Christmas Quilt Raffle

This year BPAC has generously been given a beautiful handmade quilt to raffle off at the school. The quilt (4.5'x5.5') has a gorgeous night sky quilted with batik fabrics on the front and layered with warm flannel on the back. Tickets are 5 dollars each or 3 for 10 dollars. We are asking Bowcroft families to help us sell tickets and raise money for the school. If you are interested in selling or buying tickets please inquire at the office.

Draw Date: December 17, 2015

December News

Does anyone else feel like the last three months have flown by? We have had quite a lot happen to us during them.

We had tremendous success with the Entertainment Book Fundraiser. We raised over $3100. One of our Kindergarten students, Kingslee C. was the top seller and won his class a Crave Cupcake Treat. The other top sellers were Adyson S., Colt M., Nova P. and Emily R.E. They all got a turn in the cash machine and won lots of fun prizes as well as cash!

The Scholastic Book Fair was another great success, netting us over $2,000 in books for the library.

We are currently in the midst of our Poinsettia Fundraiser. We’ve never done this fundraiser before, feedback is always welcome.

Last but not at all least, we are gearing up for our biggest fundraiser of the (every two) year, CASINO!

On to some serious news. This past month many of us received a letter from the CBE informing us of an enrolment issue within the German Program. It indicated that if we do not reach 20 registrations in Kindergarten for the 2016 - 2017 school year by March 31st 2016, the German Bilingual Program will begin the closure process. As you can imagine this has stoked the fire and BPAC is working diligently to maintain the program.

We would like to extend the invitation again to ALL parents to join us at our next BPAC meeting. One of our parents, Wayne Jackson, has taken the initiative to write up proposals and a plan to maximize our effectiveness on maintaining the program. He will be giving us a quick presentation and I encourage you all to come. We are making it a social event and want parents to take the time to talk in a casual setting, get to know each other better and perhaps even get to know the school and the challenges it / we face.

We welcome the opportunity to discuss with you how this enrolment issue could affect the ENTIRE school. Please come and enjoy some snacks and chats; the meeting will be in the school library on Monday, December 7th @ 7pm. Hope to see you there.

German Book Fair

GERMAN BOOK FAIR

BOWCROFT SCHOOL CALGARY

CHRISTMAS CONCERT

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

6:00 – 8:30 PM

German books and CDs

Everything Deutsch, German Educational Products

780. 719 5242 – Susanne Hoffmann

www.everythingdeutsch.com

Payment options:  Cash, SQUARE - Visa, MasterCard, American Express 

A percentage of all sales will be donated to 
AGEC for helping with this book sale.

CBE Survey for Parents, Public, and Students

Your opinion is valuable to the CBE! Please help them to improve public engagement at the CBE by following this LINK and filling in their survey. They will ask you about your satisfaction with past experiences, effective communication and engagement methods, topics that are important to you and how you would like to be consulted on decisions that affect you. Your input will help them to develop a new system-wide approach to public engagement. This new approach will allow them to do a better job of listening to and understanding people’s views on decisions that affect them.

The survey will only take 10-15 minutes, depending on the length of your answers, and all information provided in this survey will be kept confidential and shared in an anonymous way. The survey will be open until Dec. 11, 2015, so be sure to take this opportunity to fill it out.

Making School Mathematics Make Sense

The College of Alberta School Superintendents and the Alberta Regional Professional Development Consortia invite parents, students, teachers, school & system leaders, and community members to participate in the first of a series of sessions featuring Dr. James Tanton on the timely topic: Making School Mathematics Make Sense.

Dr. James Tanton is recognized internationally for his ability to make mathematical ideas, concepts and “FACTS” simple to understand, repeat, practice and apply in solving problems. He stresses the need to teach students to THINK their way through solutions, and then demonstrates using “common sense” approaches.

This presentation will focus specifically on seeing and understanding a way to make the arithmetic we learned in school come alive with meaning. It is very relevant to the mathematics taught from Grades 4 to 12.

For more information, please click here.

November 2015 Minutes

Bowcroft School Council and BPAC Meeting

November 2 2015, 7:00pm

Location: Library

Executive: 
Chairperson - Lia Haus
Co-Chairperson - Tara Neish
Secretary - Teryn Aurini
Treasurer - Tamara Ross
Fundraising Coordinator - 
Casino Coordinator - Barb Rocca
Volunteer Coordinator - Trish Braaten
Key Communicator - Fran Lochbihler

Attendees: Barb, Becky, Chris, Fran, George, Lia, Sonja, Tamara, Tara, Teryn, Trish, Wayne, Matt
Total Attendees: 13

Call to order:  7:11

October Minutes approved by: Trish, Barb seconds

Administration - Matt 
• Barb is back! We’re so happy to get our admin team back together and to get back on track in the office!
• One of our ed assistants (Helen) has resigned from the school and has moved to Invermere. 
• We will be looking to hire a replacement (1 to replace Helen and another .5).
• Our We Scare Hunger food drive was the most successful we’ve ever had! Some of our students went to We Day in accordance with this. Rae Ann got to go as a volunteer, it was an exciting and inspiring day!
• The art room has been cleared out and painted and will be converted to an aboriginal pre-start program (pre-kindergarten). This ties into one of the initiatives the CBE is currently undertaking is to help increase the rate of graduation for first nations students (currently at 12%). 
• Upon completion of the pre-start program these students will join our school community in kindergarten.
• The CBE has given us money towards a teacher, as well as to upgrade the wireless infrastructure and provide coaches for first nation students in high school. 
• We received .6 of a teacher, some schools got more but could not accommodate an increase in staff and requested that they give that bit to another school. We are now getting a .8 teacher (which equates to a Monday-Thursday staffing position). We are going to use this to focus on literacy, and looking at bringing in a teacher to help throughout the school in smaller group and individual settings. 
• We are expecting this teacher to arrive sometime between November 16 and December 1. 
• Tanya in kindergarten has written a proposal for Spark Bikes. A local donor has given us the money for 6 bikes ($4500)!
• She also helped Erna with the Indigo Adopt-a-School program which brought in over 200 new books.

Volunteer Coordinator - Trish 
•  Book fair went really well, we exceeded our goal of $3000 and sold $3848.46 worth of books!
• We got $2531.29 in rewards!
• Trish would like to have another book fair, the week before spring break to coincide with Parent-Teacher conferences. She will contact scholastic tomorrow morning.
• Trish went to the Kids Up Front orientation, it was a great! The big take aways were that they offer three programs; people who can’t use tickets (the most popular), kids count (box seats for Hockey games etc - could we tie this into Hockey Heroes?), and the pay it forward project (teachers nominate students to receive an award, this could tie into ROARS and citizenship). 
• Another thing Trish learned is that the more contacts we have for our organization, the better. Trish is looking for volunteers to assist with the program. The only thing about pickup is that there is a lot of construction right now at the Kids Up Front office and no parking spot. Tamara can help with pick up.

Meeting Closed:  8:03pm

BPAC Meeting

November 2 2015, 8:00pm

Location: Library

Executive: 
Chairperson - Lia Haus
Co-Chairperson - Tara Neish
Secretary - Teryn Aurini
Treasurer - Tamara Ross
Fundraising Coordinator -   
Casino Coordinator - Barb Rocca
Volunteer Coordinator - Trish Braaten
Key Communicator - Fran Lochbihler

Attendees: Barb, Becky, Chris, Fran, George, Lia, Sonja, Tamara, Tara, Teryn, Trish, Wayne, Matt
Total Attendees: 13

Meeting opened: 8:04pm

Treasurer - Tamara 
• We have $95,000 in our accounts.
• We have a few opportunities to go to AGLC training sessions coming up.

AGEC Update - Sonja 
• Thank you to all the volunteers who helped during our Casino!
• AGEC has written a cheque for 16803.95 to BPAC for AGLC approved funds.
• We will be holding a German Book Fair during the bilingual Christmas Concert on Tuesday, December 15th, from 6:00-8:30pm.
• Wednesday November 11th will be the St.Martin’s parade at Edworthy Park at 5:30pm. Bring your lanterns and dress for the weather!
• The European Film Festival will be held from November 12th-15th. AGEC is showing a German movie on the 15th.

Casino Coordinator - Barb  
• Barb has 7 shifts that still need to be filled. Please let her know if you or someone you know can help. You do not need to have your security clearance to volunteer at the casino.
• Can we post the available shifts online? 
• Barb will be including this in the newsletter.

Parent Liaison - Naomi (not in attendance) 
• Naomi would like to act as a bridge for the two parents and to be a contact for parents questions or concerns. She can be reached at: bpacparentliaison@gmail.com

New Business 
• Lia motions that our Christmas fundraiser be Poinsettias, Trish seconds, all in favour motion passed. All the orders will be taken online, with the delivery date being December 9th.
• We also have a beautiful Quilt by Didi to raffle off during the Christmas concerts.
• Lia motions that we sell coffee and cookies in the cafeteria during the concerts, Tara seconds, all in favour motion passed.

Old Business 
• Trish amends the motion to approve the $8965 for the Trickster residency, Barb seconds, all in favour motion passed.

Vote on Funding
• George motions that we approve the 2015/16 wish list to a total of $43,378, including: $4000 for the German Showcase, $1700 for Math resources, $1000 for art supplies, $3600 for Field Trips ($300/class), $3000 for the Library, $1650 for IXL Math Program, $850 for RAZ Kids, $2400 for Teachers Discretionary ($200/teacher), $400 for Principal’s Discretionary, $1000 for Music Program Supports, $1000 for Physical Education Equipment, $8965 for the Trickster Arts Residency, $3000 for in-school Music Performances, $5313 for the Alien In-Line Physical Education Residency and $6000 for one Light Ray Projector, Wayne seconds, all in favour, motion passed.

Meeting Closed at: 8:20pm

Notice Regarding German Bilingual Program

Everyone in the German program received a letter today that let us know that CBE has posted notice that if Bowcroft does not achieve a Kindergarten enrolment of 20 the program will be cut.

Bowcroft has maintained a 20+ enrolment for the past four years, however many students are not registered until after the March deadline that the CBE has given us in the letter.

This is a somewhat alarming letter as it doesn't explain anything. Not what this means to our teachers, or how it will affect the community program... there are a lot of unanswered questions. We as BPAC are here to help provide a platform for parents to affect change within our school. There is still a lot of information to be gathered and Principal Lowe is working on setting up the meetings and getting the answers we need. BPAC and AGEC are both involved in increasing enrolment.

My sincerest wish is that this letter does not anger parents but rather lights a fire to get more involved with our school. The only way we will be able to make a true difference and actually affect change is if we work together as a group to make both programs strong!

It's been noted that parents are already commenting on FB, dialogue is always great! Some of the comments are of a "first the busing issue and now the whole program" type. Valid points, we are feeling like the CBE is not supporting alternative programs and that needs to change. Wayne Jackson, a fabulous parent volunteer who comes to all of our BPAC meetings would like to start a committee to address the transportation issues we face. He would like to start up a car-pooling site for us and find other transportation alternatives to help make sure that our students to can get to our program. He would love for you to come out to our Dec. 7th meeting and speak with him, has has some great ideas!

If you decided to call the # on the letter please post and let us know what you find out. If you have questions or concerns or want to get more involved, please post to our site or contact anyone on BPAC.

You are very welcome to call, text or email me. My contact information is available here.

Lia - BPAC Chair