Monday Memo Musings

Not sure where Dr. Jody Carrington got this phrase from, You Have to name it To Tame It,  but it sure works for Outreach in Alberta right now. ( I know now, Dan Seigel)  This Education department does not see the value of Outreach thus a reduction in funding. In speaking with Elliot Bessie the president of the OEC he notes many Outreaches are being converted to in reach. He is sending out a survey to Outreach schools to see how they have been affected by the cuts. So far he knows of 5 Outreaches being closed and 4 being turned into in reach. That is not counting our two. After the survey goes out there will be more data to look at.  We know this is cyclical. When High School principal's see that there is 1/10 of their population who are not returning or making their school climate less than favorable, Outreach will come to the rescue.  So Let's Name it To Tame It Outta Reach They Don't Care About At Risk Kids Outreach Lives Don't Matter Can you think of on

Imagine if you were in the grad class of 2020. Trapped in your home for two months not knowing when or if you will graduate this year worries about schooling on your own not being able to connect and talk to everyone about your dress, family coming from a far, perhaps worrying about how you will pay for anything worrying about your family, money and mental health oh, wait... let's throw a flood in there that destroyed your home This class deserves to be recognized and the FVSD is doing just that. Each grad will have their photo (if they had them taken) displayed on the side of the schools. the photo is huge! Schools are recognizing the grads by having a grad in each location. They look different, many are on different days, but each school is recognizing their grads.  This week the details at each school will be finalized. In this confusing time, we could get excluded, however, we need to make sure we are keeping in contact with the High School in our Communit

On our little drive out of town last Thursday we saw swans, sand hill cranes, a beaver, 8 deer, one moose, a coyote, Canada geese, lama's, clydedale horses,a donkey and a mouse. Go for a little drive, what do you see? You can not help but feel the renewal of Spring. Everything good happens in May! ( I didn't tell you that the beaver I saw was slung over the shoulders of an 8 year old whose 10 year old brother shot it with his bright red 22.) Staffing   Our .4 position in High Level closes today at noon.  Our new math Teacher is Amanda Petrie. She is a chemistry, biology major. She also has great skills in math. She is a mom of three kiddies 1,3,5. Her position will be a .8 perfect for a mom raising babies. Amanda has had many cool jobs, she was a banana tree tie- er in Austrialia, she has worked for an on line outreach in B.C, she has worked for environment Canada. ( This girl has good stories) She is so excited about coming over to us from HLPS.  Anne goes to Rain

So it is... that time of year when we are all playing Tetris. We make a move with a student then something happens and we have to rethink the move we just made. Example: We spent hours going over our student lists searching for students who need the unassigned credits. We identified about 10 students. Then an email comes through from Bob saying ALL students are going to get 15 unassigned credits this year. Okay, let start again.  Knowing this year is going to be like a game of Tetris helps us get through. Tetris it is! We will always make the pieces fit. There are other similar games like Traffic Jam, in that game you can get stuck forever. Some would say Jenga is one of those games, except Jenga tumbles to the ground and smashes in all situations, we will avoid that scenario.   The truth is that you can dictate the pace of Tetris in order to win. If we play the game slowly, thinking through our moves, our kids will benefit. ( and so will we) Congratulations/thank yous Tod