1. Welcome: PAC president John Holt welcomed the group. PAC council members and parents present introduced themselves.
1a. Motion to adopt the agenda. There were no additions to the agenda.

2. Minutes from previous meeting (Nov 2, 2005). Motioned by Linda to adopt the minutes. Seconded by John. Motion passed.

3. Student council report No student council representative present.

4. Principals Report
Ken Hignell informed us that there is a good awareness of core values and vision of caring. Message is getting out there. Staff spear heading social responsibility and leadership. Ken said the staff is working hard - flat out.

The Grade 8 Boy’s Volleyball team won first place in their league in Surrey. The Senior Boy’s soccer team won the Fraser Valley championship and competed in the Provincial tournament.

Johnston Heights has a new web site that has had over 13,000 hits in the last month. Ken spoke about adding video clips of teachers talking about their courses and adding course outlines on the web site.

Student teachers from SFU have been helping out at JH. They have been doing workshops on instructional strategies.

The turn off the TV and read and read for the day was a great success. Mrs. Bathgate'

s class won. Remembrance Day assembly went very well.

The 20 Korean students from grade 8 to 10 will be leaving Friday Dec 9/05. It has been an enriching experience for the students. There will be a farewell luncheon for the Korean students Thursday Dec 8/05.

The grade 8 science students attended a Crystal Meth form at the Bell Center. There where 125 students.

There was a health and safety inspection of the building. Ventilation on the south side of the school needs work. The benches at the edge of the railing atop of the stairs have been moved away from the railing. The roof leak has still not been dealt with at this time.

There was a portfolio parents night. There appeared to be a lot of anxiety from the parents.

The school had a fire drill. Staff now line up alphabetically on the field.

Provincial exams have been delayed one week, along with a one-week delay for the start of the second semester. Take note of the new dates posted on the JH web site. The dry grad committee is well under way.

The first report cards have now gone out. Mr. Hignell was impressed with the attendance at the parent teacher interviews.

School planing council is ready to sign off on the new school plan. After the plan has been signed off it will be posted to the web site. Then the school plan will be implemented.

The cafeteria menu is on the web site and in the Eagle bulletin. Cafeteria revenue is down from the same time as last year. Fries available on Fridays.

The Pepsi vending machines revenue is staying the same as last year. Snack vending machines need a change of choices to more health choices.

Speakers Program for the spring, second semester, will be on the topics of drinking and driving as well as drug awareness.

The Eagle newsletter is put out monthly, last period of the last Thursday of every month. The newsletter is for parents. Your child should be bringing it home to you.

Super G students (students that get good work habits in all courses) will be able to attend the super G movie as a reward.

Grade 11 portfolio managers have been assigned to the students.

Next year the Passport to education (a 500.00 dollar grant for grade 12 students) will be given to the top 9,000 students of the province. More information about the program is on the Ministry web site.

5. Financial Report
Linda Blais informed us that there was $40,095.14 in the general acct. as of Nov 30,2005 and $28,944.26 in the gaming acct. as of Nov 30,2005. This does not include the revenue from the dance (approx. $ 90.00). There was revenue of $13,650.00 from dry grad fund raising and a deposit of $200.00 from progressive fundraising. There were expenses of $1,450.08 for half payment on the school calendars. John motioned to accept the financial report as reported and Linda seconded. Motion passed.

Linda motioned to approve the budgeted expenses for the gaming account totaling $8560.00. Seconded by John. Motion passed. The list of items approved was reviewed at a previous executive meeting and recommend to accept.

John motioned to approve the expense of $2500.00 from the general account to purchase 200 chairs to facilitate provincial exams on the school property and other student functions. Seconded by Hue (way). Motion passed. In the past, the school has either rented chairs, or robbed classrooms for chairs. The chairs will also be used for the graduation ceremonies and parent teacher interviews.

There was a discussion about the purchase of binders for the grade 11 students to use for their portfolios. Tabled for a later date. The cost of these binders is added to the school fees at the beginning of the year. When the Ministry implemented its plans, it was too late to add this amount to the student’s fees so the grade 11 class didn’t get the binder. The principle is asking the PAC to purchase the binders for the Graduation Portfolio Program for those students.

There was a discussion about purchasing a large portable screen for presentations. Tabled for a later date. The school has borrowed a screen from another school, and even hung up a sheet to get a presentable surface.

There was a discussion about a portable multi media cart. Tabled for a later date. The idea is to provide a portable media center with computer, DVD, VCR sound and projection capability. Used primarily for large assemblies, but available for student use as required.

6. Committee Reports
6a. DPAC committee report: Mark reported that at the DPAC general meeting there was an open form for school PACs to ask for topics of interest that they would like to see at DPAC meetings. A lot of PACs expressed an interest in workshops on running a PAC. Example (secretary, president, treasurer etc.) DPAC will be setting up workshops for these issues in the New Year. There will not be a general DPAC meeting in Dec. 7, 05

6b.Dance committee report: Student council was a great help at the coat check. The many hands made light of the work. Thanks to Emma, Murali, Crista, Brenda, Hadine, Barb and all the other parents for the help.
Water and soft drink sales at .50 cents each was brisk, at times chaotic. Our original order of stock included 30 cases of water (12 packs) and 8 cases of soda (12 packs). Almost all of it sold, only a portion of the water was returned. Approximate $90.00 profit.

6c. Fund raising committee report. No report.

6d. School planning committee report. No report.

6e. Dry grad committee report: December 3, 2005
The Dry Grad committee has been very busy since our last report. The group has grown over the past month and we now have 16 parents on the committee. We have accomplished the following during the last four weeks:
1. Established dry grad location - YMCA on Highway 10 at 150th Street, Surrey. The location was determined via two information meetings (with straw polls) and an official student vote.

2. Completed our first fundraiser - Safeway & Save-On gift certificate sales. We sold $10,125 in Safeway gift cards and $5,125 in Save-On certificates with a net profit of $1,118.50.

3. Set up a continuous bottle drive at Fleetwood Bottle depot (Fraser Highway and 151st). Dry grad supporters can drop their empty bottles at the depot and request they be credited to the "JH Dry Grad 2006" account.*

4. Started a "Canadian Tire Money" collection. A container is located at the school office where families can deposit their money. We will use the Canadian Tire funds to purchase prizes and/or supplies for our event.*

5. Submitted an application to Cartridges4Kids - we plan to collect old cell phones, ink jet cartridges and laser cartridges for recycling. This is a "fundraiser with a conscience" - the company pays cash for these items (amount is dependent on make/model). There is no cost to us.*

6. Registered for funding from the BC Liquor Distribution Board.**

7. Applied for a free BCAA membership which we will sell at market value (first 100 schools to apply receive the membership.)**

8. Arranged with Mr. Post to have one of his Desktop Publishing students design our dry grad invitations and tickets.

9. Made tentative arrangements with Mr. Lavoie to hold a silent auction during the spring theatre production (three nights in early April).

*These are ongoing fundraisers that will simply roll over from year to year. At the end of this school year we will ensure they are up and running for Dry Grad 2007.
**These funding sources require very quick, easy annual applications. (We will provide the 2007 Committee with application procedures, contact numbers, etc.)

Student Committee: A Dry Grad student meeting will be held on Monday, December 5th from 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Our goal is to set up a student committee that would work with the parent group to promote, fundraise and create awareness and excitement about Dry Grad. By the time you read this report the students will have determined the theme for the event and provided much needed input in a variety of areas. Students are an invaluable source of ideas and feedback - they have many great ideas and insights - so we are excited about working with them.

Next Parent Meeting: The parent committee will meet on Thursday, December 8th (our last meeting before January). Thank-you to those of you who have directed parents our way. We have one grade 11 parent on our committee and two others who have expressed willingness in becoming involved.

We greatly appreciate the exceptional support extended by our school administrators, the office staff and the PAC. They have all been generous in responding to questions and "going the extra mile" to make the parent committee’s job less onerous.

If you have any suggestions or questions for our committee, please to not hesitate to contact us. Our e-mail address is JHGrad2006@yahoo.com You can also contact us by phoning Dianne Swanlund (604-951-9594). Again, thank you for your ongoing support.

Submitted by Dianne Swanlund on behalf of the Dry Grad Parent Committee

7. Old business
The winner of the gift basket at the Parent Teacher interviews was Mr. N. Grant.

8. New Business
There will be a District Regional Forum regarding the School Planning Councils, February 2, 2006. More details and a pre-forum questionnaire are expected in January. Two parents from Johnston Heights will be invited to attend the forum with the other committee members. If you are interested, please contact the school.

John motioned to adjourn the meeting. Seconded by Linda.

Meeting ended at 9:05pm.
Next General Meeting: 4th. January 2006

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