Reminder - MTSC/MTSPA Meetings Tonight!

Tonight is the first meeting of the McKenzie Towne School Council and is also the AGM for the Parent Association.  Whether you can attend some or all of tonight's meetings, we strongly encourage parents to join us.  We will be beginning with a meet and greet at 6:15 pm and the council meeting will begin at 6:30 pm. Please have a look at the agenda for the council and parent association and bring them with you to the meetings.  

During the school council meeting, we will be holding elections for a co-volunteer coordinator position and all three candidates for school board trustee will be joining us.  The parent association will have updates regarding the playground and a discussion about fundraising goals and spending priorities.

Hope to see you all this evening!

Key Communiqué - September 24th

Click here to read the September 24th edition of the Key Communique.  Of note is the System Parent Meeting being held later this week on September 30th at Central Memorial High School, from 7 - 8:30 pm.  There will be a presentation by CAPSC, information regarding the Career and Technology Strategy at the CBE as well as information about school councils and parent associations.  All parents are welcome to attend.

September Key Communiqué

The first issue of the Key Communique for this school year is now out and can be viewed by clicking here.  There is an upcoming System Parent Meeting on September 30th at Central Memorial High School and the next CAPSC meeting is this week on September 15th at AE Cross Junior High.  Details of these and other events are found in the Key Communique.  We also try to keep our calendar on this website as up to date as possible, so check back here for meeting dates and times. 

Councils give parents the 'in' on their kids' schools

(Thanks to Jaime for sending this article in.  Our AGM is coming up soon on September 27th.  Come out and get involved in your childrens' school!)

Source: Shannon Sutherland, Calgary Herald

When Janis Giroux comes cruising down the corridor at her 16-year-old daughter's school, she doesn't necessarily expect a shout-out and a great-to-see-ya.

After all, teenagers often tend to tolerate parents at home, but at school, parents are just plain embarrassing. But the dedicated mom volunteers as a school council member at the schools of both her teenager and her seven-year-old -- like it or not, she says with a laugh.

"If you want to know what is going on your kids' schools, that is definitely the place to go," says Giroux.

"And gett ing involved in a parent council gives you a chance to be 'they.' Instead of saying why don't 'they' do that or why don't 'they' do this, you can do it yourself."

She says sometimes people misunderstand the role of a school council and use it as a forum to voice concerns about staffing or other issues, but she says it is a place for parents to partner with the school.

Giroux says an effort to att end meetings and a willingness to help out is all that is required.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

PT Interviews

Parent Teacher Interviews are coming up this week on Thursday and Friday.  Please remember there is early dismissal on Thursday (no school for kindergarten) and no school on Friday.  You can log on to Pick-A-Time on the school website to schedule your appointment.

SUTP Volunteers Needed

Welcome back to school!!  Beginning Tuesday, September 7 order forms will be going home for students to begin selling the Student Union Ticket Paks (SUTP books)  The books will sell for $20/bk with $10 staying with the Parent Association to be able to provide resources and activities for the students throughout the year. The books will be for sale until October 15, 2010.  An incentive to get your students to sell the books is that for every book they sell, they will have their name entered into a draw for a WII gaming system.

We are looking for any volunteers who can come into the school to assist us in processing the orders. Our goal is to process the orders Tuesday’s and Thursday’s and shouldn’t take any longer than a couple of hours.  One of our fundraising team members will be there to oversee the process, but we would like to have a 1-2 additional volunteers for each day to be able to get the sales processed.  There is no commitment to commit every day, if you can do one day, or three days we would welcome you.

If you can volunteer for any of the days above between September 14 and October 21, please respond to Kerrie at kerrie.is.not@shaw.ca.

Welcome Back & Playground Update

On behalf of the McKenzie Towne School Parent Association, I'd like to extend a welcome to all those returning to MTS and to those who are new to our school.  We hope everyone has had a smooth transition back to class.

By now, you've probably seen work underway in the playground area.  We have completed the first step excavation and sub-surface prep and the machines have been moved off the grounds.  We are arranging to have construction fencing installed later next week.

The build will take place beginning on September 29th until October 2nd and we will need approximately 150 volunteers to complete the build.  You can sign up by clicking on the form to the left of this post.  A volunteer sign up form will also be coming home from school shortly.