I hope everyone had a great break, and would like to welcome everyone back after what was a great week at Marion Carson School. Learning is well underway again and preparations for both our K-6 Community English program's Celebration of Learning and K-4 Mandarin Bilingual program's Lunar New Year Celebration are ongoing as we approach this celebratory evening on January 18, 2023. Please refer to the message sent earlier this week on Tuesday, regarding celebration details related to each event. We continue to work to provide extra tickets as they come available for the Lunar New Year Celebration.
Some items to note…
1. Staffing Updates
We would like to welcome Mrs. Ghelfi, our Acting Assistant Principal who is here at our school while Mrs. Ly continues her studies until the end of the year. Mrs. Ghelfi has been spending her first few days connecting with classrooms and getting to know our Marion Carson students, staff and community. Please be sure to introduce yourselves when you see her outside when picking up or dropping off students, and at upcoming school events.
Please also welcome Mrs. Pimentel Coelho, who will begin her role as Administrative Assistant as of this upcoming Wednesday. Her and Mrs. Gascoine will join Mrs. Ghelfi and myself as office staff and will become familiar faces for you, here to support our students, parents and staff with emergent and organizational needs.
2. Fun Lunch - Subway
The next fun lunch will be on January 27, 2023 with Subway, which is now live on the healthy hunger website! https://healthyhunger.ca/ The deadline for ordering will be January 22, 2023 midnight!
Please note, Fun Lunch on January 27 is being offered to Grade 1- 6 classes and ONLY group B Kindergarten class as this is the only kindergarten class that will be in attendance over the nutrition break on that day.
School Council is looking for volunteers to help distribute lunches this time and for future fun lunches. Please look out for the message from the Volunteer Coordinator about sign up details or contact the School Council at mcschoolcouncil@gmail.com to be added to their email list.
3. School Fees Active in MyCBE account
As the year continues, certain fees become posted based on school registration, transportation, activities, and more. All fees are viewed and paid online by parents through their MyCBE account. These fees will be added to your child's account throughout the year as needed. At this time, we are asking all parents to visit their MyCBE account to ensure that fee payments are up to date, and then continue to visit their account for fee payment throughout the year when your child is involved in an activity with required payment. We appreciate your prompt payment of these fees. Some general information about fees is included below:
- Annual CBE fees:
o These are fees for CBE services and will be applied to your account in the Fall. For a list of CBE fees, please see the following website.
o https://school.cbe.ab.ca/school/marioncarson/registration/fees/pages/default.aspx
- School Based Fees:
o These are fees you may see applied to your account in cases when a field trip, in-class activity, or whole-school event\residency has been arranged for your student.
- How to View and Pay Fees:
o For additional instruction on how to pay fees, please see the following website - https://cbe.ab.ca/support/Pages/MyCBE-PowerSchool-Student-Fees-Registration.aspx
4. Registration – Spread the Word
We had great interest at our Open House this past Thursday for both programs offered within our school. If you have a current student at our school, please note that you do not need to re-register your child each year, as they automatically go the next grade. If in a final year of the program (Grade 4 for Mandarin Bilingual and Grade 6 for Community English Programs) they will automatically be registered into their designated school for their program, unless we hear different from you as a parent/guardian about a move to another school. A message will be sent out later in the year about your plans for the upcoming school year, but if you know of a school move before this message, then please email our school at MarionCarson@cbe.ab.ca.
- Grade 4 students in Mandarin Bilingual Program attend Colonel Irvine School for Grade 5.
- Grade 6 students in Community English Program attend F.E. Osborne for Grade 7.
If you have a student who is a current member of Marion Carson School Mandarin Bilingual program and have another student that you are hoping to have begin attending the Mandarin Bilingual Program starting next year in Kindergarten or Grade 1, please be sure to express your interest using the related online registration pages. To be considered in the lottery for our Mandarin Bilingual Program, registration/expression of interest must be completed between January 16, 2023 and February 14, 2023 at 12pm noon.
*To be placed in the correct lottery priority placement, is important that if you have a sibling currently attending the Mandarin Bilingual program at Marion Carson School you take the time to enter the sibling information within the form, where requested, and click that you have an interest in Alternative Programs, which will lead to some additional branching questions related to our Mandarin Bilingual Program.
Registration for the K-6 Community English program also begins on January 16, 2023. Please spread the word about the great things happening at Marion Carson School.
For more information about registration, please visit the CBE Registration News Story on our website or click here for the Open House News Story which will have our Open House PowerPoint posted in the coming days.
Sincerely,
Mr. D. Turner
Principal, Marion Carson School
Upcoming Dates:
Dec. 22: Last day of school before Winter Break
Dec. 23 – Jan. 8: Winter Break
Jan. 9: Classes resume
Jan. 12: Open House (for families interested in a beginning school in September 2023)
Jan. 16: 2023-23 Registration Opens
Jan. 18: Lunar New Year Celebration (K-4 Mandarin Bilingual Program)
Jan. 18: Celebration of Learning (K-6 Community English Program)
Jan. 25: School Council Meeting
Jan. 30: Online report card goes live in MyCBE accounts
Feb. 2: Science Fair
Feb. 3: Non-instructional day – no school for students
Feb. 6 – 9: ELEV8 Lacrosse (Grade 5/6 students)
Feb. 14: Valentine's Day Activities
Feb. 14 (noon): Registration closes for Mandarin Bilingual Lottery Process
Feb. 16/17: Teacher's Convention – no school for students
Feb. 20: Family Day – no school
