Minutes of P and C Meeting of 12 August

Treasurer’s Report

• Expenditure includes artificial turf, new fencing, purchase of sports gear for K-2 and 3-6.
• Motion to increase awards expenditure by $2,000. Moved by Bronwyn Ridgway and seconded by Angus Corbett. Motion passed.
• Ken Butterfield expressed concerns about state of the toilets. Ross Newman noted that there were problems installing the water-less urinals. He is working towards resolving this. Ken expressed concern about the lack of toilet seats. Sari indicated that money had been set aside for refurbishing the toilets and it was agreed that Sari would ask Tina Elliot to purchase the relevant number of toilet seats. Milton will review the number of seats needed.

Arrangements for picking up children

• Ross Newman showed a video about new arrangements for picking up children.
• New pick-up zone in Forth Street.
• Parent volunteers needed to assist with the loading of students into cars. Two volunteers required – one to keep the students in the school and one to open the back door of the car and assist the student to hop in the car. Two minute limit on waiting.
• Sari expressed concerns about whether this would work because of the difficulty of queuing in Forth Street around in to Ocean Street.
• Maureen and Ross described real concern about the problem of double parking in Forth Street and of the real potential for harm to students.
• expressed support for the operation of the scheme in Paddington. Sari said that the problem of finding the number volunteer parents.
• Susan asked a question about the walking school bus. It was trialled two years ago but there was not a great deal of interest in the program. Ross suggested that a lot of children come from out of area.
• Bronwyn said that she would use the newsletter to ask parents to express interest for volunteering to assist the loading and unloading children. She suggested starting the program off as a trial as quickly as possible.

Vacation Care

• Nicole Wright organised for a survey of interest concerning Vacation Care. The results of the survey were reported to the meeting. Nicole obtained 57 completed surveys.
• Camp Australia need 20-25 students per day for the program to be successful
• The outcome was that there were just enough people that were prepared to opt for the scheme to make it viable. The numbers were only just sufficient.
• Support for the scheme, concern about the costs of vacation care.
• Eighteen people would use it everyday were prepared to pay $46-$56 (with excursions outside the school). There were a significant number who would contribute $25-$40. Programs run by the P and C associations in other schools were in this range.
• Camp Australia will not run the program without the minimum of children (2-25).
• Alternatives include putting the program to tender, or using programs offered in other schools. Most other public schools have programs run by the P and C. Programs in other schools give first preference to children in those schools.
• Nicole was not aware of other programs run by entities other than P and
  C bodies.
• Nicole will consult with Cliff about putting the program in place.
• Nicole asked the meeting to thank Nicole for organising the Survey and the implementation of Vacation Care at Woollahra Public School.

Website renewal

• New Web Master to take over from Kelly at the end of this term and from the beginning of next year.
• Nicole raised the issue of using Class Parents to communicate with parents.
• Sari noted that the P and C will need a coordinator of the class parents to take over from Mary Ellen.
• Sari indicated that we need to renew our domain name and this will cost $120. Sari moved a motion to renew the domain name, seconded by Bronwyn Ridgeway. Motion passed.

Fundraising

• Walkathon 12 September.
• Local Council Elections 13 September (fair). Second hand books, barbeque and Cafe Froth.
• Halloween (Term 4). Jenni Mack and other organising parents will not be organising the event. Sari indicated that we need new parents and volunteers to organise Halloween and the Walkathon.
• Tina Elliott to organise the Walkathon.
• Meeting to find volunteers to organise Halloween. Sari suggested that she was keen to allocate stalls to particular classes in order to share the workload of running the stalls.

Double Parking in Forth Street

Cycling to school

This is to be held over to the next meeting.

Head Lice

• Michelle wanted to know about a coordinated approach to treating head lice. She was concerned that an individual approach to treating head lice was ineffective, difficult and inconvenient.
• Is the school entitled to send children home with head lice? The Department of Education now prohibits testing or looking for head lice, and schools are not entitled to send children home.
• Maureen said that prevention was a good approach – tying hair up and using Ti tree oil. Michelle said that she does all of this but her daughter was still getting head lice regularly.
• Maureen said that it was nearly impossible to get all parents to treat their children for head lice.
• Susan suggested an information sheet about treating head lice.

Friday morning assemblies

• Is it possible to hold the K-2 assemblies earlier than 10.20 in the morning to assist working parents. Maureen said that she would raise it with students. The 10.20 time gives the presenting class time to prepare and the end of the assembly neatly combines with recess.
• Michelle asked whether parents could be informed whether their children were to receive certificates. This is to assist parents to make the effort to come.

Correspondence

Other Business

• In order to get business on the agenda people must email or speak to Sari any matter that they wish to raise at a P and C Meeting.
• Include information about getting matters on the P and C Meeting agenda in the school welcome pack.

Next Meeting Tuesday 2 September 2008