2024-2025 Issue #3

Forestburg School

Principal’s Message

January 2025

Welcome back! I sincerely hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas break and is fully recharged to take on a new year. Happy 2025 to everyone! We are excited to welcome everyone back to school and are gearing up for a semester change towards the end of this month. Our 2nd Semester will begin on Tuesday, Jan. 28. This will mean significant timetable changes for gr. 7-12 and likely minimal changes for our elementary students, but there will be a bit of change for everyone! It is a bit awkward to make this change in the middle of a week, as we are not able to do any formal changes to our processes until the end of the day on Monday, Jan. 27, yet we will be working diligently to get things organized for a new semester starting the next day! We ask for your patience as we work through this transition!

I would like to share a few significant things that will be taking place over the coming weeks.

Student Registrations (Verification Forms)

These are sent out annually by our Administrative Assistants to each family near the start of the school year. In addition, regular reminders are sent to those who have not yet completed them requesting that they kindly complete them. We thank those parents who were diligent and were able to complete them in a timely fashion. Those parents who have not completed them as of Jan. 28, 2025 will find their child’s computer accounts locked until they are completed. Our Administrative Assistants time is valuable and we want to ensure they are able to complete all their tasks as needed, so we would really like to get these cleaned up. If any parents are unsure of what to do or have questions, we ask that they please contact our school office for assistance prior to Jan. 28, 2025.

We greatly appreciate your cooperation in helping us get this important and mandatory task completed. Thank you.

Course Change Policy for Sr. High Students

Students in Sr. High are expected to make a final decision about their year’s timetable within the first 2 weeks of any semester. A change of courses after this time is unlikely because: 1) student success as a late entry in a course is a concern and 2) students should not register for any course without making a firm commitment to complete that course. Any considerations must be made through the Career Counselor or the office. Students remain enrolled in a course until the request is considered and approved. A student requesting a course change is asked to complete a Course Change Request form, which can be found in our school office. The deadline to change courses for Semester 2 (205) is Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025.

December was a very busy month at Forestburg School. We held many special events and days leading up to the break. We closed out 2024 in the final days of December with our annual Christmas concert on Dec. 18. As always, this was a fabulous event where several generations came together to celebrate the joy of the season. We greatly appreciate the work of Mrs. Myschuk and all her music students. It was a lovely evening and the best way to possibly get into the Christmas spirit!😃🌲We also gratefully acknowledge our Hot Lunch Society/School Council for their help and support in pulling off another successful Christmas breakfast on Dec. 20. Thank you to all the parents and volunteers who were able to come and help!

January is a busy month at our school, as gr. 9-12 students and teachers are busy wrapping up courses and preparing for their upcoming final exams. At the same time, preparations are being made for the start of Semester 2. We have a few weekend basketball events, as our sr. girls’ will host a portion of games on Fri., Jan. 10 to accommodate the Daysland Sr. High Basketball Tournament. We will also host our own Jr. High Basketball Tournament on Jan. 17/18 as well as our sr. boys’ basketball tournament on Jan. 25/26. Please join us in cheering on our school teams!

Our staff have formally implemented “Dress Down Fridays” into our practice. In exchange for dressing down, our staff have agreed to pay $1/Friday (or for those of us who may not want to bother with change every week, they can pay $40 for the year). Of course, this is completely optional for staff to participate. The money raised from this initiative will go towards our Awards and Scholarships program. Our students will directly benefit from this practice.

Upcoming Events:

• Jan. 10 Sr. Girls’ Basketball Games (as part of the Daysland

Sr. High Basketball Tournament)

• Jan. 17/18 Jr. High Basketball Tournament (Girls’ & Boys;)

• Jan. 24/25 Sr. Boys’ Basketball Tournament

• Jan. 27-30 SOAR Day/Week

• Jan. 28 (Tues.) Semester 2 begins

• Jan. 31 Staff Collaboration Day (no students)

Thank you.

Mr. Anhorn

Principal, Forestburg School

All school and sports fees and permission forms are posted and are now DUE! Please check your accounts to sign forms and pay any outstanding fees!

Payments can be made by cheque at the school or by using the online payment system at: https://www.brsd.ab.ca/families/online-payments-ordering

Please take a few minutes to log into the PowerSchool Parent Portal to view your child’s most up-to-date grades and comments. Our Real-Time Reporting system allows you to stay connected to your child’s learning progress throughout the year, providing insights into their achievements and areas for growth. By regularly checking PowerSchool, you can support your child’s learning journey and celebrate their progress together. Thank you for partnering with us to foster a positive and collaborative learning experience.

An email was sent out at the end of August indicating that parents could now complete student verification forms for the 2024-2025 school year. If you have not yet completed these forms please do so as soon as possible.

*Every year we are required to provide Alberta Education with a signed and dated Student Verification form for each of our students.* We also use the form to ensure all of the information we have regarding your child(ren) is correct. This year we have moved to an electronic verification form for this process. In an attempt to streamline our process, the FOIP and Technology Use forms have been incorporated into the Verification form.

To access and complete this form you will need to log into the PowerSchool parent portal via your Web browser (Google Chrome for example. You will not be able to complete this process on the App). Click on the SchoolEngage icon on the left. You will be redirected to the SchoolEngage site where you can select your child’s name. Click on the 2024-25 Student Verification Form and then on the blue icon in the first column to review the information. Once you’ve completed your verification, click on the green submit button on the bottom of the page.

For the second year in a row, a huge thank you to Mission To Many for their generous donation of $1000.00 to the Forestburg School Breakfast Program.

Art Club members finished off 2024 learning about watercolour painting. Students created winter polar bears (or for one student - a winter mouse 😂) using pencil sketching and watercolour paints. This was a fun project leading into Christmas break!

On December 19 we hosted author Sigmund Brouwer for a Story Ninja presentation to our K-12 students. His engaging presentation was enjoyed by all! Sigmund also donated 50 signed copies of his book Canadian Treasures for our students to keep. Thank you to Hot Lunch for sponsoring this presentation.

Email: forestburgschool@brsd.ab.ca
Website: https://forestburg.brsd.ab.ca/
Location: Forestburg School, 4914 46 Ave, Forestburg, Alberta, Canada
Phone: 780-582-3792