French Immersion - Reminder of November 30th Meeting

Reminder Note to ALL McMurrich Parents

On November 30th at 7:00pm at Forest Hill Collegiate the School Board is holding a meeting where the French as a Second Language Advisory Committee will hear its final consultations to prepare a recommendation to the Board regarding the expansion of French programming and McMurrich is directly affected. We need to make sure our parents are present at this meeting.

Key Considerations:

· The only McMurrich families that will be able to access the program would be those students currently in JK. It does not mean an enhancement of French programming for other students at the school.

· This Board is trying to respond to a demand for French programming that is not being driven by interest from the families in our school, but rather those outside our school and we have had less than a month’s notice of these discussions.

· There is currently a French Immersion and an Extended French program at Rawlinson School that has available space. There is also space for French Immersion students at Davisville School.

· Spaces and Resources would be reorganized to accommodate this program beginning in fall 2010 with one classroom for SK, but as the program is maintained and progresses through to grade 6, there is the possibility that it will require 2 classrooms at each grade level. There is no commitment to resources that would be needed to upgrade classroom space. It also holds implications for our office staff, current teaching staff, use of the gym, computer lab and library spaces, etc.

· Many McMurrich parents have deliberately chosen McMurrich because of the overall cohesiveness of the school and because it was not a dual program school – any changes should involve consultation with our full parent community, not just those from surrounding communities.

Please come to the School Board Meeting on Monday November 30^th if at all possible, we need a strong presence. If you need help with transportation, please contact the McMurrich Home & School Chairs as we are arranging car pools at the front of the school at 6:30pm. If you can’t come but are not in favour of adding this program, please sign the petitions posted on the bulletin boards at the back door and by the gym.

French Immersion - Petition and Car Pooling to Nov 30th Meeting

French Immersion Petition
We understand that not everyone will be able to attend the November 30^th meeting. We have created a petition for you to sign in order to ensure your voice is still heard at the November 30^th meeting regarding French Immersion at McMurrich. The petition will be posted for signatures this afternoon on the Home & School bulletin board at the back (Northeast) entrance closest to Hendrick St. Please sign this petition – we will be bringing it with us to the School Board meeting on November 30^th.

Car Pooling to November 30th Meeting

If you would like to attend the November 30^th meeting but do not have transportation, please come to the front of the school on Monday at 6:30 pm where we will have a number of vehicles that can accommodate extra people. Likewise if you are willing to drive some people, please come at 6:30 pm with your car.

Volunteers for Pizza Lunch - Friday, November 27th

We still need volunteers for the Pizza lunch this Friday. Volunteers are needed from 11:15 am to 12:30 pm. If you are interested please contact Julia!

A reminder that the upcoming Pizza lunches are Friday, November 27^th and Friday, December 18^th.

Upcoming Meetings for French Immersion

To clarify the upcoming meetings (as some incorrect dates were emailed out):

Tuesday, November 24^th at 6:30 pm – McMurrich meeting to review the discussions regarding French Immersion and our response for the Board meeting. This meeting will be held at McMurrich in the Staff Room (Room 211).

Monday, November 30^th at 7:00 pm – Please plan to attend! We need as many parents as possible to participate in this meeting (in presence only – we will have a speaker) to show support for our response to the Board and the FSLAC. This meeting is to discuss the recommendation of the FSLAC of whether French Immersion should be introduced to McMurrich starting Sept 2010. The meeting will be held at 730 Eglinton Ave W. in the downstairs library at Forest Hill Collegiate.

If you need transportation to the November 30^th meeting, please email the Home & School Chairs or the Communications Committee who will help arrange for transportation.

French Immersion - Key Board Contacts

For those who wish to send a letter to our Superintendent or to the Lead contact for the French as a Second Language Advisory Committee, please see their email contacts (linked) below.

They have welcomed your input. In addition to having strong presence at the November 30th meeting, written comments to express your thoughts are also very welcome. Please feel free to use the information already posted to help you with create a letter/email to them.

Michael Smith
Superintendent

Christopher May
French as a Second Language Advisory Committee

French Immersion - We need Parents to attend the November 30th Meeting!

On November 30th at 7:00pm at Forest Hill Collegiate (see map and details) the School Board is holding a meeting where the French as a Second Language Advisory Committee will hear its final consultations and wants to prepare a recommendation to the Board regarding the expansion of French programming and McMurrich is directly affected. We need to make sure our parents are present at this meeting and we have been working this past week to get parent input to this process on a very fast timeline.

Some of you are more involved than others at this point, but if you want to have an opportunity to be involved in understanding how the expansion of French Immersion programming can directly affect McMurrich School, please read the detailed notes to better understand what is happening.

Please don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions. There will be an information meeting held on Tuesday, November 24th at 6:30 pm in the Staff Room (Room 211) at our school for those parents who still have questions or need to get a better understanding of the situation.

Help Save Our Pools - Aviva Community Fund - Vote Daily for our Chance to Win!

To keep the Winona Pool open, Let’s Make Waves, has submitted our cause to the Aviva Community Fund. This fund encourages people to identify ideas that will have a positive impact in their communities (for us, it's keeping pools open). Enter it in the Aviva Community Fund competition and get your friends, family and everyone you know to vote for it. The most popular ideas will have a chance to be funded with the $500,000 Aviva Community Fund. The important measure is the number of votes this cause receives. Please vote every day, and please pass this message on to others who will also vote.

Board Members for the new St Clair Swim Club

As you may be aware, the Winona Public School Pool is on the list of school pools to be closed if sufficient community support does not materialize. A dedicated group of local residents has been actively pursuing ways to save the pool and to build usage of the facility by the community. At this point, they are looking for volunteers to sit on the Board of Directors and get the organization off the ground. We need 7 people with a variety of skills, legal, financial, aquatics, human resources, communications and public relations, web design, etc. For more information, please view the attached document.

St. Clair Supper Club

Joe Mihevc, the Councillor for Ward 21, is hosting three Supper Clubs. Residents are invited to join him for a $15 prix-fixe dinner (gratuities and beverages extra), a guest speaker and great conversation. For information, please refer to his website.

French Immersion at McMurrich - Discussion at Home & School Meeting November 17, 2009, 7:00 pm

As Mary Anne has noted in her principal's report at our first two meetings, she and a parent rep were invited to "initial discussions" regarding the expansion of French Immersion programming our community. After the second of these meetings last night, it has become quite apparent that these discussions are not as "initial" as they seemed and that in fact some key decisions and recommendations are positioned to occur at the next meeting on November 30th that could have considerable impact to McMurrich.

The key points are as follows:

1. There is a group of parents who are very organized, have strong voice/leadership and a clear agenda from Hillcrest School who want a French Immersion program, with initial implementation to begin with two SK classes in the fall of 2010. Due to space and possibly other limitations, they have been unsuccessful in establishing a program at Hillcrest to date and are very interested to have this programming occur at McMurrich as their next choice if they can't secure the program at Hillcrest.

2. Rawlinson School has a French Immersion Program which is not at capacity - they have space, staffing in place and great willingness to offer the program. The group from Hillcrest is not interested to access the already established program. The expressed concern is that Rawlinson is too far. However, it would seem that bussing has already been requested to support kids coming to McMurrich should that be the expansion location, so it would seem unlikely that staying within "walking distance" is the primary issue.

3. McMurrich parents have not yet been consulted in any meaningful way on this issue. We have no clear sense of the interest for French Immersion from our parent body and we need to have some clarity in this regard.

4. There are no new dollars to support program, staffing or the enhancement of spaces to accommodate a new French Immersion program. Should McMurrich be identified as the school of choice to be recommended to the Board for French Immersion program expansion, it would affect the room assignments on the ground floor in the immediate (next fall), as well as other room assignments on other floors as the program developed to other grade levels, including areas such as the computer lab, and rooms used for music, IL, and tenants of the building such as the child care centres and the Japanese School. It could very likely also affect staffing assignments in certain areas of both teaching and administration.

5. There is also an Accommodation Review happening in the community and the roll-out of full-day kindergarten beginning in 2010 that need to be considered in relation to possible French Immersion expansion. McMurrich would not be able to accommodate both full-day kindergarten and French Immersion with the available spaces, so this is a consideration. The Accommodation Review - which will not be finalized until June, will affect Rawlinson, Humewood, Cedarvale and JR Wilcox at the primary level and Arlington at the Junior level. It would seem that this review should be considered first, but the French Immersion decision is the more imminent at the moment.

6. An email has been sent to the superintendent and the relevant trustees to indicate that we feel the parents of our school have not yet had full understanding of the issue, have not yet been consulted on our perspectives, and that we will work hard to present a clear voice of those perspectives at the November 30th meeting. As such, we need to have a clear and focused discussion on this at our meeting next week to establish what interest exists among our parents regarding French Immersion programming at McMurrich and the key issues/questions we want considered as part of the process so that we are given a voice at the November 30th meeting.

The Agenda for the Meeting will be as follows:
1. Follow-up on Actions from last meeting
2. Presentation from Real Food for Real Kids
3. French Immersion Discussion
4. Principal's Report
5. Communications Committee - McMurrich Blog
5. Brief Updates: Budget, Ward Meeting, Fundraising, Enrichment
6. Summary of Action Items from the Meeting