Green Room Yoga Fundraiser

PASSCODE: (Garibaldi)

"Like you, Green Room Yoga is part of the neighbourhood. We are a neighbourhood yoga studio that has called Hastings Sunrise home for more than seven years. We live here, shop here, and go to school here. A big part of our philosophy is to support local businesses and organisations whenever possible.

That’s why we’ve created this special offer for local groups, in particular our local schools. We want to share our yoga philosophy with your community, while at the same time giving money back to your school. For each person (parent of child within the school) who registers for a session with us, we will donate $20 to your organisation. For any subsequent sessions this person takes, we will give the school $5. 

We handle all the administration, money is remitted to the school at the start of each 8 week session. All you need to do is contact us at alix@greenroomyoga.ca to let us know your interest. 

Unfortunately, we must exclude existing Green Room students from this offer. Please note that this offer cannot be combined with other offers at Green Room Yoga."

“Let’s work together to build better schools and a brighter future for our children.”

Latest DPAC News

Kung Hei Fat Choi

Welcome to 2012! This school year is continuing to go by fast and continues to be challenged with the Teachers' Job Action.  While the teachers continue to teach and will be sharing progress reports with students and parents, there are many committees that continue not to meet as a result of the Job Action.  This year looks like we will be continuing with advocating for appropriate funding for all our programs and support to make the year successful for our students. With a newly elected Board we will continue to remind the Trustees what our priorities are in the hope of establishing a solid foundation for a sustainable budget as the budget discussion start up in the coming months. Town Hall Meetings We will be holding two "Town Hall" meetings in February for parents to participate and share ideas with our DPAC Executive.  This information will be consolidated for presenting to the Board of Trustees before the 2012/13 budget is finalized.Please share this with your PAC members and invite them to come out and share ideas with your DPAC Executive.  Details are still in the works but the events will be held on Wednesday, February 22nd at Vancouver Technical Secondary School and February 23rd at Magee Secondary School.  Your input will help your District PAC represent all interests from all PACs.  Check out our DPAC website for more information and locations -www.vsbdpac.ca. DPAC Election Result PAC Chairs ratified of Diana Day (nominated by Vancouver Technical School PAC) for a position on the DPAC Executive.  Diana has already jumped in to represent our DPAC on the Aboriginal Focus School Steering Committee with fellow DPAC Representative Iraj Khabazian.  In addition she has attended our first DPAC Executive meeting for 2012.  We are looking forward to working with Diana as she brings another voice to the DPAC Executive. Registered Disability Savings Plan - Information Session The Federal Government has engaged the services of Compas Incorporated Consultants to provide information sessions for Parents of Children with Disabilities.  Our DPAC along with the Vancouver School Board have agreed to promote this information session to assist any parents that may want more information on this program.  The date is February 9, 2012 at 7:00 PM at Tupper Secondary School.  Light refreshments and childminding will be available.  Please check out the attachment for full details and registration.  This is expected to be an informative session for parents who would like more information. BCCPAC Update As of December 21st, 2011, Vancouver had 46 out of our 110 PACs join BCCPAC.  For those PACs that have not joined yet, there is still the opportunity to join which will still provide for your voice to be represented at the BCCPAC AGM (although your PAC would not be able to vote).  The more PACs that belong, the stronger the Parent Voice is at the Provincial level.  The Education Partners in BC listen to the parent voice through representation from BCCPAC.  In addition the opportunity to attend the Spring Conference and AGM is of benefit to all PACs.  The Regional Conference this past Novemeber was informative and interesting for those representatives that were able to attend.  The AGM is expected to be held in late April or early May this year.  There are several Board positions open for election including the President, 1st Vice, 2nd Vice, Secretary and two Director positions.  The deadline for nominations is February 28th, 2012. Resolutions can also be submitted anytime.  If your PAC is considering submitting a resolution, it is better to get it in sooner than later as there is a resolution acceptance committee that will assist to make sure a resolution meets the criteria to be accepted. Friend on Facebook Forward to a Friend Additional DPAC Website Going Live Our DPAC has created a second website for easier access to information that is relevant to PACs, Parents and much easier to keep up to date.  This website is expected to assist with better communications as it provides the opportunity to contact our DPAC directly and for PAC Executive members to sign up to our e-list for direct communications.  We hope this information will be helpful to both PACs and Parents.  The site is atvsbdpac.ca. As this site is work in progress, any feed back for what your PAC may want to have on the site would be welcomed.  For those of you who are on Facebook, we also have aFacepage. This is intended as an information page for basic contact information. Internet Safety Another event that may be of interest to parents is "What’s Up Online" presented by the Safe Online Outreach Society. This presentation is designed for parents and youth ages 13+. Please share with your PAC members. VSB Friendly Website Deputy Superintendent Jordan Tinney provided our District PAC Executive with an overview of the VSB's latest Website initiative - "Our Future".  The website consolidates information on schools to provide an easier way to access information on your School, Community and provides an opportunity for direct input from the community on matters of interest in the Vancouver School Board.  Check it out!

Garibaldi Sun Run Team

Reach your health goals for 2012, show your school spirit, and join the . . .

Garibaldi Annex

SUN RUN

Corporate team #375

Race Day:  April 15, 2012

To have a corporate team we need a minimum of 10 members.

Some great benefits to joining a Corporate Team include:

• $45 early bird race entry fee (by Feb. 17^th); $50 late entry

• a souvenir Vancouver Sun Run T-shirt specially printed with your Team name or logo on the back

• race packages picked up by your team captain

• Great Finishers’ Wrap Party at BC Place Stadium

• compete against other Teams, and team rankings printed alongside Individual race times in the Vancouver Sun

If there is interest, we can also meet once a week for a training session.

Register at sunrun.com; Team #375

Or contact Denise Clark, Team Captain at dlclark@vsb.bc.ca for more details.

Adele Speaker Series: Nourishing the body, spirit and mind

LightWaterDrums Festival Saturday February 18th @ Hastings Park

The Hastings North Community Partners Group is excited to revive LightWaterDrums, a festival celebrating winter in Hastings Park on Saturday February 18th. We will be gathering outside the Garden Auditorium (home of Circus West) beginning at 5:30pm and beginning at 6pm, will follow the lively sounds of The Carnival Band in a lantern parade around The Sanctuary, then into the Garden Auditorium for more free music and entertainment. We encourage you to bring your family, friends, neighbours and more to this free community event, and light up the night with your own glow sticks, lanterns, or anything else creative (and safe) that you can think of.

Several free pre-event workshops are being held in the upcoming weeks for lantern making, drumming and poi spinning. Please see the poster below for dates and times. Workshops are first come, first serve, but it if you'd like to secure a space, please send an email to hncpg@yahoo.com, or call 604.551.5143 and leave a message.

All workshop materials are provided free of charge, and light refreshments will be offered at the workshops. These workshops are a great opportunity to make a lantern to bring to the event, or enjoy an afternoon exploring your creative side. Hope you can join us! Please remember to follow us on Facebook for regular updates at the "Hastings North Community Partners Group" Facebook page.

Popcorn Days are Here!

The Garibaldi Hot Lunch committee has organized Popcorn and Hot Chocolate for an after school snack for Thursday February 26th at 3pm.

The cost will be $1 for each item.

We are really excited to see how successful an after school snack will be!  It will be a great opportunity for the children to play, and the parents to chat.

We will NOT be collecting funds in advance, so don't forget your loonies and Toonies  next Thursday.

Hope to see you all then
Cheers
Hot Lunch Committee

BCCPAC - Survey on the Future of a Province-Wide Student Information System

Survey on the Future of a Province-Wide Student Information System

BCeSIS is a province-wide student information systems used by schools and school districts across the province.

The Ministry is assessing future directions for BCeSIS. Gartner Consulting was hired in spring 2011 to review BCeSIS and recommend next steps. Gartner’s report recommends that the Province purchase a new student information system, continuing to use BCeSIS until it can be implemented. You may wish to read Gartner’s full report, its executive summary or a summary of its findings prepared by the Ministry of Education

We encourage you to take the surveys for parents and students which can be found on the Ministry’s engagement site. If you have any questions regarding the surveys, please feel free to contact Elevate Consulting. If you experience technical difficulties, please email surveysupport@elevateconsulting.ca or call 250-483-6660

The deadline for collecting survey responses has been extended until January 20, 2012.

Want To Know More About The FSA?

The BCCPAC FSA Toolkit can be found at http://www.bccpac.bc.ca/resources/assessment.aspx which provides valuable information and answers to many questions. 

BCCPAC hopes this information will provide answers to questions parents may have on the FSA’s administered in BC to students in Grades 4 and 7 and their intended purpose. Those seeking a deeper understanding of assessment are encouraged to read “A Parent’s Guide to Assessment”  

http://www.bccpac.bc.ca/UserFiles/file/Resources/StudentAssessmentBCParentGuide_2007.pdf 

Nominations To The Board of Directors - BCCPAC is currently accepting nominations for the 2012/2013 Board of Directors. The position of First Vice President has been added to the list of positions open for election.  The term for this position will be one (1) year. The other positions open for Nomination: President, 2nd Vice President, Secretary and two (2) Directors have two (2) year terms.

The deadline for nominations is midnight February 28, 2012.  Nomination forms and information can be found on the BCCPAC website at: (http://www.bccpac.bc.ca/index/event_calendar/2012AGM.aspx).  Inquiries may be sent to the Nominations Committee Chair, Cathy Jewett (cathyjewett@bccpac.bc.ca).

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The Garibaldi Communication Committee

Garibaldi's Parent Blog Space: http://garibaldipac.blogspot.com/ 

January 17th PAC Meeting

Hello Garibaldi families,

Below you will find the agenda for the upcoming PAC meeting and attached you will find the minutes from the November and the December meetings.

Please try to have all agenda items to me one week in advance of each PAC meeting. Please include a brief description of your item, who will be presenting and the approximate amount of time you think will be needed for presentation and discussion. Thank you for your cooperation. I'll send a reminder closer to the date :)

Warm regards,

Jen Gunasekera

Garibaldi PAC Meeting

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

School Library 6:30-8:00pm (free child care provided in the gym)

1. Round Table Introductions ~5min

2. Amendments and adoption of minutes (Nov 8, Dec 6) ~5min

3. Financial update (AMW)~5min

4. Playground equipment follow up from Dec 6 meeting (JG) ~10 min

5. VP update to include statement regarding Code of Conduct (CF) ~15min

6. Volunteer recognition, appreciation & understanding (JG) ~5min

7. Volunteer Committee updates ~25 min

a. Fundraising

b. Garden

c. Sun Run (DC or designate)

d. Bike rack (HW)

8. Regular Business ~10min

Hot lunch

Movie Night – Jan 31 –popcorn maker purchase

PAC Mailbox –DPAC feedback for out of school care space revisions

Our Future Campaign, VSB(JG)

Next PAC meeting – Feb 14, 2012, 6:30-8:00pm (free child care provided)

9. Adjournment

Minutes Dec 6th

Nov 8th mtg.

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The Garibaldi Communication Committee

Garibaldi's Parent Blog Space: http://garibaldipac.blogspot.com/

BCCPAC Newsbytes: Volume 12 Issue 3

In this issue:

· May 7^th is Child & Youth Mental Health Day… Mark your calendars!

· FRIENDS Parent Workshops

· BCCPAC Board of Directors - Nominations

· Community Gaming grant review Announcement

To read these and other articles click on the hyperlink below.

NewsBytes - Volume 12, Issue 3 – January 12, 2012

Our Future Campaign from VSB

From VSB

The Vancouver School Board is embarking on an exciting new project to determine the future of our schools. The VSB has a wide-range of services, programs and educational resources available across our district. Now it’s time to take stock of what we offer and determine what programs and opportunities should be prioritized now and into the future in order to create the best possible learning environment.

It’s a big task and a major part of the process is our new website called Our Future. The site is located at: http://ourfuture.vsb.bc.ca and has three sections: Your Schools, Your Community and Your Voice.

We have designed it to help you understand what we offer in neighborhoods and schools across the district. You’ll discover a wide range of information about your schools, the programs they offer, their demographics, facility information, staffing levels, catchment statistics and other community resources.

Once you have explored the Our Future website, you’ll be able to add your voice to the discussion of the future of our district at http://ourfuture.vsb.bc.ca/voice.aspx. The survey is short and won’t take you more than 5 minutes to complete.

We are hoping that you will join us in this exciting consultation project. With your participation, this survey will help us guide the coming discussion around the district’s future.

News From DPAC

Dear DPAC Rep or PAC Chair, Committee II - Planning and Facilities is undergoing a review of standards for School Care facilities at Schools.  Please review the attached report and get back to Colin Redfern with your PAC's comments by February 2, 2012.  The consideration of this report has been deferred until our DPAC has had the opportunity to provide feedback.  As a result, we are encouraging you as the DPAC Liaison (or in absence of a DPAC Liaison, the Chair of your PAC) to consider the affect of the recommendations on your community. On Behalf of your DPAC Executive, Colin Redfern DPAC Co-Vice Chair The full report can be found at this link -http://www.vsb.bc.ca/sites/default/files/12Jan04_ag_op_cteeII_item3_1.pdf

Recycling Committee update

Keeping it green
First things first: Garibaldi parents get a big pat on their back for keeping the lunch packs really green! Most lunches come now to school in washable and reusable Tupperware-type containers, paper bags, which can be composted or recycled, and cloth bags, which can be washed and reused.
If you have never heard of cloth lunch bags, please, see the web-sites below for some really groovy cloth lunch bags. It’s super easy to do and your kids will be proud of having helped to make these!
http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/2007/11/november-4-lunch-bags/
http://www.marthastewart.com/271881/oilcloth-crafts-lunch-bags

Making it even greener
To make our lunch time even greener, we would like to encourage all parents to send drinks to school in reusable containers. Each child would have a drink container, which can be filled at home with just the right amount of drink needed for the day, washed out in the evening and used again and again, day after day. Lunch monitors will be really happy, once they don’t have to empty juice box after juice box into the sink at the end of lunch as they currently do!

School yard litter
We are happy to report that our trash can has returned to the school yard and is happy to take care of your trashy needs, while at school. It should help us to keep the school yard litter-free. Thanks to all the parents who were helping during our trash can’s absence to pick up the litter!
We still have a cigarette butt litter problem, though. If you see any city smoking and litter by-law violations on school property, please call the police non-emergency number to report.

604-717-3321

We have been told that, if we complain enough, police officers will eventually come to hand out fines, which might be more educational than words we have shared with the violators in the past.

Classroom recycling
Mrs. Froese has ordered more recycling bins for classroom use to make sorting and recycling easier.
Kids are doing a great job!
Thank you, teachers, for supporting them!

Future initiative – your feedback is greatly appreciated
We are looking for a parent volunteer to do a run to our local East Van Bottle Depot on
2605 Kaslo Street with the school’s recyclables from lunch, probably once a month.
We will also open a school account there, to which returns from all of our Garibaldi families can be credited and used towards school supplies by PAC or teachers directly. What do you think: Should the account credit go to PAC first or directly to teachers? What should these funds be used for?
Will you be making these trips to the East Van Bottle Depot or would you welcome a school-based drive (once a month?)? The latter option would really require clean containers to be brought for return….

City’ s small appliances and other recycling programs
• You can now have your no-longer servicing small appliances recycled through the “Unplugged” program.
http://www.unpluggedrecycling.ca/
You can drop your small appliances off at “Regional Recycling Vancouver” at 960 Evans Ave. (604-689-4722) or at “East 12th Avenue Thrift Store” at 261 E. 12th Ave. (604-874-4721), if they fall under one of these categories:
- Kitchen Countertop
- Personal Care
- Floor Cleaning
- Weight Measurement
- Garment Care
- Air Treatment
- Time Measurement
- Designated Very Small Items

• For any other recyclable questions you might have, go to this easy-to-use site to find locations for drop-off:
http://www.metrovancouverrecycles.org/Pages/Residential.aspx

• The following large appliances may be dropped off free of charge at the Vancouver Landfill or at the Main Recycling Depot (377 West Kent Avenue North):
refrigerators, freezers, stoves, dishwashers, washers, dryers and microwaves.
The City will accept up to 3 appliances per day per hauler. Please note that customers are responsible for off-loading items brought to the Landfill and the Transfer Station.

• Return-It locations accept the waxy gable top and box polycoat milk cartons, which city recycling does not.