Welcome Josh Woods and Lisette Lively

We are happy to introduce two new faces to MidSun, Josh Woods and Lisette Lively.

Mr. Woods will be taking over for Mr. McGhan as he goes on leave for the rest of the year.  Josh is a Kinesiology major who is more than comfortable in the gym.  He will also be heading up the grade 7 and 8 ENVO program.  Welcome Mr. Woods!

Miss Lively was the learning leader of language arts at Clarence Samson and has spent the last two years teaching in Kuwait.  She is glad to be back in Canada and teaching for the CBE.  She will be working with Ms. Smith's classes while she is away on leave.  Welcome Miss Lively!

Book Fair a BIG success

A great big thank you to our Michelle D. and her fabulous volunteers who worked hard to make our book fair a big success!  Thank you to everyone who purchased some wonderful reads. Our learning commons will be able to purchase $450 worth of books and the MidSun School Educational Enhancement Society is $498.25 dollars closer to putting a smartboard in every classroom!

Help us put a Smartboard in every MidSun classroom!

Our School Council has begun a large fundraising effort to provide our school with a smartboard in every classroom! The thermometer to the right of this page shows our fundraising target and progress. Thanks to all the parents who sent in donations at the start of the year.  Donations are still being accepted by the school council if you want to contribute directly.  The first fundraising event is in progress with Epicure spice fundraiser.  These spices make great hostess gifts or Christmas presents.  Your child should have brought home a form already but if it got lost in their backpack, another form is available at the link above.  Just drop off your order forms in the box in the office!  Thank you for helping our School Council make Smartboards a part of each MidSun School classroom.

Parent Meeting Re: Grade 8 New Homeroom distribution

Below is some information about the new funding that MidSun School will be given shortly.  This is an exciting opportunity for us to reduce class size. The priority for MidSun will be to reduce class sizes in our grade 8 population from 35 students to 30 or 31 students.  We will be holding a meeting on Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 1 PM in our library to discuss the process we will follow to redistribute the students in our grade 8 homerooms.  All parents are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Extra funding directed to schools from province

Principals are deciding how additional funding from the provincial government will benefit their schools.

During her campaign for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative party, Alison Redford promised to put $107 million back into education in Alberta. Within two weeks of winning the leadership, Premier Redford and new Minister of Education, Thomas Lukaszuk, announced that the money was secured.

The Calgary Board of Education (CBE) portion of the additional funding is $19.2 million.

During a public meeting on Oct. 18, the CBE’s Board of Trustees directed the one-time funding to schools so principals, who know their school communities better than anyone, can decide how to spend the money.

The CBE money comes from Alberta Education in two buckets. Part of the money is earmarked for Alberta Initiative for School Improvement or “AISI” projects. These projects are designed to improve our teaching across the system. The additional $4.2 million of AISI funding equals $43.50 per student. This money will be directed to schools for their personalized learning initiatives.

The rest of the additional funding for the CBE totals $15 million or $155.30 per student. Principals can use this money to make a difference in classrooms.

In general, Alberta Education has clear expectations for how the money is used. Minister Lukaszak has stated that the additional funding be “felt by” students and teachers. In other words, the funding is to be spent on people. This expectation is consistent with the feedback the CBE received to an online survey.

The CBE asked people to rate priorities for additional funding. Between Oct. 4 and 11, more than 6,100 responded to the survey. Teachers and support for teachers topped the list.

School principals have been asked to submit their spending plans for the additional funding by Nov. 1. The short deadline means the one-time money will get to students and classrooms quickly.

Principals will connect with their school council chairs to explain the exact funding for their schools and the spending plans. Given the quick turnaround, it is hard for principals to consult with the community again. That is part of the reason why the decision-making was delegated to principals. They know their schools. The spending plans will be a response to ongoing conversations about what is important in each school.

Sidebar: More than 6,100 people help set priorities

More than 6,100 completed an online survey to rank CBE priorities for additional funding from the provincial government. Here are the results in order of importance.

1 |    Teachers in schools

2 |    Support for teachers 

3 |    Support for students with special needs

4 |    School maintenance and repair

5 |    Technology for students

6 |    Support for English-language learners

7 |    Professional development for teachers

8 |    Reducing student fees  

9 |    Replenish CBE reserves

10 |  New schools

In addition to these choices, people could write in a response they thought was missing. Many of the 900 written responses emphasized the choices above. The most common write-in response was smaller class sizes, with 138 mentions.

Almost half of the people who answered the survey described themselves as parents with school-age children. About 40 per cent described themselves as CBE employees. For the most part, parents and CBE employees agreed on the priorities.

Fantastic Foods

Jenna P. really did an amazing job on this foods project extrodinaire!  The grade 8 students are finishing up their baking unit under the direction of Chef LeClair this month and will be moving onto sewing shortly. 

Parent/Student/Teacher interviews

All parents should have recieved interim mark updates by email last Friday in anticipation of our Parent/Student/Teacher Interviews on Wednesday October 26 from 5:30-8:00PM, Thursday October 27 from 5:30-8:00 PM and Friday October 28th from 9:00AM-Noon.  Students will follow a short day schedule on Oct 26 & 27 and no classes on Oct 28th.

Available at Interviews:
Catering Club hosts and hostesses
Leadership students selling SPC cards
Blog sign up
Book Fair to browse
Representatives from Learning cliks careers
pre booked Family portraits in the learning commons (library)http://schools.cbe.ab.ca/b691/pdfs/familyphotoevent.pdf

See you there!

Caring for our Watersheds

Agrium was at our school today teaching our students about caring for our watersheds.  They explained more about the contest they run for students in grades 7-12. (http://www.agrium.com/stories/1093.jsp)

Last year three MidSun students won $1300 in prizes by entering the competition.  We challenge all students to find ways to care for this important resource.  We would be proud to have another finalist this year!