School Council Meeting - September 22, 2026

STOUFFVILLE DISTRICT SECONDARY SCHOOL

SCHOOL COUNCIL MEETING - MINUTES

Tuesday, September 22, 2026 @ 7:00 pm

Virtual Link

Officers

● Each council must have a chair/co-chairs. - chair calls for agenda items for each meeting

Can also have a treasurer or secretary
Candidates for the position of chair/co-chair must be parent/guardian/family members and not employed by the Board.
Council members elect the executive positions.
Call out for secretary and/or treasurer - no response
Call out for Chairs - Heather Rogers and Ramona Lawrance elected

School Council Handbook - shared with everyone in attendance

Student Services

October 20th - 2 copies of IEPs will come home. Please sign and return one to room 1005 or your SERT. The second copy is for your records. This is a working document. Have concerns, connect with your SERT to discuss
New to YRDSB and have an IEP, connect with us ASAP

Music Department

Grade 9 Welcome lunch last week was a success. A bit of a delay in the lunch but a great networking and team building opportunity on Sept 18th
Markham Fair next Thursday for our 10-12 students. All are welcome.
October 20th in the evening - Jump Start - have kids in grade 8? We are connecting with our Elementary Partners to host a Jump Start program to encourage them to continue pursuing and loving their music education

Visual Arts

SDSS Visual Artists have partnered with Latcham Gallery to be part of Pose--- it is mixed media creation project with seniors to dive deeper into identity and shared commonalities between youth and seniors

Yearbooks

Yearbooks are available on SCO until they sell out. Despite the early time of year, purchase sooner than later to avoid disappointment. Once the order is placed, there is no opportunity to purchase as we order on an as requested basis.

Greece 2027

We are still trying to run a 2027 Greece trip over the March Break. If you have a student interested, connect with Mrs. Van Kampen or Ms.Cui. Need help finding them, ask any adult or the main office for help.

Attendance and Participation

This is a new Ministry requirement this year, accounting for 15% of the students’ mark based on attendance and participation. This will be spoken about but from a teacher lens we would like to share that both are important but that participation is more varied. It includes time used in class, completion of learning activities that don’t account for actual marks but are the learning activities that inform teachers around your progress, understanding and engagement in learning. Attendance is based on unexcused absences, participation is based on what you are doing when you are or aren’t in class.

Clubs and Teams

We are in full swing. Tryouts for golf, rugby boys volleyball and more are underway. We are a strong sports forward school with over 20 sports teams averaged every year. All are welcome.
W-S library will be here tomorrow at lunch. Connect to learn about opportunities, spaces and volunteer opportunities
Didn’t make a team, we aim to run basketball in the gym 3 lunches a week, starting soon.
Terry Fox - Sept 29th

Student Success

Transition activities for grade 9s a huge success: Grade 9 Day & Green Acres were great hits
Transitioning to High School and our Support
Need support, reach out. Monitoring and tracking of attendance and student success is ongoing, discuss how we do this MLL supports - connect with your ESL teacher or with Student Success as needed

Guidance

Great start to the semester, timetable changes are complete at this point, barring rare circumstances.
Semester 2 - we are aware of some gaps in timetables and continue to monitor and assess. This will be a November starting point as we re-evaluate registration that continues based on April/May staffing and original timetabling.
Need an appointment - book through Teach Assist. This year we are using have transitioned from Alpha counselors to grade counselors
Communication - join the SDSS instagram, there are various GC by grade with posted information
Admin Report – Melissa Schmidt / Katrina Morrison / Neil Press

Melissa

- Terry Fox Run coming up on September 29th, period 3

- Parking lot, admin are out in the afternoons supporting with traffic control and pedestrian safety

- Greece trip - call out for more interest

- Camp Green Acres, lots of positive feedback from grade 9 students

- Caring and Safe Schools Assemblies have been completed

- Student Activity Fee collection and promotion

- New attendance and participation policy

- Club Fair scheduled for tomorrow (Sept 23) during lunch

- Vaping issues in bathroom, admin are working to monitor bathroom use between classes, responding to vape concerns immediately

- office staff reduction in staffing, encouraging parents to email student absences in as opposed to calling

- Spartan Speak (parent newsletter) recently sent home to parents, will continue to be sent on a monthly basis

Katrina

Interim reports going home electronically on Oct 20-21 via student gapps account
Parents can access reports via Parent Portal
Mid-term reports distributed in November
Parent Teacher interviews scheduled for Oct 22, parents will be able to book via teachassist in early October, more information to come via email
Take Your Kid to Work day scheduled for Nov 4th
Grade 8 students visit SDSS Nov 4th
School Council Forum

November 23, 5:30 - 8:30, Newmarket HS (Newmarket)

if interested in attending, let Melissa and co-Chairs know

Next meetings - November 16, 2026

February 16, 2027

May 18, 2027