Dear Parents,
I cannot tell you how seasonally confused I feel when it snows on May 8th and is 20 degrees November 2nd. My body doesn't know if it should move into or out of hibernation. I am grateful, though. Any day I don't have to shovel is a good day.
I approach each month with hope and optimism. Hope happens when we all come together and do the heavy lifting. I know how hard you are all working to stay safe, follow the checklist, and keep children at home when symptoms arise. The Tuscany School Staff all thank you for doing this part of the heavy lifting. Without your support, our work becomes that much more difficult. Our staff is doing everything they can to keep the school sanitized, remain in cohorts, minimize shared spaces and materials and stay healthy. We all will continue to be the “village" working together to strengthen the whole.
Please see our message sent out on October 30th regarding the new Daily Checklist for Children under age 18 for details. There are slight modifications that you will want to stay current round. Alberta Health is strongly recommending flu shots this year. I will leave it up to you to make the best decision for your child(ren).
I want to thank everyone who participated in building our Pumpkin Patches this year. The video clip sent home through the blogs is sure to bring back memories of the carving experience. All of the students were able to tour through all of the patches throughout the day. One staff member commented on how wonderful it was to see parents bring their pumpkins and drop them off in patches first thing in the morning. There are these beautiful moments that give us insight to the way things used to be and how we are adapting to the way things can be this year. Your participation helps make it special for the students and staff!
We are working on our next project of our Remembrance Day ceremony. Everyone is working hard to share another experience with you virtually so please stay tuned. Thank you to those who have sent photos of family members for our slide show. We will use photos sent to us in previous years unless you ask us to remove them. We have removed photos for all families who have moved on to TMC School just to follow our rules around consent to post and publish.
Just a reminder that Remembrance Day is Wednesday, November 11 and the school will be closed.
Soon you will receive a notice about FEES through Communications. This will detail the information around Instructional Supplies and Materials fees, commonly known as ISM. Prior to the NDP government's time in office, ISM fees were charged to parents. The NDP party took the fee on themselves. However, this year the parents assume the payments. The ISM fee of $40.00 for grades 1-6, inclusive of EES and $20.00 for our Kindergarten students covers all of the school supplies your child uses this year. This will also apply to our HUB families to cover costs associated with online books and materials accessed by HUB classroom students.
Noon Supervision fees will be uploaded to your accounts and this covers a large portion of the cost of lunchroom supervisors. Drop-in fees of $5.00 per visit need to be paid to the school if you choose this option.
Throughout the year there will be fees associated with our virtual field trips, dance residencies and visits with discipline specific specialists. The fees for these programs come up throughout the year. Your child's teacher will keep you informed of the virtual tours and guest speakers they will be accessing. We try to keep costs down while still getting the opportunity to accessing experts in the field.
Our School Council provides a tremendous amount of funding for a number of events and residencies at no cost to our parents. With their help, we have been able to secure things like Alien in-Iine, artist in residencies and musical opportunities celebrating Carnaval. We are still understanding what this will evolve into this year. For example, we had Sound Kreations booked originally for September, shifted it to November and now will have them during the spring. We will keep our hopes for an in-person visit from our instructor AJ but will also go with plan B if we need to live stream him into the gym for classes. We are always looking at Plan B.
Please join us for our School Council meeting on Thursday, November 12th at 6:30. Our School Council Chair, Michelle, will be sending out the link on that day and we always enjoy seeing those who are able to attend. Our parents are dearly missed within our building and we look for ways of connecting us all together. So if you have a chance come and join us on the 12th.
