Happy Friday Coyote Families!!

I hope everyone has had a great week! We’ve settled into our new routines rather nicely at ALS this week.  Today we hosted our welcome back BBQ, and everyone had a nice time. Big thank you to Ms. Skjerpen and Mr. Cousin in organizing and I want to thank those of you that popped by to say hello and meet our teachers. I know the time offering was not ideal for most families, but for those that did come, it was nice to see you all. We will have a formal meet and greet on September 21^st during our Orientation Night. This is not a parent-teacher interview evening, but instead an opportunity for families to learn about some of the elements of ALS that are relevant to all families, tour the facility, and put staff names and faces together and introduce yourself to your child’s teacher.

If you are new to Arbour Lake School, below you will see our social media accounts. We do use these to communicate information to parents outside of this weekly update and within these accounts you will find any unforeseen changes to dates and events as things do shift and change on occasion and posting on our socials allows us to update families relatively quickly. These accounts also highlight special events and student learning.

TRAFFIC CONCERNS - AGAIN

Last week I included information around student drop off and pick up. It is included below again and highlighted in yellow. This is an ongoing issue at all schools and has been something I have tried to address with parents here at Arbour Lake School, and while last week went well, this week has not gone so well at all. We have also had parents calling us to complain about other parents and asking me to deal with the situation. Please know that I am just the principal of Arbour Lake School and not the principal of Arbour Lake community, and I am also not CPS or the parking authority. While I am more than willing to work with students and support their choices, as this is my role, this is not my role with their parents. This said, I have, over the past week, stopped to ask several parents to not entre the parking lot and to not stop along Arbour Lake Road, but sadly every single one has been indignant and rude until they realize who I am. This tells me that as a community we believe it is acceptable to be rude and use profanity with other parents and my staff who politely and kindly ask us to keep our children safe and follow traffic rules and school requests. Please know that if another adult approaches you, they are doing so out of care and concern for children and not because they want to chastise a fellow parent.

As noted below, there is to be NO stopping or drop off along Arbour Lake Road adjacent to the school during morning drop off and afternoon pick up. This is a bus zone from the stop sign all the way up past the staff parking lot. While this may not be convenient, it is a reality and one that keeps our students safe. U-turns are NOT permitted in front of the school, there are signs indicating this and when parents show blatant disregard for traffic laws, they not only risk harming a child, an adult, and causing an accident, but they also teach our students that laws and rules are optional which makes our work with them, and I would suspect their work with their own child, more difficult. Finally, please do not enter our parking lot. Again, there is signage indicating this and by doing so parents place student safety at risk, and cause staff to be late for work as you’re blocking the entrance and causing a visibility issue. Unless you work at ALS, do not come into our parking lot during school hours. Parents do not need to drop their children off right at the front doors. It is OK for them to walk half a block. I promise you they will be just fine even if they must walk 2 minutes down the road and cross at the cross walk, they do this all the time while at school and seem to be ok. J

I hope to not have to have to address this issue again – this said, I would encourage parents with similar frustrations to mine to call 311 or CPS, as they have the authority to deal with these incidents while all I can do is politely ask parents to kindly support our requests to keep students and all of us, safe. I value strong and positive relationships with parents, and I have no desire to ruin these based on traffic issues. Thank you so very much in supporting my staff and I on keeping your child(ren) safe.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend ahead and please, as always reach out with any questions, concerns, or feedback you may have.

Sincerely,

Nancy Lisi, Principal

Nmlisi@cbe.ab.ca

School Start Up Information

• Action Item - Start up Documents: A welcome package was sent out earlier this week. This includes all the information and documents for school start up. As of today, parents can go log into their parent PowerSchool account and go to Online Forms. From here please complete the Annual Authorization and update demographics please.

• Fees: School fees for parents are either school based or centrally based.  Fees such as lunch supervision and bussing are centrally based. These are levied by the CBE and are not determined by the school. Students eligible for bussing and wishing to access CBE transportation are required to register for bussing (see below) and pay the associated fee. Additionally, the lunch supervision fee for grade 6 is also centrally charged. School fees include such things as Complementary Course Fees, field trips and activities fees are levied by the school. Questions or concerns around these can come directly to me please.

• Transportation: All bus inquiries should go through CBE Transportation. Arbour Lake School does not manage anything bus related, including bus registration and fees. We do send out notifications if we receive them from Transportation alerting families of delays. Below is the link to Transportation on the CBE website.

https://www.cbe.ab.ca/schools/busing-and-transportation/Pages/default.aspx

School Operations 

Drop off & Pick Up: 

• Parents are asked to avoid dropping of and picking up students along Arbour Lake Road.  Our busses come for drop off and pick up on the school side of Arbour Lake Road, and city transportation and our specialized transportation also uses this area. Parking in the bus lanes is disruptive to the traffic flow and causes visibility issues. Please also be reminded that this area, adjacent to the staff parking lot and further up is a no parking zone. Finally, the staff parking lot is not a drop off zone. Please do not enter the parking lot as again, visibility becomes an issue and a huge safety concern.
• Remember – there are over 700 other students coming and going, so please be considerate in keeping ALL our students as safe as you would like for your own child(ren). Thanks so much for your cooperation.

Announcements & Reminders:

Arbour Lake School Council AGM and Meetings:

Our next School Council meeting is on September 19, 2023, at 6:30pm.  This meeting is our annual AGM, executive positions will be elected. Please join us and become an active participant in our school community. As principal I rely heavily on School Council for input, feedback, and parental perspective. This meeting will be in person at the school. Moving forward our schedule of meetings will be a hybrid of in-person and virtual.

The Coyotes Canteen

The Coyotes Canteen will open on September 11. A menu of the available items for sale & cost will be provided as soon as possible. All sales are in cash only.

Cross Country Schedule – Race Dates, Locations, and Practices

Upcoming Events & Important Dates

September 11             Basketball Tryouts

September 15             Terry Fox Run

September 19             School council AGM (6:30-8:30PM) In Person

September 20             Grade 7 Natural Resources Bowness Canoe Trip

September 21             Orientation Night – 6:30-8:00PM

                                    Scholastic Book Fair

September 22             Non-Instructional Day – No School

September 27             Grade 9 Theatre Calgary Trip September 28             Orange Shirt Day

September 29             National Day for Truth & Reconciliation (Lieu) – School Closed

Arbour Lake School Social Media Accounts

Twitter:               @ArbourLake_CBE           

Instagram:          arbourlake_cbe

Arbour Lake School