Thanks to all who attended the first APA meeting of the 2017/2018 school year. We had a great turnout of parents and we hope to keep the momentum going through the year.
Highlights from the meeting include:
- Principal’s Report – Tracey O’Toole shared the status of all construction projects happening at our school. The Hot Water to Steam Conversion Project will wrap up at the end of October and the new system will go through testing and adjustments through to the winter break. The Fire Alarm project and the Roofing project should both be completed by the end of October. And, fingers are crossed that the pool will be open by the middle of next week. Lastly, the Board is finally ready to schedule the construction of our new Kindergarten Yard. There are many logistical issues to address before a construction plan is developed (kindergarten drop off and play areas), but it is likely that we will have a new Kindergarten Yard this school year.
- 2017/2018 APA Budget – Sarosh Nanavati shared the 2017/2018 APA Budget. We continue to actively spend down the surplus and have allocated substantial funds to STEM, Literacy, Arts and Phys Ed initiatives.
- 2017/2018 APA Executive Council – 15 members of the APA were voted onto the APA Executive Council. There is an amazing team of parents in place and we are all looking forward to working together to enrich the educational experience of Allenby students.
- Itinerant Music Instrument Repair – A motion was passed to spend up to $3,000 on repairing some of the school-owned musical instruments.
A few important communications reminders:
- When contacting the school, please do not hesitate to use direct email addresses. All TDSB emails follow the format firstname.lastname@tdsb.on.ca. This applies to teachers and administration. The allenby@tdsb.on.ca address is for general inquiries and responses to this address are sometimes delayed a week.
- Twitter is a great way to see what is happening in the classroom and it is highly recommended that all parents get a Twitter account. Over half of the Allenby teaching staff are using Twitter to showcase classroom work – some with their own handles and some using @AllenbyPS_TDSB. The APA also sends out updates under its own handle @AllenbyPS.
- The APA has added a sidebar to allenbyparents.com where parents can click to stay up to date on upcoming athletic events and practices. Check it out!
We hope to see you at our next meeting scheduled for November 29th. Principal O’Toole will be discussing Allenby’s EQAO scores and presenting the school’s budget for 2017/2018.
The APA Team