BLACK WALNUT PUBLIC SCHOOL – School Council Minutes November 3, 2025
Meeting Format: In-Person
Attendees
In Attendance:
Parents: Stephanie Whittamore, Jennifer Reitsma, Thanusha Rajeswaran, Connie Hui, Lang Vu, Harmandeep Brar, Shelby Chung, Anna Leung, Nasia Isaac, Christine Malik, Amy Chan, Jennifer Wu
Administration: Vivienne Baines (Principal), Meaghan Harley (Vice Principal)
Teachers: Ms. Khurram, Mr. Barovier
Regrets:
Agenda
Welcome
Land Acknowledgment:
• Aldo Barovier read the YRDSB Land Acknowledgement
Approval of agenda:
• Moved by Lang Vu and seconded by Jennifer Reitsma
Road Safety Project – Guest Presentation from YRDSB & City of Markham
• Kathryn Shaw-Edmond from the YRDSB Planning Department, Fion Ho – City of Markham, Engineering Department
o Looking to start an active school travel program at the school
o Human power travel
o Educate and generate student awareness to promote sustainable travel
o Soft Tools: communication, announcements, walking Wednesday, cycle to school, Google form link for survey of the students, active school travel map, Markham Cycle Cycling pop up for bike maintenance, school-wide assembly – includes City of Markham, by-law officers, YRP
o Active Travel map – shows that it is not a hardship to walk to school from the outer boundaries
o Hard Tools: Engineering upgrades – flexi posts, pavement markings, crosswalk painting; mobile signs will be installed in the Spring; have done a traffic count and will do another one in the Spring
o YRDSB safety campaign – flags and sandwich board reminders; two more will be run before the end of the school year
o School Streets Program (in 2022 John McRae P.S. ran this pilot program) – what happens when you close down a street in front of the school? It is a temporary car-free zone around the school. Cars can park on nearby streets instead and make the short walk. The closed street does not become a “free active zone” where you can walk anywhere, so pedestrians and wheelers still follow regular road rules. At John McRae the street was closed every Wednesday for a month and it was well received. Traffic studies were done before and during the event and traffic was cut in half. At BWPS, if this initiative was implemented, the Drop & Go loop would likely be closed
• YRDSB looking to run this same program at BWPS, but it would be done in May 2026 and there would be lots of advance planning to give time for stakeholders to be ready for the roll out of the program
o School Council support – identify champions that could encourage the running of the program, special events support, what other things could we do to bring awareness to the program
o National Street Initiative requires a one month minimum
o Any questions can be sent to activeschooltravel@yrdsb.ca
• Council discussion after presentation: As we move forward we need to ensure that we are accessible and equitable to all students and parents/guardians, including if we decide to pursue the School Streets Program
o Grant that City of Markham received requires that if School Streets Program adopted, must be done for period of one month
• Suggestion made to do a walking “bus” or cycling “bus” with leader carrying portable speaker to generate buzz around walking/cycling as a big group to school
• Suggestion to consider incentivizing students so the go home and ask their parents/guardians to use active travel to get to/from school
• Suggestion to have question wall at Interview Night asking what reasons people have for driving to school / what would change their habit to use active transport
Approval of Minutes of September 29, 2025 meeting:
• Moved by Nasia Isaac and seconded by Jennifer Wu
School Report – Vivienne Baines & Meaghan Harley
• Finished safety campaign week last week
• Wrapping up the Terry Fox prizes with the inflatable races and $6,100 was raised
• Fresh from the Farm will be delivered November/December
• Bands, LEGO Robotics club, volleyball, photography club, GSA all active
• Cross country – 9 students attended Regionals
• School Council Forum – November 17, 2025 – one more spot if anyone wants to join Stephanie and Meaghan
• Family interviews November 20 and 21
• Scholastic Book Fair from November 17 to November 21
• Food Drive for Markham Food bank on until end of November
• Cost sharing amount likely will be similar to last year (around $7,000 from Council required to maximize Board match of 20%)
• School Improvement Plan (“SIP”) and Fundraising plan shared
o Some requests for funds include covering the costs of entrance into athletic events and club fees of approximately $3,000 (mental health & well-being section of SIP); contributions to student associations of $500 with additional requests to come through the year (equity section of SIP); cost-sharing for tech of $7,000; and contributions to extra-curriculars & music of $1,000 (adjudication costs for music have doubled this year)
Council Chair / Treasurer Report – Stephanie Whittamore
• Funds are at approximately $10,300
• Costs of jerseys are approximately $1,500 for 30 jerseys in a variety of sizes – already approved and will come out of above
• Pizza/sub/bubble tea participation numbers are similar to last year (335 pizza, 140 subs, 190 bubble tea)
• Since next Council meeting is not until January 2026, some funding approval requests will be done by Council over email
PRO Grant – preliminary discussion
• Harmandeep suggested looking at having a group come in to support equity-deserving families
• Inclusive education consultant from the Board is continually working with school team to discuss ideas
• Jennifer suggested looking at Marguerite Gervan on mental health and growth mindset
• Goal should be to have the community come in more often to see how we can better engage, even if just small interactions like the Tea & Talks hosted in previous years, or an event to explain the School Improvement Plan in lay-person’s terms to the community
Engagement & Fundraising Committee
• Fundraising committee has 4 people who have volunteered and Stephanie will reach out to them by email
• Look at more of our community groups to see how we can engage more with the community and the parents
Next Meeting – January 12, 2026