Satpaul Singh Johal, PDSB Trustee from Brampton’s wards 9 and 10, visited Countryside Village Public School (CVPS), in Brampton’s ward 9, on March 6 and before that he attended a parent council meeting in this school on the evening of March 2.
– He met with the superintendent of education Neerja Punjabi, CVPS principal Audrey Miller-Raybould and vice principal Sukhbinder Bhat.
– Around 810 students are enrolled in this elementary school and the principal said that the enrollment is expected to grow up to 1200 students (full capacity) during the next 3 to 4 years.
– Principal confirmed that over 80 percent of the CVPS students belong to the South Asian community.
– A total of (only) 3 parents (1 Black, 1 Caucasian, and 1 Punjabi) participated in the parent council meeting. The principal said that they will be happy if at least 20 parents start joining parent council meetings.
– Similar to many other schools in Brampton, the CVPS principal, and vice principal are also concerned about the long absences (vacations for 3–4 months) of the students.
– This problem is mainly related to parents of Indian, including Punjabi origin. Parents, who take their children to a foreign country,
and stay there for months, cause great harm to the learning path of their kids, teachers say. After a big gap, it is almost impossible for the students to catch up with the missed learning opportunities in the school.
– Traffic congestion and illegal parking around the school are one of the major concerns of the school staff. The principal will raise this concern with the City and the Transportation (STOPR) and determine if a traffic survey needs to be completed for additional signage.
– The Parents are asked to leave a little early from home, not to park illegally, not do J-walking, not use profanity, and not drive without wearing a seat belt as children in the back seats are watching them.
– Kindly note that a large increase in parents’ arrivals at the time (last minute!) of school start is being noticed to drop off their child in the Kiss N Ride area. This results in large backups and congestion around the school’s property. The staff supervision begins 15 minutes before school starts. To ease the transition, people are encouraged to drop off their children a few minutes earlier.
– CVPS principal said that they have a ‘food to go’ policy in the school. Children can take food from any of the 2 fridges placed on the ground and 1st floor of the school.
– CVPS principal is taking the Right to Read policy very seriously and making sure that all children (in Jk and SK) are able to read before they transition to grade 1.
– The principal confirmed that they have enough (around 70) staff and teachers, but they may need more EAs. CVPS has a total of 27 lunch supervisors (LS). At least 14 of LS are permanent and 13 are on the supply list.
– CVPS has 3 portables and at least 9 more portables are planned to be added during the next four years. I have plans to raise this issue with MPPs as this issue can not be resolved before the provincial ministry of education stops reducing the size and number of students for a planned and projected school building by the PDSB.
– CVPS has at least 7 supervisors in place (in and outside of the building) during the school start time.
– Principal confirmed that a grade 3 girl was caught bullying in the school. 1 student was suspended last year for using the N** word, and 1 student has already been suspended this year for fighting in the school.