of school to alleviate a liability issue.
• Pegita suggested if skate nightMarch 30, we start in January for the skate swap.
• Pegita mentioned a new dateof April 13 for newmeeting date as March 30 was the original planned and now it is taken for Skate Night
• Initially we were notgoing to havean April meeting but because of skate night, we now need to have in April.
• Rick asked aboutlunch programs?
• Anita suggested that anyone that has connections for vendors, we should startlining up thiscalendar for next September.
• One of the programs is a fixedmenu and kids will not know until the day of what they are eating.
• Rick said if we tell the vendor what days we want them to bring in, they will tell us.
• Rick will reply back that it will not work for us due to a fixed menu.
• Parisa spokeabout vendors for extra programs and that she and Mona have brochures for 3 with pricing.
• Chess, Math and Code Ninjas(coding).

• Heather said as soon as the boardlist is postedwe can take action but the special interest provider will have to request a permit. The list is not yet available.

• Parisa said otherschools have started.

• Heather said they shouldnot have and she is not willingto bend the rules on this as it comes straight from the board.
• She spokeabout asking families what programs. We had spoken about sending a communication to the familyfirst and foremost to see what they would like and how much money they are willing to spend.
• Pegita askedfor any otherquestions before votingfor minutes?
• September 18^th minutes were passed.

• Devika spoke aboutcouncil responsibilities, ourgoals, and our purpose.
• As a voiceof the parentcommunity we areessentially the consultants, representatives.
• Teachers & council work together to better our student community. We arethe channel between community and school and vice versa.
• Typically we have 16 voting members. All community members can come but anyone who wants to be a voting member will have had to fill out the form in school startup.
• Devika went through the nominees. In total, we have 15 that are present here tonight.
• Devika asked if all nominees are interested in being a voting member. Round room intros done.
• Rick asked if there wasa succession planfor the exec team as 3 are close to retiring.

• Pegita said herand Devika areputting together a Google doc with the information as there wasnot a lotwhen they took over.

• Secretary: Daphne / Pegita backup

• Treasurer: Anita (Ms.Wilson suggested someone shadow to learn as Anita has only 2 years left.)

• Co-Chairs: Pegita / Devika

• Sub-Committees: there willbe a list put up next weekfor signup.
• Devika said we have 2 spots open for votingposition,
• Forms to be submitted.
• Anabela asked if we havethe fundraising planupdated so we can get an early start.
• Anita went through the Treasurer reportagain.

Meeting Adjourned!!!