| Dear Parents and Guardians of Peter Lougheed School:
There is much to share from Peter Lougheed School. Firstly, I want to thank all our families who attended our November Learning Conferences held on Nov. 21 and 22nd. Being involved in your child’s world is so important and will pay huge dividends to your relationship with them, their development as a person and specifically, to their success as a student. As we approach the winter break, teachers are focusing their attention on the remaining learning time in Term 1. In January, we will be publishing report cards to parents and students. At Peter Lougheed School, our report cards are paperless! To access your child’s report card you will need to a have a PowerSchool parent account. Your PowerSchool account provides you with access to your child’s ongoing achievement in courses as well as their final marks and teacher comments at the end of Term 1 (January 25, 2020). At this point, we have most families set up with an account. Parents who do not have an account are welcome to come into the school office and get themselves set up. We are also offering PowerSchool sign up support during Night of Explore on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2019.
Parents and students have been reaching out to me communicating their concern and worry about the Provincial Education budget that was sent out to school districts on Oct. 24th. This late arrival of a provincial budget has put all schools across the province into a mid-year adjustment. This provincial budget involves significant cuts to the level of funding that schools are receiving. Normally, we receive our provincial budget in February. That allows schools to make plans for the following school year. This school year, we received the provincial budget in October, which has forced us to make mid-school year adjustments. Given the significant cuts, three weeks ago, CBE informed 300 temporary contract teachers that their current contracts would end January 2. At Peter Lougheed School, we have 6 temporary contract teachers who received letters that their contracts will end on January 2nd. As a staff we are very worried about the impact any loss of a teacher will have to the operation of our school and specifically to the welfare of our students. Last week, the CBE was informed that there was additional money that could be used to help offset some of the cuts and loss of funding. At this point, we are waiting to receive an adjusted school budget. Our priority is always to maintain a safe and effective learning environment within Peter Lougheed. We will endeavor to support all members of our community as we make the adjustments we will need to make given our loss of funding. We will communicate all changes/adjustments to you as soon as we receive our latest budget.
Read more about the latest budget developments from our Chief Superintendent:
https://www.cbe.ab.ca/news-centre/Pages/budget-update-statement-from-the-chief-superintendent.aspx
There are several documents that I would like to bring to your attention:
- Peter Lougheed School Development Plan: Our School Development Plan (SDP) is a one-year plan that outlines our priorities and goals for the upcoming school year. It is produced following extensive analysis and synthesis of our school data.
- Peter Lougheed School Results Report: This is a document that summarizes our 2018-19 school year (last year).
- Peter Lougheed 2018-19 Fees Report: This is a document that reports on Parent Fees for the 2018-19 school year. You will note that we were in deficit for the amount of approx. $7 000.00 last year. As a school we believe strongly that providing students with rich extracurricular experiences and superb curricular focused field trips are essential. Each year we aim to balance our Fees over the course of a school year. In years past, we have been able to absorb any deficits with provincial school funds and others sources, such as our recycling money. Moving forward, we anticipate that we will no longer be able to absorb any deficits given our reduced funding models. Therefore, we will be in positions that trips may be cancelled, example – Ski/Snowboard trip to Winsport.
Finally, I want to invite all of you to join us on Night of Explore, taking place on Wednesday, Dec. 18 The evening is open to all families of Peter Lougheed School students. The purpose of the evening will be to share and explore exciting learning from our Fine Arts and Career and Technology Foundation courses. The school will open its doors to families so that you have a taste for the excited learning going on in our Explore courses. One of the highlights of the evening will be a presentation/performance taking place in our main gym. We will send out an detailed invitation leading up to the event.
I wish you all the best as we enter into our Winter Break from school. Thursday, Dec. 19 is our last day of classes for students. Students will be returning to school on Tuesday, January 7, 2020. I hope that your break is met with good health and memorable family time. My wish is that you all disconnect from this digital world for some quality family time. Play a board game, go for a family walk, cook a wonderful ‘slow’ meal that involves time and togetherness.
Take care,
Mr. Gord Choate |
