Meeting opened by the President Melissa Iredell at 8.10pm.

In Attendance 19 as per attendance registers (parents & teachers (17 + 2)

Apologies 7 as per attendance register

Previous Minutes

It was resolved that the Minutes of the meeting held on 1st March, 2004 be accepted, with the following corrections;

A/C quote for Hall should read $12,600 + upgrade electricals $2-4,000, total $14,600 to $17,600. Moved by Bill Harris, Seconded by Jeff Schembri.

Business Arising

Lighting – Accept quote for $362 + GST for lights at corner of admin building and engage Byron Electrics to complete works. Moved by Gail Clayton & seconded by Julie Mallison.

Hall Survey – Response to survey – 100 in support of new hall building, 4 against. This was the view of 104 families out of the school total of 235 families. The meeting moved to create a sub committee to further look into the viability of a new/extended hall facility.

Mowers – Sold for a total of $1,400 & we have received payment. Payment was given to the School as mowers are on the School’s Asset Register. Money will be off-set to the mowing invoices.

Traffic – 5 members have volunteered (Karen Grozier, Donna Collier, Susan Harding, Megan Cornell & Elizabeth Timmins-Smith. The committee will meet early next term.

Suggestion Forms – Suggestions were received as follows:-

o $20 donation from families if unable to attend working bees (this will be used to purchase plants/soil etc).

o Planting of embankment.

o Cricket net resurfacing.

o Ideas for Hall.

o Children’s Microscopes 10 @ $150 each.

o Oval drainage. Cola drainage.

o Platform under Cola covering dirt area at rear, with pool type fencing behind.

Interrelate – Survey of families who attended, 100% response. All who attended felt it useful and all would recommend it to other parents/students. 2/3 Majority would like this to be an annual event. We will put on the calendar for next year.

Committee Reports

Book club - Nil

Canteen

Chris Coates - Everything going well. Yr 6 helpers are a great asset. Canteen has organised milk for the Sanitarium Breakfast tomorrow. 2 members attended a seminar on the new Canteen regulations and Vickie will report fully on this at next meeting. Peggy has just received the Canteen bank statement which shows $17,633.09 in the account. Terry has been in contact with Peggy and advised that he inadvertently deposited some money in the Canteen account. Peggy will do bank reconciliation and draw a cheque to transfer out what monies do not belong to canteen at the same time she will look to see how much Canteen profit can also be transferred. Looking at the records for the last 7 years Canteen has transferred roughly $2,000 twice a year to the general P&C account, usually at the end of Term 2 & 4. Canteen requests the return of its deposit book to ensure monies are deposited into the correct account.

Clothing- Leanne Dries -.Bomber jackets, sweatshirts & track pants have arrived. We are still waiting on long sleeve polo’s & winter tunics. These will arrive hopefully first week back next term. Skorts are now in stock. We were able to take advantage of a promotional offer for 2 months, so they are currently selling for $18.00. After this they will probably go up to $21.00. The roster for term 2 was done today however if there is anyone who would like to help out I’m sure I will be able to slot them in. We have been quite busy the last couple of weeks with people getting ready for next term.

Fundraising & Social - Kathy Dixon

Election Day – As mentioned in the newsletter, our first fundraiser for the year did very well. There were lost of delicious goodies donated and some hardworking volunteers on the day. A big thank you goes to all of the parents who slaved over a hot oven as well as those who took time out on their busy weekends to come and help our school. Special thanks go to Veronica Casson who helped with a lot of the preparation work and stayed for most of the day too! The result was a very honourable $860. I am told there will be another election later in the year, so now we have another opportunity to outdo ourselves.

Mothers Day – The big focus for the Committee at the moment is Mother’s Day. We have worked very hard and spent many hours thinking of the best way to combine fundraising with a way of showing the Mothers and other special women in our children’s lives, how valued they are. As you hopefully know by now we are having a morning tea as well as gifts made by the children. Parents can choose to participate in either one or both of these functions. We would encourage you to do both of course as the tea gives the children the opportunity to say thank you and to see their little faces light up as they see you at school and get to share this part of their world with you. They will also be able to give you their gifts on the morning. Gift is a secret. Fathers are needed to serve the morning tea. Arrange for a child to sit with another family if you cannot attend. Gifts $5. Morning tea – Adult $3, children & toddlers $2 each. Money needed by this Thursday.

Meeting on Wednesday at 7.15 at Kathy’s house. As at this report, fundraising has $2,548.73 in the fundraising account.

Kathy is flying to America, to be with her sick Mother. Veronica Casson & Susan Harding will be taking the reins whilst Kathy is away. Please support Veronica & Susan with Mothers Day etc.

Gardening

The embankment area has been an erosion problem for years. Quotes from two operators to fully retain, mulch and plant, ranged from $21-24,000. Graeme McVeity has done a great job with erosion control, and we recently had two working Sundays to move soil and mulch (1-5 pm both days) into the boxed areas. Despite rain the first Saturday and short notice for the catch-up weekend, we have covered a lot of that area now.

Several dead trees were disposed of (some big problem ones remain). We’ve also boxed and covered the roots of the big tree opposite the toilets, and revamped the chessboard gardens. Low hanging branches at the front and back ovals have been removed from harm’s way and a large amount of weed clearing has occurred behind KH’s classroom. The kids rode around and played together, and then we had sausages and lemonade all round, in the Ramsay tradition. The Environment Club now has 10 tonnes of clean “native mix” soil ready for planting in these areas. They began this last week.

The remaining grassed areas on the embankment need to be cleared, news papered (free) and mulched (free) and planted with native ground cover (40 @ $5 ~ $200). We’d like to run an extra sleeper along the footpaths to retain the soil while the ground covers take root but that’s another 20 sleepers, screws and concrete (about $700). We estimate another $1000 or so in expenditure, which will add to the $6000 spent so far, but we’ll need more help to finish.

Disposing of removed branches- their presence is a Safety Issue, Dumping a trailer is $24; hiring a 4” chipper is $140/24hrs (i.e. 6 trailers worth);

Problem of Dead trees and A&A Arbour can fell dead trees, photos of dead trees for your viewing and parents can’t fell dead trees too dangerous. They can also grind all stumps, uplift all canopies, and chip all on to gardens – 1 day with 10 men for $2,350

One other safety issue and that’s the concrete pipes. When I was organising the playground equipment discovered the ¾ concrete pipes were illegal sizes and required protected edges, also should have soft-fall or plants around them. Reinforced concrete requires breaking up and dumping, again a difficult and dangerous job for parents. I looked for a contractor to do this and could not find anyone willing. I don’t believe we have the money to fix mounds around them nor dispose of them.

Oval repair – Two Quotes last year for around $20,000 to drain and refresh the surface. Graeme McVeity in the wings to drain across the top of the embankment during holidays, Mr Richard Kirkley, maintenance supervisor from Pennant Hills Golf club visiting to provide us with his opinion on a possibly more affordable solution.

Particular thanks go to the Ramsays, Iredells, Morans, MacPhersons, both Walsh families, the Sun family, and the Collier, Wisniewski, Colwill, Condon and Wood families. All the children will receive a certificate this week to thank them for their assistance. Next working bee TBA.

Most difficult issues are the felling of dead trees and removal of concrete pipes because the parents can’t do these jobs. Jon Iredell

Julie Hanley will look into the matter of the dead trees. Melissa asked Julie where the new demountable go will. This matter needs to be decided before major work is undertaken on the oval. Concrete pipes – Julie will look for previous Pro Group quote to remove. Karen Grozier will speak to a friend who is a concrete cutter.

Ask Council to remove stump from front footpath.

Safety House - Veronica Casson

Police will be having a meeting within the month.

Community Relations - Karen Yates

Past Events – 3rd March 2004 Librarians Day. The Committee prepared sandwiches and slices for the Librarians Luncheon. It was the first time Epping Heights has held a Librarians Day. It was a great success.

Coming events – Easter Picnic – photos will be taken. Anzac Day Ceremony will be held on Thursday 29th April at 10.20am. It will be held under the Cola this year. Parents and visitors are most welcome and we will be having a special morning tea after the ceremony for the parents/visitors and dignitaries. Everyone is welcome to attend. There will be a request going in the school newsletter on Wed 28th to bring flowers in on Thursday for making posies for the ceremony. On Wed 28th April the committee will be making up posies in the hall for the special guests and dignitaries from 9am. Thank you to Melissa Iredell and Lisa Tang for organising the flowers for the morning. Anyone wishing to help us make posies for the dignitaries please don’t hesitate to speak to me or just turn up. All help is welcomed. The next committee meeting will be next term and the time and date will be printed in the school newsletter.

Multicultural - Mira Kim

Has had one meeting with Anne Parfett, Veronica Casson and Julie Hanley. Will be possibly holding an information day/evening for Korean & Chinese parents. Information booklet has been translated into Korean. A useful website with translations for various school topics has been found.

Julie Hanley advised that we will be having a new Korean student next term. A parent from School who is also a Local Businessman assists international Korean students with accommodation and translations. EHPS only received a small payment for international students $90.00 but $4,500 is paid to the Dept of Education.

Cola Drainage – During the debates concerning spending priorities last year, the P&C was asked to look into fixing the problem of water under the COLA. The topic came up because there had been a spell of wet weather and people had made the observation that the COLA did not seem to offer enough protection form the rain. It was assumed to be because of faulty guttering. We set about getting quotes from May last year. The first person to come and assess the situation was Dave from Scott & Sons. He told us that he didn’t consider the problem to be the COLA itself but the drainpipes from the Verandah outside the infant’s classrooms that run off directly onto the area under the COLA. He suggested that the guttering outside the classrooms needed fixing and the runoff on the Verandah area outside the classrooms needed to be directed, by piping and drains, under the Verandah and out to existing sever lines. Of course cutting into concrete etc was going to be costly. The new guttering and all the materials were also going to be costly. The exact quote we never found out because Dave never came back to us. We pursued him but it was always “on its way”. We gave up on Dave and tried Pro Group. Pro Group had a different option. Instead of cutting into the concrete, they wanted to cut into the asphalt. They suggested sealing the open drains and redirecting them to an open (grate covered) trough like drain running parallel with the building. The drain would extend slightly beyond the COLA area where a new stormwater pipe would be installed to connect with existing services. This would run under the asphalt. Their quote was for $9,803.20. Both assessors did make the comment that such a large open structure would never be dry. Wind direction and sheer volume of rain were bound to wet the area beneath the COLA. Veronica Casson & Donna Collier.

Treasurer’s Report

Omitted to move and second treasurers report in March 2004 meeting. Moved by Leanne Dries, Seconded by Jeff Schembri. .

Written report circulated for Feb 2004 compiled by Terry Liddicoat. Bill Harris spoke to same. Moved by Bill Harris, Seconded by Kathy Dixon. Voluntary Contributions are at 72%, received from 170 of 235 families. .

Correspondence In/Out

PRINCIPALS REPORT

Mrs Julie Hanley –

Apex road signs paperwork given to Donna Collier re Traffic committee.

A great term at EHPS. We are well underway with our ASR targets:

· Creative Arts focus- resources purchased, development of staff (print workshop), music program going very well – curriculum based – MU doing a great job, Musica Viva next term – MU preparing students. Dance program going well – Steven Petras will train a group/s to perform at functions later in the year – concert planned for 7 September, resource sharing sessions planned for next term, audit of current resources planned.

· Development of Leadership skills – Young Leaders’ Day – I met with children before the day to prepare them. Peer Support Training Day – well-planned by Mr Trevena and gave all Year 6 students l’ship skills. SRC – developing l’ship skills for students in Years 2-6. Staff is encouraging all children to take responsibilities at school – Class Captains, Environment Monitors, Recycling monitors, Library Monitors and Year 6 special roles.

· Assessment and Reporting practices – a simplified mid-year report format has now been developed by staff. Staff will commence work on revised end-of-year report next term.

· Development of literacy skills – Jolly Phonics program – exciting progress of K students, Miss Gibson has purchased a huge quantity of reading materials for K-6 students for in class and Home-Reading. Also fabulous Big Books which can be used by all to support the teaching of text types. Thanks to fantastic parents who have covered books for us. Read with me program very successful in motivating chn to read at home. Very soon the first book reward will be presented. Next term Pat Bavister will train staff in the making of running records and the analysis of these – to ensure Stage 1 children are carefully matched to text. LST very active in supporting students with learning needs – implementing programs in the classroom to support students. ESL Teacher catering for needs of these chn.

Debating competition will begin next term.

Multi-cultural Speaking Competition will be hosted by EHPS on Monday 7 June. Trials this week.

Success for many students in many areas – all reported in newsletters.

We have received a beautiful Minolta digital camera as the prize for our success in Weetbix Tryathlon.

Very busy beginning of term next term – term calendar.

GENERAL BUSINESS

Cricket Pitch – Quote obtained by Ben Russell. Resurfacing of cricket pitch with synthetic grass $1,300 to $1,500 including labour. 2nd quote for materials only including glue $1,100. New nets approx $10-12,000.

Back path – soil and woodchips have washed off.

Next Meeting Monday, 3rd May, 2004

8.00pm in School Hall.

Meeting Closed 10.10pm

Signed: Melissa Iredell, President

Donna Collier, Secretary