News

It might seem a little late to thank you for your support of our Winter Magazine Subscription Promotion, but did you know that we are able to continue to support Roden School through magazine subscriptions year round? By going to www.QSP.ca – click on “just shopping” – you can access our account by searching by account number 9210, or by school name “Roden”. Magazine subscriptions for titles such as People Magazine, Chickadee, Today’s Parent, and Canadian House and Home (and many more) are available at significant discount, and an average of 30%!!! of your subscription fee is gifted back to Roden Public School. We have raised a record $1114.00 this year. When you are considering your gift purchases we hope that you keep magazine subscriptions and Roden fresh in your mind through the Spring, Summer and Fall months. A belated thanks for your support over the holidays, and for your continued support in the year.

Doah Wilson
Roden School Council Fundraising Chair.

The Healthy Building Committee (a joint Equinox and Roden committee) recently met to discuss our current situation with the flooring at the school. The meeting started with a brief history of Indoor Air Quality at the school since 2009. There have been two air quality tests (neither of which adequately tested areas of concern, particularly the carpets themselves) and a survey (2011) that went out to students/families (Equinox & daycare) and building staff. There were approximately 150 respondents and plenty of anecdotal evidence regarding exacerbation of eczema, asthma, general illnesses, headaches while at school/during the school year.

At present, there is essentially no Board budget for any expenditures. Therefore the ‘Emergency Facilities Budget’ is covering the hallway flooring. The TDSB current standard is vinyl composite tiling (“Excelon”). These are touted as environmentally responsible, being composed of 85% limestone. However, the remaining 15% is PVC and phthalates. Our position is that there is no acceptable level of PVC and phthalates in this school (or anywhere). Vinyl flooring has a shorter lifespan than linoleum/Marmoleum, requires more maintenance (waxing, etc), and is not recyclable/does not break down at the end of its ‘life’.

The Healthy Building Committee is in the process of talking to companies that manufacture Marmoleum to see if we can get either a donation or if they can match the cost of the vinyl flooring (as the installation costs are the same for either one).

Help support the Healthy Building Committee by having your child (or you) write a thank you card to the folks who helped to get our old carpet pulled out. We are hoping that by expressing our thanks and at the same time our concern over replacing the carpet with vinyl, they will see our high level of concern over this matter. Please see attached samples of thank you card 1 and thank you card 2.

For more information on the carpet replacement issues please read the IAQ flooring PDF.

To become involved or find out more please contact, Pascaline Phillips, Chair of the Healthy Building Committee, at pascaline@naturalpanacea.ca.

Thank you to all who supported our last movie night of the year, we were able to raise over $800!

Thanks to all who came out and made this event a big success; an especially strong turnout at the Urdu/Hindi parenting workshop and the Mandarin workshop; thanks to all who helped with the gardening workshop and to the many kids who turned out for the hula hoop workshop.

Big thank you to local realtor, Cameron Weir for donating the Workshop Evening refreshments and to Starbucks for providing the coffee.

We need you!!! Join the Roden School Council next year. Speak to one of this year’s Council members or Mr. Lasso or Mr. O’Shaunghnessy about how you can become involved. Or stop by the Council table at the BBQ this Friday.