Highlights from the Feb. 27 Parent Involvement Committee meeting

All meeting agendas and highlights are available here: http://www.peelschools.org/parents/involved/parent.htm

Decision from the Feb. 7 budget meeting of the PIC

The Parent Involvement Committee met on Feb. 7 to discuss how to use their remaining budget. Barb brought some suggestions, including the idea to create a handbook for parents who have children entering high school. The committee liked this suggestion and will implement it. The handbook will be provided to every parent in their child’s grade 8 report card. It provides an overview of secondary school, including course selection, assessment and evaluation, student wellbeing information, how to access support and ask questions, how to be involved and more.  The information will also be made available on school websites.

Use of $5000 for speakers

The committee discussed two potential projects to support with the $5000 set aside to pay for speakers in the community. The first is a parent summit proposed by the Congress of Black Women, Brampton Chapter. The group would like to host a one-day event and offer a series of workshops related to parent involvement, including how to help with homework and how to advocate for your child. Kathy will speak to the group again to get more details and find out how funding they would need to run the event.

The second project idea is to provide sessions for women who are part of a few Muslim organizations in Peel. Salha has met with the groups and shared with the committee that there is a need for more support around understanding the school system and the role parents can play. Salha shared that some of the organizations’ members, despite being very involved with their children at home, are intimidated or don’t realize they can visit the school and ask questions of the staff. There is also an interest in knowing more about the international language programs offered through the board. Salha will explore this further . The committee plans to make decisions at the next meeting.

Parent Literacy Conference

The committee plans to have a booth at the Parent Literacy Conference, but has decided not to purchase items to give away.

Other business

·         Suggestion was made to add “This folder was produced with the support of the Parent Involvement Committee. For more information about the committee, visit the “Parents” section of www.peelschools.org”

·         Carla shared the board’s draft revised Mission, Vision and Values with the committee and invited committee members to complete the online survey, which will be available and distributed widely soon.

Next Meeting

The next committee meeting is Monday, April 2 at 4:30 p.m. in the Cooksville Room at the HJA Brown Education Centre.