December Meeting 2017

Minutes of the Parents’ Council Meeting of December 4th 2017

Grade	Type of Representative	Name	Present at meeting December 4th 2017
1a	Parent	Evgenia Lynum
	Deputy	Kyle Depew
1b	Parent	Gobind Singh Gill	x
	Deputy	Birute Stankuniene
2a	Parent	Thilanka Madugodage	x
	Deputy	Dmitry Ilinskiy
2b	Parent	Derya Ongen	x
	Deputy	Birendra Kumar	x
3a	Parent	Philmar Middelthon
	Deputy	---
3b	Parent	Thrasyvoulos Gryparis
	Deputy	Anastasia Solomonova (solomonova) Hole
4a	Parent	Kate Rushdy	x
	Deputy	Tara Tinholt
4b	Parent	Jennifer Fagan	x
	Head of PC	Anne Lise Kielland	x
	Deputy	Tessa Howell
5	Parent	Mette Reitz	x
	Deputy	Ragnhild Krøglid	x
6	Parent	Prashant Kanungo
	Deputy	Heidi Robertson
	Deputy	Frode Olsen
7	Parent	Robert Jones	x
	Deputy	Haseung Choi
8	Parent	Andrew Langridge
	Deputy	Elizabeth Olsen	x
9	Parent	Anne-Valérie Sickinghe
	Deputy	Mark Williams
	School Principal	Robert Browne (RB)	Present during pt. 1 and 2

1. General update from the Principal

Nothing new regarding the premises.

2. Update on the recent enhanced focus on the traffic safety situation

The school has had increasing focus on safety for the children walking to and from school, as the driving conditions have gotten more difficult due to the winter weather. RB reached out to the Parent Council and asked for support and suggestions.

After having received several suggestions from the Parent Council, last week all the teachers at the school engaged in a collective action regarding the traffic safety situation. They were supervising the pedestrian areas from the bus stop and all the way to the front of the school. They were visible and actively directing children to cross at the correct places and guiding cars that were not driving accordingly. Hopefully the actions done last week has helped create a focus and new routines and that we will see an improvement in the future. RB is considering repeating this activity.

RB has contacted Statens Vegvesen regarding the pedestrian crossing at the main road, again, now that Landøya students are being dropped off at the main road the number of kids using the pedestrian crossing is around 600 each day. This should be enough to get Statens Vegvesen to lower the speed limit and enforce the crossing with lights. RB is still waiting for a reply.

The process of getting signs put up near the school is moving forward, finally, after 3 years of negotiation with Drengsrud. Asker Kommune has been asked, again, to put up signs for the pedestrian crossing between the car park and the sidewalk near the school.

AIS has been promised a concrete block in the pedestrian path, preventing cars to use the pedestrian path as an exit from the car park.

AIS has contacted the local police and asked for them to come and talk to the students at AIS about traffic safety in wintertime Norway.

The teachers and staff supervising the traffic outside the front of the school has been verbally abused and threatened, several times, when trying to direct cars away from the area. This has not been parents of AIS children.

3. Other suggestions regarding the traffic safety situation

- Using a fluorescent spray paint directly on to the snow on the road, to show the cars where to drive and not drive.

- Explore the possibility of having one entrance to the car park and a separate exit, this would make the traffic flow very much smoother and increase safety. If this is not possible, then at least widen the existing opening by 1-2 meters, since this would also help a lot.

Mr Roberts comment: I have asked Asker Kommune about this previously, and not been heard, but it might be more efficient if the parents as a group voiced their concern about this issue. I can make a short survey and send the link to the parents, so that everyone has a chance to sign and support the suggestion.

- Ask representatives from Asker Kommune to come and see for themselves what the traffic is like in the morning and in the afternoon and how this effects the children’s safety.

Mr Roberts comment: I have proposed the suggestion to Heidi Gartland in Asker Kommune, who said that she would pass it on to the right department.

- Follow the actions taken by schools in Halifax, Canada:

Let the children carry a highly visible flag across the pedestrian crossing, to make it extra clear to the drivers of buses and cars that they are crossing. The flags could be planted in buckets on both sides of the road. Once the child has crossed, the flag is placed in the bucket. The parents or children crossing in the other direction could carry the flags to the other side again. The flags should be kept in the reception and brought out only at 8.30-8.50 and at the end of the school day.

4. Resumes from the PC driven activities

When each event is finished, it is expected that those in charge write a resume from the event describing the challenges and solutions. This information should be passed on to the next years organizing committee. The PC suggests that these resumes be stored in Google Drive, not on the PC blog.

5. The Winter Concert, update and planning - Kate Rushdy

The planning is going well. It has been decided that admissions should be free, as well as coffee, tea and drinks for the children. The only income from this event will be from the raffles sales. The prizes this year are amazing.

The plan is that the parents of 4A and 4B bake all the cake needed for the cake sale and take care of selling the cakes at the show. The organizing committee will ask the PC for assistance if needed.

The raffle tickets will be sold at AIS on Thursday 7/12 and Friday 8/12 directly after school. The tickets will cost NOK 20,- and can be bought only for cash (no VIPPS).

6. A summer concert organized at the end of the school year?

The idea of having some sort of outdoor gathering at the end of the school year is definitely supported by the PC, but we need someone to organize this event. We will look at this in the spring.

7. Utilizing money from the Parent Council

It has been decided earlier that the PC wishes to donate money to sports equipment to be used at the various activities run by Mr Andrew, and outside during break. The PC also wish to donate some money to the art teacher, Miss Anja. Mette has now had a talk with Miss Anja about what kind of materials etc. she could need. Due to the nature of collaborative planning, Miss Anja needs to create new lessons or needs to adjust previous lessons on a 6-week unit basis. As a result, she doesn’t always know what supplies she will need, especially, if she wants to try something new. For this reason, Miss Anja suggests a budget for the art room, which could be under the custody of the treasurer of the PC and would only be requested, for projects like mentioned above. The school will be informed about the used budget for Miss Anja and/or Mr Andrew (once decided at the PC meeting).

8. Thermometer at school

The PC has been made aware that there is no thermometer at the school. The PC agreed that it is odd that not even the school nurse has a thermometer.

Mr Roberts comment: This is the first time it has been mentioned in 5 years. The school currently doesn't feel the need for a thermometer. Staff are not qualified to used it, there can be false readings and the only result would be unqualified staff making superficial diagnosis about a child's wellbeing. If children are sick, we first get them to rest for a while. If there is no improvement then parents are notified so they can decide what course of action to take.

9. Budgets for the Disco Night (grade 1-4) and the Formal (grade 5-9)

Mette will work out a suggestion for budgets and send them to the PC members before our next meeting.

The next PC meeting will be on Monday January 8th at 15.40 in the 9th grade classroom.

Minutes by Annelise Kielland

November Meeting

Minutes of the Parents’ Council Meeting of 6 November 2017

Grade	Type of Representative	Name	Present at meeting 6 November 2017
1a	Parent	Evgenia Lynum	x
	Deputy	Kyle Depew	x
1b	Parent	Gobind Singh Gill	x
	Deputy	Birute Stankuniene
2a	Parent	Thilanka Madugodage
	Deputy	Dmitry Ilinskiy
2b	Parent	Derya Ongen	x
	Deputy	Birendra Kumar
3a	Parent	Philmar Middelthon	x
	Deputy	---
3b	Parent	Thrasyvoulos Gryparis
	Deputy	Anastasia Solomonova (solomonova) Hole
4a	Parent	Kate Rushdy	x
	Deputy	Tara Tinholt
4b	Parent	Jennifer Fagan
	Head of PC	Anne Lise Kielland	x
	Deputy	Tessa Howell	x
5	Parent	Mette Reitz	x
	Deputy	Ragnhild Krøglid	x
6	Parent	Prashant Kanungo	x
	Deputy	Heidi Robertson
	Deputy	Frode Olsen
7	Parent	Robert Jones	x
	Deputy	Haseung Choi
8	Parent	Andrew Langridge	x
	Deputy	Elizabeth Olsen
9	Parent	Anne-Valérie Sickinghe	X (minutes secretary)
	Deputy	Mark Williams	x
	School Principal	Robert Browne (RB)	Present during pt. 1

1. General update from the Principal

Disco night: The Student Council (SC) would prefer involvement in arranging an end-of-year spring ball for grades 6 to 9 (around 80 students). From now on, Disco Night will be for grades 1 to 5 only.

Warm lunches: Students are happy enough with the quality, but improvement is needed on following points:

• School staff (especially Miss Chantale) is spending too much time distributing the lunches. The agreement was that skolematen.no would deliver at three delivery points, but so far lunches have been delivered in one single box. More delivery points have now been promised.
• The packaging contains too much single-use plastic. Students have now been encouraged to bring their own cutlery.

Yearbook: RB advises «if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it», and to be weary of student management unless students are given very specific parameters. Student pages with a collage could be a possibility. Jessica from SC has suggested a yearbook sub-committee. RB is very positive to the proposal of an own yearbook for Grade 10 next year.

Update on the school premises: Recently, RB has given two presentations to committees in Asker Kommune:

• Utvalg for oppvekst (Committee for Childhood and Adolescence)
• Formannskapet (Presidency)

In his presentations, he has emphasized AIS’s need for more space. AIS has 8,3 m2 per child in disposable surface, whereas the new Landøya Skole will have 23 m2. Therefore, the students from Risenga, that are suggested to be housed at the premises in Johan Drengsrudsvei while Risenga is being renovated, should be housed at the new Landøya school instead.

RB has proposed 2 different solutions for solving the need for more space following the growth of AIS in 2018-2019 and is still waiting for a reply. An answer was promised at the end of week 44, but had still not been received at the time of the PC meeting.

In his presentations, RB underscored the growing importance of AIS for the local community. The committee members have expressed surprise about how many of AIS’s students live in Asker. RB has denied to answer questions about how many AIS families are Norwegian, since this question is unfair: children of Norwegian parents can have grown up and gone to school abroad, and children born in Norway can have other home languages than Norwegian.

Winter concert: the school will rent Asker Konferansesenter for Wednesday 14th of December. This way, all the students will be on one site for the entire day. The conference center is large enough to house a large audience.

2. Utilization of income from PC-run events

Last year’s funds were allocated to the library by mistake, and will be re-allocated to the SFO.

For this year, Kyle Depew contacted Mr Andrew and received the following requests:

• A giant bin of equipment for students to use outside during breaks.
• New equipment for house events, to improve competitions and events.

It was suggested that the PC also ask Miss Anja for equipment requests. Mette Reitz will talk to Miss Anja and give us feedback at our next meeting.

To raise funds, it was proposed that the PC sell cake and coffee and charge an entrance fee during the winter concert. The specific purpose of the donations will be mentioned on Facebook and during all events from now on.

3. School sweatshirts

University.no has confirmed that they have received 30 orders. These will be delivered in week 45/46.

4. Evaluation of this year’s Halloween event

The event was a resounding success, and participants and parents found it very well-organized. 166 tickets were sold before the event. RB was also very happy about the volunteers.

It was proposed that a summary of how the event was organized should be written down and made available for next year’s organizers, e.g. on Google Docs. The absence of such a summary this year had made for a tricky start to the organization of the event.

We know that summaries have been written from previous arrangements, but they prove to be too hard to find on the website. Anne Lise will talk to RB about this.

5. The Winter Concert

Kate Rushdy is in charge, will need to start early. Raffle tickets bought by VIPPS should be registered, and tickets given to buyers straight away.

6. Other events

Philmar Middelthon (grade 3A+B parents) has a list of all the events where pictures will be taken for the yearbook. He also has a list of participants. Expected yearbook profit: NOK 30.000 if 220 yearbooks are sold. The book will be for sale when finished in the penultimate week of the school year. There is an ongoing discussion about preselling the yearbooks or not. This will be taken into consideration when we are closer in time.

7. Hot dog sale and Coffee Morning

This month’s Coffee Morning at Kaffebrenneriet was great, but it will be held in Asker library next time to facilitate conversation. There was initiative to organize this coffee morning twice a month instead of only once.

Kate Rushdy will send an email around ahead of the next hot dog sale.

8. Disco Night / prom / ball was included in 1.

9. was post-poned to our next meeting.

10. was included in 2.

The next PC meeting will be on December 4th at 15.40