Dear Parents & Guardians:

In this post you will find information for the following:

·         Important Dates

·         School Council Meeting Minutes and Principal Report Posted

·         School Planning Survey (Budget, Fees, Society & Council)

·         Parent Teacher Conferences – online booking opens Sunday (March 16) 6:00 p.m.

·         Garden of Kindness

·         Painting Sneak-a-Peek

·         Alberta Education Assurance Survey – Parents

·         Martinis & Masterpieces Parent Fundraising Gala – May 1

·         Bottle Thrive Fundraiser for James Short School

Important Dates –

·         March 13 – School Council and Society ONLINE Meeting (1:30-3:00)

·         March 17 – Irish Dancers (9:00-10:00 a.m.)

·         March 19 – Fun Lunch

·         March 20 – ONLINE Parent/Teacher Conferences (4:15-8:15 p.m.)

·         March 21 – ONLINE Parent/Teacher Conferences (8:00-noon)

·         March 24-28 – Spring Break – No Classes

·         March 31 – Classes resume

·         April 9 – Spring Concert Dress Rehearsal (9:00-11:00) Extended Family may attend

·         April 10 – Spring Concert Daytime Performance (9:00-11:00) – Ticket info to follow. Evening performance cancelled.

·         Subscribe to our Web Calendar (link on bottom left)

School Council Meeting Minutes & Principal Report Posted

Thank you to everyone who attended our Council and Society meeting yesterday afternoon. The minutes from the meeting and the Principal Report are posted on our Council webpage and Society webpage.

We shared student projections for next year, related budget items and introduced a Parent Survey to engage in regarding our Parent Society, volunteer opportunities for Council events and school planning goals.

School Planning Survey (Budget, Fees, Society & Council)

We know we make better decisions to support student learning when we build understanding and work together. That’s why we’ll be sharing information about school planning and asking you to share your perspectives.

During this engagement, you will have the opportunity to:

1.       Learn About

a.       School planning, which includes the school development plan, school budget and school fees

b.       How the school development plan sets the overall focus and direction for a school to improve student learning outcomes

c.       How the school budget provides funding to implement our school development plan

d.       School fees and why they are necessary

e.       EPPS Society budget allocations to support residencies and student experiences

f.        Volunteer opportunities and School Council events

2.       Participate

a.       We held a virtual school council meeting yesterday to share information about our school planning process. Here is the link to the online feedback form for the survey.

b.       Share your perspectives through an online survey open until March 31. Watch this short video to learn about the planning work schools do to improve and support student learning. View the Elbow Park Presentation with specific budget details prior to taking the survey.

c.       The link to the online survey is here on our School Planning Engagement webpage.

Parent / Teacher Conferences (March 20 & 21)

As mentioned above, parent / teacher conferences will be moved online for the evening of March 20 and the morning of March 21.

The format will not be student-led as we typically do at this time of year. The format instead will resemble a sit-down meeting with the teacher to discuss student progress, like in November. Students will have brought work samples home to share prior to our conferences. Please review these with your child before the interview as they will inform the conversation.

Bookings will open on Sunday, March 16 at 6:00 p.m. Please book separate interviews with each subject’s teacher (ie. Literacy, Math, Science and/or Social Studies). Conferences are:

·         Thursday, March 20 (4:15-8:15 p.m.)

·         Friday, March 21 (8:00-noon)

Garden of Kindness

Our Grade 1-2 students hosted an assembly in February to acknowledge what our school has learned about kindness and being inclusive as they fit in with Valentine’s and Pink Shirt Day. All students were asked to add a flower to our “Garden of Kindness” – a bulletin board to draw attention to being positive and caring.

Painting Residency – Sneak-a-Peek

Our students painted with Sheila Kernan on Monday and Tuesday of this week. It was a fantastic experience for our students to learn from her while painting the canvases. These masterpieces will be auctioned off at our parent fundraiser gala event on May 1.

Alberta Education Assurance Survey – Parents

To date, we have only had 12 parents complete this survey. We typically have about 20 parents who complete this survey each year. This is for parents who have children in Grades 4-6 at our school. You will have received an email from the CBE that contains a survey link and a Random Access Code (RAC). The survey timeline is Feb. 18- March 21. If you require an Access Code, we do have some available at the school – please contact the office.

This is an annual survey that parents, students and teachers complete. The survey will gather important information students’ and parents’ school experiences and will help to inform continuous improvement in our education system. The results of last year’s survey were shared at our last School Council meeting in the January Principal’s Report.

If you are completing this year's survey, please note that if a question is not applicable or if you do not feel comfortable answering, you should:

·         leave the response blank or fill in the circle under “N/A”

·         know that a blank response or response under the “N/A” category does not count against the school

Martinis & Masterpieces Parent Fundraising Gala – May 1 (7:00 p.m.)

Please plan to join the parents and staff of Elbow Park School for a live and silent auction gala event raising funds to enhance the experiences of students at our school. View our Fundraisers webpage for more details but save the date for May 1 @ 7pm.

In preparation for the event, local renowned artist Sheila Kernan will be in the school the week of March 10 to guide the students through the creation of beautiful art that reflects aspects of what they are studying in school - six pieces will be available in auction at the gala.

Bottle Thrive Fundraiser for James Short

Our school is partnered with Skip-The-Depot to collect refundables from your home.

• Help support families in need at our sister school, James Short Memorial, which is located in the community of Penbrook Meadows, through our Parent Society’s ongoing bottle drive.
• Bottle donations are collected from your door throughout the school year and the dollars raised will be distributed to families by way of Superstore gift cards.
• You can schedule your bottle pick-ups by using the Skip-The-Depot app and connecting to our Elbow Park Parent Society in the list of donors. More instructions are available on our Fundraisers & Donations webpage.