MINUTES OF THE HALIFAX DISTRICT PTA
NOVEMBER, 17, 1997

PRESENT:	Cheryl Kozey            Westmount
		Sue MacLeod	            John W. MacLeod
		Phil Davis              Tower Road
		John Sparling           Burton Ettinger
		Peter Crowell           Grosvenor-Wentworth
		Bev McDonald            Ecole Beaufort / FAPA
		Dick Tilley             Gorsebrook
		Ian Watt                Springvale


Call To Order:  The meeting was called to order by Dick Tilley at 7:40.

Opening remarks:
	It was good to see how well the E-mail communications worked.  We hope to 
be able to communicate among ourselves speedily in the future.

Minutes:
	Minutes of the Oct 20th meeting were read and passed with a few small
changes.

Business Arising From The Minutes:
	Nova Scotia Home & School Association:  A cheque was signed at this
       meeting and will be sent in immediately.
	Full Day Primary:  The individual schools who contacted us reported
       an overwhelming majority opposed to full 5 days and to the reduction
       of specialist time.

Treasurer's Report:
	Peter reports that he has yet to get all the prior records.  He will 
try to get briefed fully before the next meeting and will forward a
statement to be inserted into the record.

Committee Reports:  
	School Board Meeting Monitors:  Tom Dobbin went on what he was told
was the date for the meeting and no-one was there.  The school board members
were sworn in on the 3rd of November.. The regular meeting was on the 12th.
Unfortunately, there was no district representative present.
	Dick has offered to go to the School Board Office to make contact and
to find out for sure when the next meeting takes place.  He will write a
letter to the School Board giving our new mailing address and a list of the
executive.	John suggested we ask the school board to put the minutes of
their meetings on their web page.  Bev offered to try to prepare the minutes
of this meeting for approval in advance of the next meeting and to
distribute them to the four "city" board members when approved.

Educational Funding:
	A letter was sent to the Halifax Education Foundation asking them to
send a guest speaker to tonight's meeting.  They would prefer to come in
the new year with a new slide show that they are putting together.  It was
decided to ask them to send someone to the February meeting.

OTHER BUSINESS:  
	Constitution:  A motion is to be drafted removing from paragraph (5)
item (e) the references to wards.  The main areas will remain the same.
This motion will be distributed in the newsletter and voted on at the
January 19th meeting.

	New Mailing Address:    P O BOX 33042
                              Quinpool RPO,
                              Halifax, N.S.
                              B3L-4T6

Physical Education:
	We were contacted by Phys Ed Teacher Bev Johnstone about the
formation of a Phys Ed support group to be made up of parents and teachers.
Their first meeting was Nov. 13th and unfortunately  no member of our
executive was able to attend.  We will publish their concerns and meeting
dates in the newsletter.  We will invite them to send a representative to
our meetings.  It was reported that specialist taught phys ed will not be
offered before grade four!

Thanks to Don Connolly:
	Dick to send a letter thanking Mr. Connolly for his great job
Emceeing the Meet The Candidates Meeting.

January 19th Meeting:
	It was agreed to invite the four school board representatives from
this area to the January meeting.  Cheryl is to write an invitation.
Specific topics for this meeting would be:
	Educational Funding
	Communication liaison with the school board
	full day primary
	removal of specialists from the elementary curriculum and
	the need for coordinators in specialist areas
	
A reminder will be sent out before this meeting.

Weather Closures:
	A concern was raised about children being released from school for
inclement weather before the usual dismissal time.  This is especially
worrying at the elementary level.  In the city they could be out on the
streets in bad weather and their parents might not realize it.  It was
questioned whether this should be dealt with on an area basis instead of
board wide.

Meeting Adjourned:  Motion to adjourn made by John Sparling.