Category Archives: Davisville School Council

Join us on Tuesday, December 11th, for our next School Council Meeting!

Dec 10

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Join us this Tuesday, December 11th, for our last School Council Meeting of the 2018 Fall term. We will be meeting once again at Glebe Road United Church starting at 7pm. Catch up on what we accomplished this past term, and hear about what we have planned for 2019!

As always, all Davisville parents are welcome to attend! Complimentary childcare and refreshments will be provided.

For other exciting Davisville P. S. news and events, check out the latest issue of our School Council Newsletter!

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Mindful Parenting Workshop on Wednesday

Nov 26

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Sue Hutton, of Mindfulness Everyday, will be giving a workshop on Mindful Parenting this Wednesday, November 28.  The workshop will be held from 6:30-8:30, with the second hour devoted to a practice session and a question and answer period.  The workshop will be held at Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute, 125 Chatsworth Drive.  You can register for the workshop at Mindful Parenting Workshop.

 

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The Winter Clothing Drive Starts on Wednesday!

Nov 19

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Our annual winter clothing drive starts this Wednesday!

Bag2School will accept ALL textiles in any condition to be resold, reused or recycled.  You can donate any clothes or textiles, but if you have any items that are still in great condition, you can also participate in a clothing swap to be held on two evenings – Wednesday November 28 and Tuesday December 4 – in the Hodgson Cafeteria at 282 Davisville.  Please mark these bags with “for swap” plus sizes of clothes ( ex “boy-11, girl -5/6”) to make it easier for our volunteers.  Items that are particularly needed are winter clothes, jackets, snow pants and boots, but the swap will have clothes from baby to adult sizes.

We also have a friendly competition to see which class can bring in the most donations by weight!  Each Davisville class is partnered with a class at Hodgson.  Donations are to be dropped off in the class team space (teams have squares painted on the floor labeled by class teams) at the Hodgson front entrance. To get credit for the swap, please indicate your name and number of bags donated when you drop off your donation.  All donors will get an upcycled t-shirt bag to fill for free or you can buy and fill a bag for $15.

Any donations that are not used will be given to Bag2School, including clothes, shoes (tied together please), purses, bags, bedding, towels and stuffed animals.  Everything is resold, repurchased or recycled for furniture stuffing.

To volunteer, please contact coordinator Tanya Murdoch at ms.tanyamurdoch@gmail.com or use this online sign up link:  Clothing Drive Sign-Up,

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Midtown Toronto Schools Parent Group

Nov 17

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Dear Midtown Toronto Parents,
 
We are reaching out to you today on behalf of the Midtown Toronto Schools Parents Group, a committee of parents who live in the local community and have school-aged children currently attending one or more of the following schools: Hodgson, Eglinton, Davisville, Maurice Cody, and Oriole Park.
 
As I’m sure you’re aware, these are times of extreme change and growth in Midtown Toronto.  Our neighbourhood is in the midst of an unprecedented wave of development, creating new pressures on the social and physical  infrastructure of our local community. While the development has lead to some exciting changes, it has also exposed some very real shortcomings in how prepared the city was for this growth. Over the past half decade or so, we have seen our local schools pushed beyond capacity as enrollment figures continue to rise. With tens of thousands of new housing units projected for Midtown Toronto as this development boom continues, this is the new normal for Midtown Toronto and there is no relief from this pressure in the foreseeable future.
 
In response to this increase in local population, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has been making plans to create additional capacity in our local schools by way of expansion, renovation, and in some cases, the complete demolition and rebuilding of schools.  In the case of Hodgson Public School, the TDSB is proposing plans that would require removing our children from their neighbourhood school for a number of years and sending them by bus to Vaughan Road Academy (for some additional detail you can view the TDSB’s plans as presented June 11, 2018 http://www.tdsb.on.ca/portals/_default/ARC_helpful_info_docs/P20180429-HodgsonCommunityMeeting-V3.pdf).
 
While we understand the efforts to create sufficient school capacity, we feel strongly that the best place for our kids to go to school is right here in their own neighbourhood. To relocate them by bus has the potential for negative consequences and removes them from their familiar environment.  At a time when these kids may have the freedom to leave school grounds during the day, this would see them doing so in an unfamiliar neighbourhood far away from home.  In addition, busing them offsite will create significant complications for those kids who are enrolled in before or after-school programs, clubs and teams, and could seriously erode the parent and community support that is so important to the success of our schools. Putting them on a bus for up to 90 minutes in traffic per day creates a serious disruption to their lives and that of their families.
 
Like us, you may have chosen to live in our neighbourhood because of the positive environment it presents for raising a family, and a significant piece of that environment is the local public school.  We fully understand that keeping kids on site during renovations or expansion of a school will require creative and innovative solutions to ensure that educational goals can be reached and that heath and safety of the students and staff is maintained.  But we believe that those solutions are available and need to be developed to their fullest.  This is why we believe that the parents should have a voice in the conversation with the TDSB and the City of Toronto, and that collectively we can find a way forward that lets our kids stay in the neighbourhood during this time of renewal of our Public Schools.
 
Our goal is to be that voice for parents by creating a dialogue with our local school board Trustee, Rachel Chernos Lin, and through her to build a bridge of communication to the TDSB. We think that more communication and transparency will help all stakeholders be heard and understood, and to ultimately reach a solution that sees our local schools capable of educating all of the children of Midtown Toronto without the need to relocate our children outside of the neighbourhood.
 
If you would like to join the Midtown Toronto School Parents Group, please find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/271830393674374/ and request to be added to the group. From there you will be able to learn more about the proposed plans for Hodgson PS and alternative ideas that we are working on to present to the TDSB, stay up to date on recent developments, communicate with other group members, find meetings and become as involved as you wish.
 
We thank you for your time and hope that you will join us in working to keep our local public schools open and operating through these exciting and challenging times.
 
Best Regards,
 
Joe Kiervin and Mo Tantawi, on behalf of the MTSPG

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School Council Meeting and Other Happenings This Week

Nov 11

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The next School Council meeting will be this Tuesday November 13th at Glebe Church (20 Glebe Road East) at 7pm.  This one is a big one; we will be discussing our school’s projected budget and fundraising plan for the year.  As usual, there will be complimentary snacks and free child minding.

Just a reminder that report cards will be delivered via backpack this Tuesday and Wednesday, and that this Friday is a P.A. day.

Finally, for a sneak peak at next week, psychotherapist Mitchell Smolkin will be giving a talk at Brown Junior Public School (454 Avenue Road) on Monday, November 19 from 7-8:30 p.m.  The talk is entitled “Parenting in the 21st Century:  How 100 Years of Research on the Human Neurosystem has Revolutionalized How to Care For and Love Our Children.”  To register, go to http://www.eventbrite.com and search for Mitch Smolkin.

 

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