Dear St Brigid Families,

We hope you are managing as well as possible during these challenging times.  We wanted to give you an update on a few items:

1. Pizza Lunch

With school closures now lasting into May, we have decided the best and safest thing for us to do is CANCEL ALL PIZZA/SUB DAYS until the end of the school year.  As of the end of this week, all orders from March 23rd onward will be removed and credits will be issued in the Munchalunch system.  To keep things as simple as possible we think the best plan is to roll all credits over for pizza purchases in the next school year, with the exception of grade 8 students (grade 8 families will get an email regarding reimbursement in the next week or so).  We hope this is an acceptable solution for most if not all families. If you do need the money reimbursed rather than carried to next year please email us directly to let us know.

2. Resources for parents/guardians/kids:

Ms. Blanchet sent out some links to educational and mental health resources in her last email to parents/guardians.  Also included was a link to the Ontario government’s Support for Families application website, where families can claim $200 per child 0-12 years old, or $250 for children and youth with special needs (0-21 years old), to help offset costs associated with distance learning. 

3.  Online Safety Webinar and Courses for Youth

On April 15th, the TCDSB’s Catholic Parent Involvement Committee (CPIC) hosted a Zoom webinar entitled “Guard your kids online and help them shine”, with speaker Josh Ochs of Smart Social.  During the COVID pandemic Josh will be hosting other free Zoom webinars on keeping kids safe on Tik Tok, Snapchat, Instagram, Fortnight, Youtube and Netflix, if you are interested in attending from home at 7:30 PM on April 20 or 21.  See here to register for a webinar, and see here if you have an older student who is interested in an online lesson on how to set up Instagram, Tiktok, etc. for a positive impact (temporarily free if parent opts to sign up for a 30 day trial membership with Smart Social).   

4. CSPC Meeting

The CSPC meeting scheduled for April 16th was cancelled.  A remote meeting will be scheduled for next month if possible, to discuss whether any parent council funds need to be redirected/modified with the cancellation of pizza and move to distance learning.

5. TCDSB Budget Consultation

All parents are invited to participate in the TCDSB’s 2020-2021 Budget Consultation.  Please see here for more information as well as links to the proposed 2020-2021 budget and survey.  The deadline for feedback is May 7, 2020.

Take care and we hope to see you soon.

—

Next Pizza/Sub Session – OPEN FOR ORDERING!

Ordering for the Feb-June pizza/sub session is now open in Munchalunch.  PLEASE HAVE YOUR ORDER IN NO LATER THAN FEB 13th if you want pizza Feb 18th.  Note:

– THERE WILL BE 2 SUB MONDAYS, on  Monday, Feb 24th and Monday, May 11th.  NO PIZZA THOSE WEEKS! 

– WE ALWAYS NEED VOLUNTEERS – 3 people per week; 10:30-11:30 on a Tuesday.  Please sign up for a week here if are able to help.

– proceeds from 2 weeks of pizza will go towards the annual staff appreciation luncheon.  Remaining proceeds will go to the nutrition program at our school, which benefits students K-8 and is currently in need of funds. 

**If you wish to make a separate or additional donation to the nutrition program, please go to tcdsb.schoolcashonline.com, sign in, click on “Make a Donation”, and be sure to select “St Brigid – Nutrition Program” as the fund destination.  You will receive a tax receipt for your donation.  

Pancake Tuesday VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

February 25th is pancake Tuesday, and volunteers are needed to help cook and serve 1000 pancakes along with fresh fruit for students that day.  Ten volunteers are needed in the morning on Tuesday, and three people are needed from 1-3 PM on Monday, Feb 24th as well.  Please sign up here or reply to this email if you can help – it is a fun one to help out with and students very much look forward to this annual tradition!

Interview Night Signup Reminder

Just a reminder that the interview night signup went live yesterday.  Sign up if you’d like an interview with your child(ren)’s teacher(s)!  See Ms. Blanchet’s email from last week for link and password.  Also, a reminder that Ms. Pedler has organized a Scholastic book fair in the library during the week next week, including on interview nights.  Stop by to support our library!

Upcoming Dates:

Feb 10 – Book Fair starts

Feb 11 – Interview Night

Feb 13 – Interview Night

Feb 14 – PA day (no school)

Feb 17 – Family Day (no school)

Feb 18 – Winter carnival week

Feb 20 – x Movement family night (more info coming soon)  **CSPC meeting date will be moved**

At Home Alone workshop – January 22 from 7-9 PM

By popular demand we have arranged for a second At Home Alone workshop to be held at the school next Wednesday, January 22nd from 7-9 PM.  The At Home Alone workshop is facilitated by Toronto Public Health and is aimed at kids aged 10-14 (grade 4-8), along with their parents/guardians.  The goal is to prepare kids to be at home alone safely.  Attendance is limited so don’t delay and sign up using this link if you want to attend with your grade 4-8 child!  Those who were on the waitlist last time will have priority this time.

Possible One Day Strike next Tuesday

As noted in communications from the Board last week, the Ontario Catholic teacher’s union is currently carrying out a work to rule campaign and will be holding a one day strike next Tuesday, January 21, if no contract deal is reached with the province before then.  Look out for upcoming information from the Board on whether school will be in session next Tuesday.  Our ECEs are also currently on work to rule and also may be on a one day strike on Monday, January 20, but school will still be in session that day.

Pizza Update

Please stay tuned for info on whether we have to move pizza day next week due to the possible one day strike on Tuesday.

Also, our current pizza session is slated to end on February 4 but since we needed to cancel pizza on October 8th the session will be extended to Feb 11.  We will open a new ordering window on or before January 28th, at which time the current ordering window will be closed.  Please keep this in mind if you usually order pizza week to week.

Fun Fair – VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!!

Volunteers are needed to help plan our annual Fun Fair if it is going to happen this year.  Please help!  If you can help, if you wanted more information or if you have thoughts about whether we should scale back to a lower key end of year barbecue, please respond to this email, go to our website, or come to the parent council meeting on Thursday.  

CSPC meeting tonight

The next parent council meeting will be held this evening from 7-9 PM in the library.  All are welcome and babysitting will be provided for those who need.  

On Thursday November 28, 2019 at 7 pm, the TCDSB will be holding a caucus meeting at which they will be electing the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Board for the upcoming year, and electing or nominating many committee positions for the upcoming year.  Click here to view the meeting agenda.

If you would like to provide our Trustee for Ward 11, Angela Kennedy, with any comments in advance of the meeting and the planned votes, you can email her or call  416-512-3411.

For the last couple of years, the whole school has participated in a skating day at East York Arena. This is a fun opportunity for community building and exercise in memory of Mr. Moulds, a beloved St. Brigid’s teacher and hockey coach who worked to give all kids at our school a chance to experience the joy of skating. 

Classes will be assigned different timeslots (coming soon), and the school asks for lots of parent volunteers on the day of to help tie skates, walk older classes to and from the rink, do setup/run/cleanup of the skate library for those who need skates, help supervise kids on the rink, and help with making and serving hot chocolate. 

We also have a number of tasks that need to be done ahead of time, including organizing/checking skate condition, picking up extra skates and helmets from our school skating partner (Gledhill),  and making a fun skating playlist. 

Please mark your calendars for TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2019, and let us know through our Contact Us page if you can help on or before that date.  Let’s make this the best skate day yet!

**If you have any skates or helmets to donate to the St. Brigid lending library, please send them to the office.  We especially need helmets that are larger than XS. Thanks!**