CASINO 2015!!!

We have now officially begun the search for Casino Volunteers! This year our Casino will be held on December 9th & 10th at the Elbow River Casino. 

The Casino is our largest fundraiser which only takes place every 18 months. Our last Casino raised approximately $70,000 for Bowcroft. With that being said if there is only one event you volunteer for at our school, please make this the one!

Here is a brief description of the volunteers positions we need to fill: 

General Manager: Responsible for the overall continuity of the casino. Makes sure all volunteer staff arrive and if not, has access to reliable “back-up” volunteer phone numbers. Some data entry experience is required. Can fill in for any volunteer positions for a short period (not a complete shift) of time if needed. 

Banker: In control of the cash and chip inventories. This position is mostly data entry and should be staffed by someone who can use a computer mouse! 

Cashier: Redeems players’ chips for cash. Little data entry required. 

Chiprunner: Delivers chips from the Banker to the game tables as required. Will count chips with the gaming floor staff as required. A fair amount of data entry is required. 

Countroom Staff: Will sort and use money counting machines to count money. Some data entry required. 

There are three basic shifts for each day: 
Day Shift 10:30 am – 7:15 am 
Night Shift 7:00 pm – 3:45 am 
Red Eye Shift 11:30 pm – 3:40 am 

There is no previous experience necessary to volunteer for Casino. Meals and non-alcoholic beverages will be provided during your shift. We will require 38 volunteers for this event. If you would like to volunteer for both days please note that you must hold the same position for each day. Police clearance is not required for this function, the only stipulation is you must be 18 years of age or older, and no gambling or drinking can occur while you are at Casino. If transportation is an issue for you please let us know and we can arrange transportation for you. 

If you would like to volunteer for a shift please contact Barb Rocca at barocca@cbe.ab.ca and let her know which day/shift you would like and which position you would prefer. She will try her hardest to accommodate everyone. Volunteers are not limited to Bowcroft parents so please feel free to ask friends and family to join!

September 2015 Minutes

Bowcroft School Council and BPAC Meeting 

September 14 2015, 7:00pm 

Location: Lunch Room 

Executive: 

Chairperson - Tara Neish 

Co-Chairperson - Shian Hunt 

Secretary - Teryn Aurini 

Treasurer - Susanne Morris 

Fundraising Coordinator - Barb Rocca 

Casino Coordinator - Barb Rocca 

Volunteer Coordinator - Trish Braaten 

Key Communicator - Janis Giroux 

Kids Up Front Rep - Karen Larrivee 

Attendees: Barb Chris Fran Lia Shian Sonja Susanne Tara Teryn Trish Vicki Becky Matt Cheryl Tammy Fran George Wayne

Total Attendees: 18

Call to order: 7:03pm  

Minutes approved by: Trish, Lia seconds. 

Teacher Representative Tammi, Rooms 3 & 21 

• Tammi has asked BPAC for the following 

• A new snare drum stand and drum sticks 

• New mallets for the xylophones 

• $300 for the repair of instruments 

• $2700 for in-school performances ($900X3) 

• $150 for the winter concert 

Administration Matt & Cheryl 

• Welcome back everyone! It’s great to see so many people here for our first meeting. 

• Tammi Neufeld is here. We will have a different teacher attend the school council meeting each month to keep us appraised about what is happening in the classroom. 

• The first thing we will talk about is bussing: They will be adding many new stops and routes. Brenda Wilson spoke to us and one of the things they need is for people who intend to use the bus to register for the bus by September 24th. 

• All alternative programs were significantly impacted by this. We did lose some  1 children because of those congregated stops. 

• Wayne Proposes that BPAC appoint a sub committee to address the transpiration issue from a Bowcroft perspective. He will be in contact with George and get back to us at January’s meeting. 

• We have twelve teachers with 228 students; 111 in German, 117 in regular program 

• We are getting new paint throughout the school. The painting should be done by mid October. Everything but the inside of the classrooms is getting done. The children will be helping design 

• Our welcome back BBQ is September 24th from 5-7pm

• Request for funding for food: George works for Community Natural Foods - Matt will submit a request to them! 

• Rae-Ann our librarian is desperate for volunteers, please let her know if you can come in! 

• Sonja would love to come back and help with the german cataloguing again. 

• The Grade 3 formative assessments will be happening soon. They will be short components over time. We will be taking a few of them at a time to do these. There is no time limit, everyone will get ample time and support to do this. 

• We have lots of after school activities occurring in our school. City of Calgary is running Boy sports and Girl power. 

• On Wednesdays we have Start to Finish for grades 1-6. It will be every Wednesday starting October 7th (3:15-5:15). This is heavily supported by volunteers. They run and then are read to and get a journal. 

• We will also have Hockey Heroes supported by the Calgary Flames. They give each kid new hockey equipment and is stored at the arena. The kids get to meet real coaches and are bussed to and from. Children who were in it last year are able to continue this year. 

• For our next meeting we request $625 for the BBQ (buns, hotdogs and veggie dogs, sun chips and a juice box). 

• Raz-Kids request $850 

• Martina Urmetzer is asking for maximizing math, its in english and german $1740 

• This is on top of iXL 

Meeting Closed: 7:55 

BPAC Meeting September 14 2015, 8:00pm 

Location: Lunch Room 

Executive: 

Chairperson - Tara Neish 

Co-Chairperson - Shian Hunt 

Secretary - Teryn Aurini 

Treasurer - Susanne Morris 

Fundraising Coordinator - Barb Rocca 

Casino Coordinator - Barb Rocca 

Volunteer Coordinator - Trish Braaten 

Key Communicator - Janis Giroux 

Kids Up Front Rep - Karen Larrivee 

Attendees: Barb Chris Fran Lia Shian Sonja Susanne Tara Teryn Trish Vicki Becky Matt Cheryl Tammy Fran George Wayne

Total Attendees: 18

Meeting opened: 7:56 

Treasurer Susanne 

• We have $50,000 for this school year, we are asking for a formal budget request for 2015/16 at our next meeting. 

• We need to approve the following expenses: $570 on the Teacher appreciation lunch, $660 for liability insurance, $1197 for the Albertaner advertisement and $25 for an appreciation gift for our outgoing key communicator. 

• After this we have about $4500 for AGEC funds 

• Sonja is still trying to find out what the agreement between AGEC and BPAC is. 

• $2800-from 2013/14 and before….Advertisement is one thing that we have always been approved for. There should not be a problem if the money was spent on this. 

• For all future AGEC funding applications we would like to have requests come in for upcoming expenses. 

• Our next AGEC meeting is next week. 

• This will be Susanne’s last meeting as Treasurer 

Casino Coordinator Barb 

• Casino is motoring along. Tara has finished the application form. Our Casino is December 9th and 10th, there are 4 shifts each day (early morning, midday, evening, and late night). If you do two shifts you have to do the same position. Our key positions need to be filled first - General Manager, Banker, Cashier, Chip Runner, 

• Barb will begin by contacting volunteers from last time. 

New Business 

• A wish list for 2015/16 funds will be submitted at our October meeting. 

• Bowcroft Bobcats merchandise: we have designed a new shirt with Emily Feist. 

• We will be putting an order in with them in October 

• Hats and things can happen as well, can Trish come in this week and see what we have! 

• Kids Up Front: we are a small school and have too few people to do this. 

• What about having a volunteer who coordinates this? Trish could coordinate, Shian would be willing to go pick them. 

• Can we send out a letter asking for emails? Yes as long as it is clear that it is from BPAC and not the CBE 

Vote on Funding 

• Susanne motions that we approve $570 on the Teacher appreciation lunch, $660 for liability insurance, $1197 Albertaner advertisement, and $25 for an appreciation gift for our outgoing key communicator, Tara seconds, all in favour, motion passed. 

• Trish motions that BPAC provide $625 for the BBQ, on the condition that a request for funding is sent to Community Natural Foods 

• Tara motions that we approve $850 for Raz-Kids, Shian seconds, all in favour motion passed. 

• Susanne motions that we approve Maximizing math for $1740, Tara seconds, all in favour motion passed. 

Meeting adjourned at: 8:31pm

Annual General Meeting

Please be advised that the Bowcroft Parent Action Council is hosting its Annual General Meeting on October 5, 2015 @ 7pm in the school library. 

Elections will be held for the following key executive positions: 

Chairperson
Co-Chairperson
Treasurer
Secretary
Key Communicator. 

If you are interested in knowing more about any of these positions you can email questions to bowcroftparents@gmail.com. The BPAC council works hard to enhance the learning environment for all students at our school. There are many opportunities to get involved and support our children. Come on out to our next BPAC meeting and learn how you can make a difference!

September News

It’s hard to believe that another school year is upon us! Nevertheless, the Bowcroft Parent
Action Council is eagerly gearing up for September fundraising and we hope that the
families of our great school will help out with the Entertainment Books again this year. Last year we raised over two thousand dollars, which was used to support every student and teacher in a variety of ways including the purchase of learning resources, art and physical ed. equipment.

BPAC school council meets on the first Monday of every month. It is an open meeting to every parent or guardian who has a child in the school. BPAC warmly welcomes any new or returning parent to attend meetings and get involved in planning and providing resources and special events for our school. Please consider active involvement with this group of enthusiastic parents.

Join us in the library on Monday, September 14th at 7:00pm. Come out and meet the folks who represent the parents of Bowcroft as well as Principal Mr. Lowe and Assistant Principal Mrs. Zelmer. Plus, get the inside scoop on projects and events that are being planned to make this school year amazing.

Have a safe and enjoyable long weekend!

Tara Neish, Chairperson BPAC

Welcome!

Welcome to the shiny new website for the Bowcroft Parents Action Committee. We're excited to see you here! Please feel free to browse around the site, just know while you're browsing that the site is definitely still under construction and won't be fully up and running until Fall 2015.

Be sure to make note of some really cool aspects of our site. For example, if you click on the calendar tab at the top of the site, you will see a calendar that will not only keep you up to date about what BPAC is up to, but also important school dates like when there is no school and when concerts and other event will be taking place.

We are really hoping that this site will help with communication with Bowcroft parents, teachers and staff.

June 2015 Minutes

Bowcroft School Council and BPAC Meeting 

June 1 2015, 7:00pm 

Location: Library 

Executive: 

Chairperson - Tara Neish 

Co-Chairperson - Shian Hunt 

Secretary - Teryn Aurini 

Treasurer - Susanne Morris 

Fundraising Coordinator - Barb Rocca 

Casino Coordinator - Barb Rocca 

Volunteer Coordinator - Trish Braaten 

Key Communicator - Janis Giroux 

Kids Up Front Rep - Karen Larrivee 

Attendees: Cheryl, Chris, Heike, Janis, Lia, Matt, Petra, Shian, Tara, Teryn, Vicki 

Total Attendees: 11

Call to order: 7:03  

Minutes approved by: Janis, Tara seconds. 

Administration: Matt & Cheryl

• It’s June, and the election brought a big change. The government has announced that it will put 1.03 million back into education. The money won't be coming until September, but the board will be looking to hire teachers! 

• In regards to what we’re doing with our staffing - we have 12 teachers, we might get one more in September, we have accounted for people going out of the school but not counting on any new students just yet. We’ll look at it again in September and (hopefully) add that 13th teacher right away! It wont change much because we now have Cheryl and Tammy working in the classroom. We do have 1 German bilingual and a .5 kindergarten position that we need to fill. 

• Our hours are tentative but are firming up as we go, some of the dates have not been confirmed (trickster, inline skating). Labour day is September 7th, picture day September 11th. The hours will change slightly, we finish at 3:15 not 3:25. Fees and transportation information have gone home today. One of the pieces is congregated stops for the kids, busing is always a challenge. We are looking for money for June 26th Sports Day, events starting about nine, lunch arriving at 10:50? That’s a bit early, and the kids wont want to sit down and eat - we could do snacks instead? Great Idea - Shian can get freezies :-) for about 300 

• In the office we’ve been working really hard on our budget. We had bills being double paid, things being incorrectly coded. We are up about $4000, we have $15,000 that we are able to spend on needed things in the school. Thank you for the $6000 for the kindergarten room, we’d like to purchase one smart board with that for room 15, and as a school we’ll purchase a portable one for room 16 in the morning and the other classrooms for the afternoon, we will also buy another one for the computer hallway (room 1). 

• The portable ones can move up and down to adjust to the kids height. 

• The kindergarten wish list did go out to parents but we’ve had no response, so we are resubmitting the request for funding. 

• We have had some parents come in and room 19 is starting to get organized as well as the art room! 

• Also, the inside of the hallways will be painted. We will lose the wonderful artwork but not before they will be heavily photographed and documented. We will work with the kids to come up with some ideas for the new design. 

• Our outside renovations have been put on hold. 

• We would like to book alien inline for next year, it costs about $4500. 

• Our welcome to kindergarten evening had about 100 people attend, we served a lasagna dinner for $160, it was a great night! 

Key Communicator: Janis 

• CAPSC is having a volunteer appreciation award at our next meeting on the 17th. This is Janis’s and Heike’s last meeting :-( Janis has been at Bowcroft for 11 years! 

• Thank you both for all your hard work and dedication over the years - we will miss you!!! 

Meeting Closed: 7:30 

BPAC Meeting 

June 1 2015, 8:00pm 

Location: Library 

Executive: 

Chairperson - Tara Neish 

Co-Chairperson - Shian Hunt 

Secretary - Teryn Aurini 

Treasurer - Susanne Morris 

Fundraising Coordinator - Barb Rocca 

Casino Coordinator - Barb Rocca 

Volunteer Coordinator - Trish Braaten 

Key Communicator - Janis Giroux 

Kids Up Front Rep - Karen Larrivee

Attendees: Cheryl, Chris, Heike, Janis, Lia, Matt, Petra, Shian, Tara, Teryn, Vicki 

Total Attendees: 11 

Meeting opened: 7:30 

Casino Coordinator: Barb 

• We have our next casino on December 9th and 10th, we will be looking for volunteers for that. 

Old Business 

• Teacher’s lunch, Vicki heard from Alex at salt & pepper - 19/person (30 people) 

• Lia heard from the rustic sourdough, meat and cheese platters, baking free delivery under $500 with sandwich spreads 

• Big T’s is also an option 

• We have a staff member doing a teacher trade, moving to a different school on the 29th. Can we do the lunch on Tuesday the 30th? We have one ed assistant leaving (maybe - funding), one teacher, our temporary teacher…maybe 3 all together. 

New Business 

• For next year we will have positions vacant, our treasurer Susanne would like to step down now and then mentor the next treasurer while she still has a student attending Bowcroft. Janis will no longer be key communicator as her student moves to junior high in the fall. 

• Vote on Funding Snack for Sports day: Tara motions that BPAC purchase snacks for sports day, up to $300, Janis seconds, all in favour, motion passed 

• Vicki motions that we approve the $4500 from next years budget for the inline skating residency, Shian seconds, all in favour, motion passed. 

Meeting adjourned at: 7:45

June News

Hello Bowcroft Parents,

We kindly invite you to attend our next BPAC meeting at 7:00pm on Monday, June 1st in the school library. This will be our last meeting of the year and an excellent opportunity to see our energetic council and parent group in action. As we wrap-up a successful year of fund raising and providing school support, we look forward for planning for next year.

We'd like to send a special shout-out to Janis Giroux. We are sad to be losing our Key Communicator and the very string pillar of support to our group. Janis has been involved in BPAC for many dedicated years and so we wish her all the best as she moves on to TB Riley. Our fine Treasurer, Susanne Morris, is also handing over the reins next year and is willing to mentor the next treasurer who takes on the job.

In the next few meetings, we will be encouraging people to take on key roles for parent council next year. It is a unique opportunity to be involved in planning and providing resources and special events for our school.

Next year we will be looking for volunteers to help with the casino and various school events through the year. 

We hope every student has a fun filled summer holiday!

All the best,

BPAC