Thursday, April 10, 2025

Date

Time Started

Time Adjourned 

Attendees 

BHES Staff 

Heather Schreider (Principal)

Ms. Georgia Petinarelis (Vice Principal)

Ms. Lisogurski (Teacher)

Lori Wilson (Teacher)

Ms. Sawchuk (Teacher)

BHES 2024 - 2025 School Council

Devika Mathur (Co-Chair) 

Anita Li (Treasurer)

Daphne Chen (Secretary)

Parin Saifi

Maggie Lee

Atty Mashatan 

Rick Lew

Karen Li

Bonnie Kwan

Anabela Costa

Mona Moineddin

Guests

Zehra

Regrets

Pegita Ghasemi (Co-Chair)

Mamak Fazel

Parisa Bahrampour

Eileen Pan

Mrs. Leder

Scarlett Choi

Mr. Mika Ilic (Teacher)

Raymond Chong

1. Welcome and 

Minutes Approval 

Pegita/Devika

• Devika welcomed everyone. We have some people missing so we will start. We could not vote on minutes right now as we do not have enough voting members. 

3. Treasurer Report

Anita

• Advised final numbers in for Lion dance and Nawruz.
• Updates for $$ that is allocated for MC Night. Pegita reminded that we have increased budget for each table – council voted to approve. 2250$ right now. We can increase if we have extra tables.
• Cookie – No now orders
• Pizza _ 5-6 new orders.
• Pizza is biggest contributor –
• Looking ahead with additional asks – 24,000$ to carry forward for next year.  
• Approx. 4000$ more than last year.

3. Admin Report

-School update 

 Heather/Georgia 

• Heather advised play structure has been closed as slide is broke.
• Fixers are coming in next week to fix.
• We need to revisit fundraising for a new structure.
• Field has been closed as well for field preservation.
• Board has asked that we not let kids run on wet, soggy grass.
• We have access to the path but not Helmkay Park.
• Anita asked about cost of Playscape -100000$
• Heather advised 2 kinds of budget
• Operating budget and capital budget. Playscape is not part of the operating budget.
• Anita asked if we can apply for capital budget – No!
• Most schools have only tarmac. No lines or games. No Playscape. Anything beyond this is school operating funds.
• Mona asked if we can apply for a grant.
• Potentially we can apply for an environmental fund.
• Ms. Lisagurski questioned if we can apply for any funds if it is an accessible Playscape.
• Anita said that she didn’t know the Playscape was property of the school, she assumed it was city property.
• Daphne suggested that we ask Castro Liu when we meet next about the drop off / pick up issues.
• Heather said we have used some council generated funds 20000$- tech, 2500$- robotics, Air Tames, Climate Action Kits (Micro Kits), some storage units.
• One of our grade 3 students went to a robotics comp and the family shared it was the BEST day of her life.
• We have the Autism Awareness Flag rising.
• Ms. Kwan did her tote bag fundraiser.
• We also have guests coming in who will be speaking about themselves about autism.
• More of a meet and greet by class.
• Georgia thanked for the Nawruz dance.
• Kids were excited to show Ms. P the table.
• The kids were also excited to learn the dance.
• We also had a number of presentations: Skills and Trades for Grade 6.
• Also Rick will be coming in next week to speak with kids.
• One of our grade 8n classes will go to Humber College to actually go into a classroom – April 30.
• Parent and community members are becoming involved.
• We have PIAC – Parent Council Presentation. Devika and Pegita will attend.
• Our engagement event will be May 8 – Digital Leder – for families. This will be in person.
• Volunteer tea will be May 18^th to say Thank You.
• Ms. Wilson suggested that Nawruz Dance be extended by 10 minutes or so to allow kids tied come in and settle.
• Mona said they had to cut short to catch up for snack recess.

Devika/Pegita

• From council – couple of updates.
• Milk we have approx. 56 orders. Popularity of milk as a snack is dwindling.
• Anita did speak about lunch programs.
• We have a new lunch initiative – Lunchbox.
• Order as you wish, she did put a pause as there is a minimum for delivery.
• Because we have our other lunch programs in place, it’s a lot of work and it may not be feasible to always deliver.
• We don’t want to put it out there and then have an issue with no lunch a day or so before.
• Devika said we have parents that appreciate the option of ordering last minute.
• Anita said 3000$ profit for whole term for Little Duck. Our numbers were 1/3 less.
• Devika passed to Mona regarding Nawruz.
• Mona said feedback from staff, students and community – quite a bit of Persian population.
• For the kids that do celebrate, they are proud to share with their peers.
• The dancing was great. They already had experience from last year.
• For the haft seen table, she thanked Pegita and Parin for putting it all together.
• Anita asked if we can book the dancers earlier.
• Mona said we planned for 20-30 minutes per group. But by the time kids got inside, it wasted time.
• To be considered for next year as the last group was very short.
• Skate Night reap from Rick – Great turnout.
• His only worry was for kids getting hurt.
• He asked if we can ask for more as a donation.
• Devika said that mostly is a Give Back, but we can certainly ask for more.
• Daphne said donations = 160$ and 4 large reusable bag.
• Letter received from Food Bank with Thanks.
• Devika spoke about MC Night
• Mona – Iran / Zehra – India  / Scarlet – Korea
• We have 5 tables at this point.
• High School students from Alexander McKenzie High School will be coming back to help out.
• This will happen April 24^th.
• Anabela spoke about Dance-A-Thon
• She needs volunteers to help get the kids active and dancing.
• Normally we have snacks.
• Do we want to collect $$$ and save for Playscape or do we want to give back.
• Anita said lets sell. Kids love to spend money.
• Heather said we cannot take money because the bank charges us fees.
• We have to pay the School Cash fee of 3%.
• The bank also charges for a courier pickup fee and the tag.
• Anabela said she would love to pay it forward.
• Bonnie asked where the $$ comes from for snacks that we buy.
• Devika said we use council funds.
• Anabela said she will give admin the class calls down.
• It starts at 9:15am. Kids will miss instruction time to dance.
• Ms. Lisagurski said kids love the freezie. It’s hot in the gym. Every year we get a treat.
• Heather said she thinks all kids should get something free because she doesn’t want anyone to be sad that they didn’t get a treat if we charge.
• We decided on freezes as a treat.
• Anabela asked for volunteers. She will send on WhatsApp for list of times.
• Anita asked if we can vote on last meetings minutes as we have enough- minutes approved!!
• Devika spoke about Carnival – BBQ and games have been booked.
• Rick suggested Bubble Tea – He said he can do it as he used to have a store. Low cost, high reward.
• Devika said Ice-cream truck has already been emailing and we will have 2 to accommodate.
• Ms. Lisagurski asked if we can do a go-fund-me for Playscape.
• Devika said we have a “Donate’ button.
• Heather said we asked the guy to come and asked for a :How Much?” She will ask for more info.
• Shelley suggested we charge maybe for the carnival.
• Devika said once we know what moneys are required for Playscape; we can base our fundraising around that.
• Heather said there used to be cost sharing and wondered if we can do the same for Playscape.
• Heather said when we bought tech, we spent 8000$, board gave 2000$.
• Daphne suggested we place QR codes at Carnival for ‘Donate” button.
• Parin asked about Coffee Chat and suggested we host  it before MC night so we can then approach the community about helping out at MC.
• Anita asked if we can have a coffee chat at beginning of year when parents are eager to become involved.
• Shelley aid there is a Welcome to KG night and asked if we can do coffee chat.
• Welcome KG night is May 15 – 5-6pm.
• It seems to be a very open, free chat, tour the classrooms. We will look into a coffee chat – overlap 5:30 – 6:30. We will circle back once we speak with Ms. Cooper.
• Georgia said we need to make sure whoever is interacting with families need to be aligned with our focus. She will look into Hong Fuk and  Triple P.

5. New Topics/

Misc.

All

• Heather said she reached out to get information on the Playscape cost.