Dear Parents and Guardians,
I hope you all had a wonderful week to follow up a great long weekend!
Firstly, I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who attended the School Council meeting and Annual General Meeting. I am pleased to announce that the School Council executive for the next year has been established. Your involvement and support are invaluable to our school community.
Arbour Lake School Council 2024-2025
Executive:
Chairperson: Jennifer Crawford
Secretary: Aimee Blasetti
Treasurer: Maja Borowski
Key Council Members:
CBE Liaison/Key Communicator: Jeremy Crawford
Fundraising Coordinator/Fun Lunch Coordinator: Sabahat Zaidi
Casino Chair: VACANT
I also want to extend my utmost appreciation to our outgoing council members, Alexis Douglas, and Amber Baker. Your support of our work as a school and for my work as principal is so greatly appreciated. I will miss you at council meetings but wish you and your children the very best at your new school. Finally, I want to share that our school council also has a fundraising society that supports the school through working a casino. Currently the role for Casino Chair is vacant. This role and this work are vital to the added bonuses that the fundraising society provides to the students at Arbour Lake School. While there are almost 800 students attending, it is always difficult for our Chair to get enough support to run the casino. Most of us think that with a school this big, there must be someone else who has more time to volunteer and I totally get that thinking, I am a busy parent myself. This said, please consider helping at the next Casino (if we can get a Casino Chair). Just a few of the items they purchased for our school with the $77K earned from the last casino included:
Cameras for Yearbook
New school uniforms for all athletic teams
20 new laptops for our portable media lab
6 new Chromebook
$2K donated to Grade 9 Farewell
New indoor curling equipment
Donation to the school dance
10 new iPads for EAL translations and apps
iPad cases and dongles
Drum Pads
Wireless mics for drama/mainstage production
$5K in support of Wellness Day
This is just the tip of the iceberg of the financial support that our fundraising society provides for our school. Their support for some of the big-ticket items allows us to allocate our resources to the essentials and allows us to provide enhanced and enriched opportunities for our students.
A big thank you also to everyone who came to our Spring Festival of Learning. Thank you to Ms. Skjerpen for planning and Mr. Cousin for executing the plan. The event was an enormous success, and we are incredibly proud of the students and staff who worked hard to showcase the exceptional learning happening at our school. There are so many amazing things happening here that it is almost overwhelming to reconcile the talent and skill within this building.
I would also like to express my gratitude to Mr. Cousin and the Principal Advisory Council for organizing the Hollywood-themed dance last night. We had over 200 students attend, and everyone had a fantastic time. I am pleased to report that the event was incident-free, which is a testament to the excellent character of our students.
However, I must address some concerns we have received from local businesses and neighbors regarding student behavior. There have been issues in stores where students have behaved inappropriately and disturbed other patrons. Additionally, in the community, some students have been leaving litter and garbage behind. On the buses, there have been reports of students not giving up their seats for seniors or making space for others. As always, would you mind having a chat with your child about their behavior off-campus, both during lunch and after school? Our students are remarkably good individuals, and it is unfortunate that the actions of a few can impact the reputation of all. Being respectful and responsible while in the community is so important and we do not want to be a nuisance to our neighbors.
Thank you for your continued support and cooperation. Please reach out if you need anything at all and have a great weekend.
Best regards,
Dr. Nancy Lisi, Principal
nmlisi@cbe.ab.ca
Announcements & Reminders:
HR Class Composition 2024-2025 – Peer Requests
As has been mentioned previously we feel strongly that student input and voice is important when determining class placements for the next year. It can often make a huge difference in entering a new class if students have at least one other person they feel connected to, and we may not fully understand or know who those individuals may be for each student. So, we give them this chance to weigh in! Students will be asked to select 4 peers with whom they work well in class. We will work to ensure that students have at least ONE of the noted peers. Students are asked to select 4 different peers. When they name the same peer 4 times, this does not increase the chances of them being with that person.
Additionally, Parents are asked to reach out directly to Dr. Lisi if there are any peer interactions, concerns, etc. that we need to be made aware of as we start the work of creating next year’s homerooms.
OurSCHOOL Well-Being Survey | Spring Administration
Arbour Lake School will be participating in an online school perception survey for students called the OurSCHOOL Well-being Survey. This anonymous survey is completely voluntary for all CBE students. Please find the details of the survey implementation below.
CBE’s Education Plan prioritizes student voice and well-being in our decision-making processes. Responses from this survey are used at the system and school level to recognize and improve what is necessary for students to feel safe, welcome, and cared for when at school. We conducted a similar survey in the Fall and will use these results to compare to earlier this year and to previous years.
Grades 4-12 students provide feedback on:
sense of belonging
positive relationships
anxiety
feeling safe at school
life satisfaction
orientation to well-being
goal-oriented
self-regulation
cultural awareness of others
general health
Additionally, Grades 6-12 students provide feedback on:
depression
self-esteem
cultural awareness of self
Demographic questions are also asked on this survey for norming purposes. These are:
Grades 4-12 general
age, gender, Indigenous status, immigrant status, home language.
Grades 6-12 specific
grade repeater, reasons for changing schools, disability or medical conditions that limits participation in school activities or learning.
Teachers will coordinate with their grade team to find a time that best fits with their schedules.
If you have questions or would like to request more information about Arbour Lake School’s upcoming implementation of the OurSCHOOL Well-being Survey, please contact our Assistant Principal, Matt Sloane at mgsloane@cbe.ab.ca
Healthy Hunger – June 27 Rescheduled
The McDonald’s Healthy Hunger scheduled for June 27th has been rescheduled for June 25th. If you have orders in, Healthy Hunger should be in touch with you to let you know that the date has shifted.
Student Enrollment Intentions for 2024-2025
If your child is currently scheduled to return to Arbour Lake School next year, but you know that they will not be returning, please use this link to share your intentions: https://forms.gle/XvbybR3qvQci3R21A
Messages from School Council
Teen Triple P Seminars
Arbour Lake School Council is happy to share a learning opportunity presented for parents and caregivers of Arbour Lake School students. In collaboration with the Trellis Family Resource Network, we have the opportunity to host three seminars aimed at supporting skill development in parenting our teenagers. The teenage years are a time of tremendous change and development for our children and can sometimes be difficult to navigate as we are helping our teens move through puberty, friendships, other relationships, academics, and all the things in between.
We are excited to share these learning opportunities to support and engage our school parent/caregiver community and hope you are able to join us. The attached poster has additional information on each seminar. Please save the date for May 14th, 28th, and June 18th. Teams Virtual event invitations to follow.
Upcoming Events & Important Dates
May 27 Gr. 7 Heritage Park Field Trip
The Class – ROARR
May 28 Gr. 7 Heritage Park Field Trip
School Tours – Booked Through Main Office 5:30-6:30PM
May 30 Band Concert 6:30-8:30PM
May 31 Bike to School Day
Healthy Hunger Dates
Organized by our School Council, Arbour Lake School does offer “Fun Lunches” through Healthy Hunger. Parents can order lunch for their child in advance. It is delivered to the school on the noted date and distributed to students. If you are interested in taking advantage of getting a break from making lunch occasionally this is a nice treat for parents and students. The link to sign up is below. Please scroll down and select “Arbour Lake Middle School” – there are two schools with similar names, this is the one that takes you to our staff selection. ALL Homerooms have now been included!! https://healthyhunger.ca/parent-help
May 30 Tim Horton’s
June 6 Subway
June 12 Kernels
June 13 Pizza 73
June 20 Mary Brown’s
June 26 Tim Horton’s
June 27 McDonalds Rescheduled to June 25
Parent Volunteer Sign-Up for Fun Lunch - Thursdays
For parents who wish to volunteer, our Fun Lunch days need some support. If you have completed your police check and requirements for volunteering within CBE and are a quick learner in understanding systems of organization, we would love to have you come join us on Thursdays at lunch to support Fun Lunch distribution. Please use the Sign-up Genius link below to do so:
Sign Up Here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0B4CAEA628A3FDC34-46860288-funlunch/24158094#/
THE COYOTES CANTEEN
The Coyotes Canteen is open. All sales are CASH ONLY.
Canteen Items
Price
Cheez-It Crackers
$2.00
Rice Crispy
$1.00
Puff Wheat
$1.50
SmartFood – Popcorn
$1.50
Chips – Lay’s Oven Baked
$1.00
Chocolate Cookie
$1.00
SM Noodle Bowl (Beef/Chicken/Spicy/Veggie)
$1.75
LG Noodle Bowl (Beef/Chicken)
$2.50
Water
$1.50
Juice (Apple, Orange, & Grapefruit)
$1.50
EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES SCHEDULE - UPDATED
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
LUNCH
LUNCH
LUNCH
LUNCH
Fashion Club (Sabado)
FINS Club – raising rainbow trout to be released (Gedlaman)
Self Defense Club for Girls 6,7.8, and 9 (Berndtsson) Resumes Jan 22
EAL Club (Milligan)
QSA (Jang/McFarlane/ McKeon)
Scale Model Builders (Gilson)
Art/Knitting/Crochet (Schmidt, Todd, Milligan)
Trivia Club (Sayed, Fisher) Resumes Jan 30
Fashion Club (Sabado)
Chess Club (Gilson)
Comic Book Club (miller)
Trivia Club (Sayed, Fisher)
Fashion Club (Sabado)
Scale Model Builders (Gilson)
Cribbage Club (Julian)
Math Club (Berndtsson, Poyhia, Fischer, Jang) – to end of February
AFTERSCHOOL
AFTERSCHOOL
AFTERSCHOOL
AFTERSCHOOL
Backstage Club (Crabbe) until mid-May
Production Band (Eygenraam) – Until after the play – AFTER SCHOOL to 4:00
Backstage Club (Crabbe) AFTER SCHOOL
Backstage Club (Crabbe)
Guitar Club (Martyn/Crabbe)
Arbour Lake School Social Media Accounts
Twitter: @ArbourLake_CBE
Instagram: arbourlake_cbe