The May Community Council meeting was held last night with business as usual up until halfway when we welcomed parents from our St Michael’s community to join us for an open discussion. 

In our regular meeting we focused on the subject

of Miss Jordan’s Garden. It is our goal this year to educate our school community on exactly how much is involved in keeping this project running – both financially and in hours dedicated to its maintenance. It is our hope that more parents will become involved in keeping up this valuable part of our school. We are also aiming to create some events focused on the garden to renew enthusiasm around this wonderful project that we are so lucky to have at St Michael’s. If you or someone you know – listen up Grandma and Grandpa – would like to help out, we would be so grateful to hear from you.  

We then moved on to affirm our obligations as a Council under the Constituent Documents that come from the Catholic Education Office. This will become a regular feature of our meetings to ensure that we are fulfilling this role. Last night we touched on things we do to promote the Catholic ethos at St Michael’s and agreed to incorporate an element of prayer and reflection in all of our events, such as the upcoming trivia night. This is a good opportunity to remind everyone that the trivia night is on 28 June and you can book your table now via the Google Doc that was sent via email recently.

Gabriel Walsh, our finance officer provided an update on the Council budget which is predominantly made up of proceeds from all of our fundraising efforts. Though we are currently in a good place and all fete costs have been paid for, it is important to note that moving to a two-year fundraising cycle which involves a fete and a raffle in alternating years, means we do need to be careful with how we use our money. The fete raised just over $10 000 – which is fantastic – but our raffle next year may not raise quite as much as a fete and we need to keep this in mind. For this reason, the Council is moving to a two-year financial plan.

Open Meeting

A big thanks to the parents who took the time to attend the second portion of our meeting and provide feedback on their experience at St Michael’s. We also had some written correspondence from those who could not attend.

One point which was raised noted that parents had not been sufficiently consulted on fundraising activities for the year, particularly which types of events parents would be willing to volunteer their time to support. The Council noted that last year’s school survey included opportunity to provide this type of feedback but that this concern raised may also be a good catalyst to review the way we communicate Council messaging. We are always keen to hear from parents and wondered if there may be other ways to receive feedback. For example, polling on Facebook. We also want to create resources to demonstrate the new SchoolZine app and how beneficial it is as a repository of information, perhaps removing any barriers for those who are not yet using this system. Any comments or questions about this approach are most welcome via the Council email. 

Another question was raised about what our top three sources for revenue and expenditure are each year for fundraising events. This will be detailed in the upcoming two-year Council financial plan.

Damien Webb then spoke on the school’s commitment to  sustainability and how he is working to incorporate the greenhouse more into the curriculum. Currently there is a plant in almost every plot which is great and fulfils a goal that was set. We hope to reach out to the Parish as well to find more volunteers and bring the garden into the school community’s awareness more regularly. An idea of hosting a coffee there for parents was met with enthusiasm.  

We hope that anyone with suggestions or feedback who was not able to attend the open meeting will contact us via email and we will be happy to discuss your correspondence at the next meeting council.stmichaelsps@cg.catholic.edu.au