We are saying farewell to a very cold month of February. We lost a number of in class days due to our buses not being able to run because of the frigid temperatures. Hopefully, the coldest days are behind us, and this month served as a reminder—especially for our high school students—of the importance of staying connected with their teachers during inclement weather. Although our second semester started off in an abbreviated fashion, we’re hopeful that warmer weather is here to stay, allowing us to move forward uninterrupted.

Looking ahead, we have several school events on the horizon. Tomorrow, we will observe Pink Shirt Day. This is a day later than other schools may be recognizing it, so that our Kindergarten class can participate. To mark the occasion, we will be serving Yogurt Parfaits to all students in the morning. A big thank you to our parent volunteers for their help in serving!

Student-Led Conferences and Parent-Teacher Interviews are set for Thursday, March 6th. Earlier this week, we shared a link for you to sign up for an interview time. Please be sure to schedule your interview by Tuesday of next week.

Our High School Travel Club will be heading to Peru, departing on March 19th. We wish them safe travels and hope they have the experience of a lifetime. They have many exciting adventures planned, and we can’t wait to hear all about it.

As February draws to a close, so too do our basketball seasons. We want to express our gratitude to our players and coaches for a great season and for representing our school so well. Players, please take a moment to thank your coaches for their time and dedication. Volunteering to coach is a significant commitment, and we are so appreciative of those who take on this responsibility. Without you, our sports program wouldn’t be possible.

A friendly reminder that it’s survey season. Last week, families of our Grade 4, 7, and 10 students received Random Access Codes to complete the Alberta Education Assurance Survey. We value the time families take to complete the survey and provide us with feedback. Additionally, BRSD has sent out a survey link to all families, which was emailed earlier this week. We encourage everyone to participate.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Wishing everyone a fantastic month of March!

February

27 - Mini Dunkers @ Forestburg

27- Sr. B-Ball vs Forestburg

28/1 - Jr. B-Ball Regionals

March

3 - Agriculture Option Class Field Trip

3 - Mini Dunkers vs Sedgewick

4 - Mini Dunkers @ Viking

7 - Staff Meeting/PD/Collaboration (no classes)

14 - Gr. 4 to 9 Ski Trip @ Alliance

24 - Day in Lieu (school closed)

25-28 - Spring Break (school closed)

The Grade 4 to 9 Classes will be going skiing on Friday, March 14th. They will be leaving the school at 8:50am, and will travel by bus to Valley Ski Hill at Alliance. Students will return to the school at approximately 4:30pm and will need to have a ride home arranged. The cost of this trip is $35.00 per student.

Forms and payment can be competed online through the Parent Portal and must be submitted before March 5 or students will not be permitted to attend.

School fees for Semester 2 courses have been added to student accounts. Please check the PowerSchool Parent Portal and make fee payments as soon as possible. Fees can be paid online or by cash or cheque made payable to BRSD.

Good luck to our Junior Basketball teams as they head off to compete in their final tournament at Regionals this weekend! You have had a great season. Thank you to Karla Breitkreuz, Marianne Bobik, Clay Lawson, and Dan Guhle for coaching us!

Our Minis and Senior Basketball teams are just wrapping up their league seasons.

Daysland School Learning Commons

Wednesday, March 19 @ 7:00pm

Everyone Welcome!

You can also attend virtually.

Check the Daysland School website the day of the meeting for the link.

If you are interested in purchasing Daysland School clothing, please visit

https://dayslandschool.entripyshops.com

Orders can be placed at any time of the year and will ship directly to the purchaser.

Parents of Grade 4 to 12 Students should have received an email from BRSD which included a link to the BRSD Education Plan Stakeholder Survey: Your Voice Matters! If you did not receive this email, please use the link below to complete the survey. The password for the survey is BRSD.

Parents of Grade 4, 7, & 10 Students should also have received a letter from the school last week containing a QR Code to complete the Alberta Education Assurance Survey. If you did not receive this letter, please contact the school.

Battle River School Division is pleased to share a video overview of our 2023-24 Annual Education Results Report. The video highlights our achievements, addresses challenges, and outlines our next steps to enhance student success. We invite our community to watch and learn how we move forward together.

AERR Review Video

In Attendance: Teena Kasha, Jeanni Hoermann, Wes Wilson (Principal), Alison Eshpeter, Cristin Zimmer, Jenni Thomas (Assistant Principal), Carrie Carriere, Laura Zack

I. Teena Kasha called to order the regular meeting of the Daysland School Council at 7:05pm.

II. Open Floor Shout Out - To Cristin for organizing Staff Appreciation Week. Jeanni for stocking shelves. Laura and Teena for teachers' lunch today, and Candice for picking up gift cards for bus drivers. To the teachers putting up with the kids on no bus days. Great feedback from participants and great turnout to Family Literacy Night - thank you to organizers!

III. Review of Agenda - Addition Council of School Councils Info by Teena under New Business. Motion: Laura moved the agenda be accepted with addition. Carrie seconded. All in favour. Motion carried.

IV. Approval of minutes from last meeting - Minutes from January 15, 2025 were circulated prior to meeting. Noted wrong date for next meeting - should be February 19. Jeanni moved minutes accepted with correction. Cristin seconded. All in favour. Motion carried.

V. Correspondence - None

VI. Reports

a) Administrator (Mr. Wilson/Mrs. Thomas)

1. Thank You

a) Staff Appreciation Week - Another huge thank you to Friends of School Council for staff appreciation events.

2. Staffing Update

a) Miss Pfeffer's last day with us is Friday.

b) Mrs. Lang will resume her position as Gr. 1 teacher now that her maternity leave is complete.

3. Pink Shirt Day

a) Recognizing on February 27th so that our Kindergarten students can participate.

b) School would like to provide yogurt parfaits and looking for helpers in the morning to assemble. School Council willing to call out for volunteers.

4. Parent Teacher Interviews (Gr. 7-12)/Student Led Conferences (K-6)

a) Thursday, March 6th

b) The online link to book a time will be shared before the end of February.

5. Gr. 4-9 Ski Trip

a) Booked for March 14th

b) Payment online

6. 2025-26 School Calendar

a) Start September 2nd - after the long weekend

b) November Break is November 10th -13th, no longer a full week

c) Christmas Break - December 22nd - January 5th

d) Spring Break - March 26th (PD Day) - April 7th

e) Last Day for students (June 24th)

7. Theme Day - March 6th

a) Disney Day

8. Financial Update

a) Filed Trip Support per class

b) Fee Schedule changes for next year

• We will no longer be taking jersey deposits, we will add a jersey replacement fee on out schedule that would be applied if students did not return their jerseys at the end of the season.
• Provincial/Zones fee will be added in the event that we have athletes that participate in these events that go above and beyond the regular season that we budgeted for.

9. International Travel

a) The travellers will be leaving for Peru on March 19th and returning on March 30th (Spring Break).

b) Supervisors are Mrs. V. Zimmer, Mrs. Tobler, and Mr. Pastachak.

10. Robb Nash Project - Option available for grades 7-12 to attend at Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton. Flagstaff Family and Community Support Services willing to fund bussing and no cost to attend. Is intense content with reference to ideas of self-harm, but very moving information. General feeling that school should support this opportunity for junior and senior high students providing adequate info to parents so they can choose to opt out if they desire.

11. CASA Classroom Update - Slow start due to no bus days and days off. Total of 11 students now (Grade 7/8-10).

b) Room Rep Reports:

Kindergarten (submitted by Hanna Stefanishion): Mrs. Tanton - Everything is running tickety-boo in Kindergarten this month. We had Zamboni Al as our Community reader this month. The Kinders welcomed him like a celebrity and were out of their minds excited that he had come to read to them. He happened to come on the day of our Valentine's party so we had him read a book about pigs in love, he did a great job and had them all laughing. This month is always a BIG celebration month for us in Kindergarten because the kinders start reading and writing. It is the most AMAZING and one of the most POWERFUL moments that I get to witness each year. The raised eyebrows and secretive are open to them! SOOO COOL! At the end of the month we will be having our Teddy Bear Picnic. This will consist of everyone bringing their favourite teddy bear or stuffy and we spend the day enjoying teddy bear themed activities and teddy bear themed snacks. It's bound to be a bear-ific time! In math we are learning about 2D & 3D shapes and in science we have begun our Energy unit where we investigate all the different ways animals move and the importance of movement. Fairy Tales has also been a running theme in Kindergarten this month. Goldilocks & the 3 Bears, The 3 Billy Goats Gruff, Little Red Riding Hood & The 3 Little Pigs are all new texts to my little scholars. We're kicking it old school in here and they don't even know it! There's so many good lessons being taught, and they see the beautiful red fox through a whole new lens, that sneaky guy, never trust a fox! Lots of fun things are happening in kindergarten and we're looking forward to March for some St. Patrick's Day shenanigans.

Grade 1 (submitted by Chantelle Hayes): Miss Pfeffer - The Gr.1s are very exciting to be celebrating our 100th Day of School on Friday. We are also looking forward to skating. We are working on addition in math. We just completed a writing assignment called 'My Heart Is Full'. Mrs. Lang will be returning on Monday, February 26th.

Grade 2 (submitted by Laura Zwack): Mrs. Schlaut - We're excited to go skating this Friday, February 21st. Please have your child dress for the weather and send their skates and a helmet in a bag that your child can carry while walking to the arena. We will be creating our shoebox dioramas of Iqaluit later this month. Please send in a shoebox for your child if you haven't already by Wednesday, February 26th.

Grade 3 (submitted by Kristie Nahajowich): Mrs. Schmidt-Teigen - In ELAL we are in the middle of a novel study, Fantastic Mr. Fox. In math we are finishing up our unit on multiplication and division. We will then move on to a short unit on algebra. We have wrapped up learning about Peru and will begin learning about India this week. In science we are finishing up our unit on Earth Systems. We have two concepts left: paleontology and soil composition. We look forwards to some warner weather as well as going skating a few time over the next little while.

Grade 4 (Alison Eshpeter): Mr. Charchun - Just wanted to reach out quickly about what the rest of this week looks like after these non-bus days. We will not resume our spelling/grammar tests in ELA until next week. In science we had planned on having a Unit Test this week. We will move that to Monday, February 24th. Students will be given their study guides tomorrow and will be able to bring their Science Booklets home to help them study. These do not need to return to school as we will move into our next Science Unit this week as well. In Math we are continuing our Algebra Unit. In Social we are learning about the different First Nations Groups across Alberta and will be doing a poster group project involving them soon. If your child has Valentine's they would like to exchange with classmates, please send them to school tomorrow. We will take a short amount of time to have our class exchange at some point during the day tomorrow.

Grade 5 (Kirby Schmidt-Tiegen): Mrs. Thomas/Mr. Wilson - In ELA, the grade 5s have been working on Narrative Writing and will soon be writing an original short story to practice all of the skills they have been learning. In Science, we have started our Unit on Space and are looking at Astronomical Phenomena such as the phases of the moon and the aurora borealis. In Social, they just completed their presentation on various features of Ancient Egyptian society. Next up is to look at other ancient societies and compare them. In Math, we finished decimals, ratios, and fractions and nicely got started with multiplication, although it seems like if has been slow going with all the snow days. We are reviewing basic facts and will be getting into multiplying large numbers shortly. We will then transition into division. Most of the students report enjoying multiplication far more than division.

Grade 6 (Brenda McKay): Mrs. McKay - In ELA, we just wrapped up our nonfiction unit. We read Wild Outside by Les Stroud, aka Survivorman. We also just finished a read aloud of Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. As a final assessment for the unit, students are writing their first essay to compare and contrast the two books. In Math, we are almost done our functions unit and will be doing operations with fractions next. In Science, everyone made presentation on a planet or moon to share with the class. In Social, we are into our unit on Democracy in Ancient Athens. We are looking forward to hopefully being able to go skating next week!

Grade 7/8 (Cristin Zimmer): In Math class, the grade 7 class is halfway through their Chapter 6, Solving Equations. In English Language Arts grades 7/8 are just starting a film study on the Book Thief, and have already finished research projects about he the origin of the movie. In Science, the 7/8s are just less halfway through Unit D, Structures and Forces, and are building towers out of paper and masking tape. In Social Studies they have almost finished their Chapter 6, becoming Canada.

Grade 9 (Candice Guhle): Mrs. M. Zimmer - We are halfway through our graphing equations unit. A reminder for students to check emails on no bus days, as we often continue on with some material. :) Mrs. Walker - In Science, we are continuing our work in the Matter unit. We will be working on naming chemical compounds in the next few weeks and will hopefully have time for a chemical reactions lab as well! Mrs. V. Zimmer - In Social, we are wrapping up our study on immigration to Canada and the diversity it brings. We've has some excellent conversations!

Grade 10 (submitted by Carrie Carriere): Mrs. Walker- In Math, the grade 10s are working on factoring polynomials, a very important skill for math courses in grade 11 and 12. A reminder that if they are struggling with this first chapter in Math 10C, they have the option this semester of switching to Math 20-3 with Mrs. McKay. Please email me if you have any questions or concerns.

Grade 11 (Teena Kasha) - Mrs. Walker: In Physics, the grade 11s and 12s have finished the first unit on Momentum and we are just starting our next unit on Light. We will be investigating what happens to light when it interacts with curved mirrors and lenses.

Grade 12 (Jeanni Hoermann) - Mrs. Walker: Biology - Working on developing their understanding of the brain, eyes, and ears. We have been discussing the structures in each and how their functions are affected by different diseases or conditions. Physics - 11s and 12s have finished the first unit on Momentum and we are just starting our next unit on Light. We will be investigating what happens to light when it interacts with curved mirrors and lenses. Mr. Pastachack: Social 30 - We are reading a short novel called Anthem by Ayn Rand. Anthem by Ayn Rand serves as a critique of extreme collectivism and totalitarian control. The novel is set in a dystopian future where individual identity has been erased, and society functions under absolute collectivist rule. The protagonist, Equality7-2521, struggles against this oppressive system, eventually discovering the concept of self ("I") and embracing individualism. This is a great novel as it introduces to students the two main concepts of the course being collectivism and individualism. Additionally, it serves to guide us throughout the rest of this semester as we learn more about the role of government. Next wee, students will begin their first Position Paper that requires evidence and perspectives from the novel read, as well as the three philosophers; Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau.

VII. Business arising from minutes:

a) School Councils Engagement Grant - Purchase of 150 magnets with School Council logo using $500.00 of grant money plus additional $90.63 covered by Friends of School Council.

VIII. New business:

a) Council of School Councils Meeting Info - Teena reports other schools have had RCMP officer speak on online gaming safety and vaping and MADD on impaired driving. Noted that RCMP in area are looking to make more connections in the school. School administrators will take into consideration and these are topics that haven't been offered in the school for some time.

IX. Adjournment

Teena adjourned the meeting at 8:04pm.

Next Meeting: Wednesday, March 19, 2025, 7:00pm at Daysland School.

JP’s Country Daycare is looking for a student in grade 9, 10, 11 or 12 to clean from 4 to 6 on Tuesdays or Thursdays after school. Or if interested and scheduling allows for both days. Please email a resume or inquire to jpcountrydaycare@gmail.com