Newsletters | Principal's Message | School Newsletter Inserts from the Chief Superintendent and Board of Trustees

2009-2010 Newsletters are PDF files. You will need Acrobat Reader to view.

Principal's Message - March/April

Dear Parents,

Happy March Everyone! The past two months have been busy and productive for our students. Students will have an opportunity to share some of their amazing work with you at our upcoming “student-led” conferences being held on March 18th and 19th. Report cards will arrive home on Friday, March 12th. As you may recall, we DO NOT book individual interviews for families during student-led conferences. Instead, we invite you to attend at a time that is convenient for your family (hopefully avoiding peak times). Information outlining times and suggestions for assisting the school in making these conferences a positive experience for all will arrive home next week. This year, in conjunction with our student-led conferences, the school will be holding an Art Sale/Silent Auction to support our partner school in the Dominican Republic. The Maria Auxilidora School is run almost entirely on donated dollars serving a population of students who would otherwise not receive any formal schooling. With the downturn in the economy, fundraised dollars have been more scarce and the school has been struggling. Dollars raised will be used to pay teacher salaries and purchase basic student supplies. We greatly appreciate the support our Battalion Park parent community has offered us as we have worked on this project. Through your generous donations of time you have enabled us to prepare art cards and art work. As the date draws near, we also appreciate your willingness to set-up/take down displays, supervise the event and follow up on bids. As well, many of you have sent along auction items which are often difficult to find. We can’t thank you enough! Every dollar counts and will be appreciated by our Dominican friends.

On February 19th, Deputy Chief Superintendent David Stevenson visited our school. We were very excited to host David and all of us found ourselves “house cleaning” in advance of his visit. The school looked beautiful and he couldn’t help notice the wonderful art and project work found throughout our school. He had time to visit many classrooms and meet students and teachers and he commented on the positive and enthusiastic environment at Battalion Park School. Of course Mrs. Campbell and I seized the opportunity to do some unrestrained bragging which he graciously listened to. Last week I received a lovely thank you from David stating what wonderful students and staff we have at Battalion Park and of course I totally agree! Three cheers for Battalion Park.

Plans for the upcoming school year always begins with a school’s projections. Battalion Park received their projections of 700 students in February. Seven hundred students represents our capped number and is to reflect 100 students in each grade K to 6. Of course, we know that students don’t come in neat units of 100 in a community. However we do know that Battalion Park must take any students who reside in the Signal/Richmond Hill area. Students from Springbank Hill and other areas on the west side of 69th Street are considered if they:
• currently have a sibling in our school OR
• room is available.

If no room is available these students have the choice of being bussed to Glenbrook School. At this time we have 95 kindergarten registrants and hence have stopped taking further registrations from Springbank Hill believing we will meet our target of 100 Kindergarten students from our designated area (Signal/Richmond Hills) by September. We have also created a “wait list” of students who have registered at Glenbrook School should space become available. You can help us gather a more accurate picture of our enrolment by letting us know if YOU WILL NOT BE ATTENDING BATTALION PARK SCHOOL this fall. Please call our office or complete the form found in this newsletter as soon as you know your status for the upcoming school year. Thank you.

Finally it is with both great joy and sadness we say farewell to Ms. Karrie Grummett who will soon be welcoming her second child in to her family mid-April. Karrie will commence her leave after Spring Break and the staff at Battalion Park wish to thank her for all her wonderful work and collegiality. Best wishes Karrie!

Just as one person leaves us, someone else joins the team. Welcome to Mussie (Moses) Haile who recently commenced his part-time cleaning position in the mini school. We look forward to seeing you at conference time. Don’t forget to stop in at our Student Café when you are in the Core school.

Sincerely,

Jane Jessiman
Battalion Park School