Dear DGS families,
As we enter the final week before Spring Break, we also welcome the Spring Equinox on March 19—the moment when day and night are nearly equal, marking the official change of seasons. In Blackfoot culture, the arrival of spring is a time of renewal and balance, deeply connected to nature and the cycles of the land. Many cultures and religions around the world also celebrate this time of year as a period of rebirth and new beginnings. From Nowruz, the Persian New Year, to Holi, the Hindu festival of colors, to Easter and Passover, spring is universally recognized as a season of growth, hope, and renewal. As we move through this last week before the break, may we embrace the energy of the season—a time to reflect, reset, and look forward to the opportunities ahead.
This season invites us to reflect, reset, and embrace new opportunities with hope and renewal. Wishing all our families a restful and rejuvenating Spring Break, filled with joy, connection, and fresh beginnings.
Speaking of reflecting and embracing new opportunities, we are looking forward to school conferences, which are scheduled for 4:00pm to 8:00pm on Thursday, March 20 and from 8:30am to 1:00pm on Friday, March 21. School conferences are an opportunity to engage in conversation about your child’s learning. Parents/guardians, students and teachers are able to connect and communicate openly about student learning, especially with respect to areas of strength and areas of growth. They help build and sustain respectful relationships that allow both parties to share information and develop strategies to support student success. Prior to conferences, please take time with your child(ren) to review PowerSchool for updated grades and Google Classroom for course content and topics to support a focused and informed discussion. If possible, ensure your child is present for the conferences as their voice is vital to the steps necessary to their own improvement and success.
Due to the ongoing strike by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 40, all conferences will be held online via Microsoft Teams. When booking conferences, please allow adequate time to move virtually from one booking to the next. The conference manager will open at 8:00am on Saturday, March 15 and will close at 10:00pm on Wednesday, March 19. To book conferences, please log into you MyCBE account. Once you are in your account, click on "Book and Manage Meeting Times". Next, click "Book a Conference".
For families with students in grades 6-9, you will be booking with your child’s core academic teaching team (except for Ms. Cashion-Dextrase, who is a generalist). Physical Education and CTF teachers can be booked individually.
After booking your conference, the booking details will appear in your MyCBE account. We highly recommend creating events in the email calendar to keep track of meeting times and links, if applicable.
If you have any problems booking conferences, please don’t hesitate to contact the office.
Save the Date – Grade 9 Farewell Ceremony
There will be a formal Grade 9 Farewell Ceremony on Friday, June 6. The Grade 9 students will have a late entry that morning and the ceremony will conclude by 11:55 am. It will be followed by photo opportunities and refreshments. Please keep an eye out for specific details to be sent out after Spring Break!
School Development Plan and Annual Survey
Thank you to those who attended our School Council and Parent Society meetings online last week. Mr. Rushton and I shared information about our school development plan and asked for feedback regarding fees for next year. Our presentation can be accessed on our school website or by using this link. Feedback is important as we consider school planning. When students, families and staff work closely together, students achieve greater success in their learning. You are encouraged to provide feedback through our annual survey, which will remain open until March 21. The survey can be accessed using this link, or by using the QR code in the presentation. Thanks in advance for your participation!
Email Messages
Due to Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), you need to subscribe online if you want to receive email or text messages on “commercial” school topics such as picture days, student fees, field trip costs, yearbooks, Healthy Hunger and more. If you do not subscribe, you will not receive these messages, but you will, of course, continue to receive emails on non-commercial topics such as absence and emergency notifications.
To subscribe to receive commercial messages, go to www.cbe.ab.ca/subscribe to enter your email address and click Subscribe. Use your primary email address on file at your school.
Blocked Messaging
Blocks can happen if you intentionally or accidentally tag an email as spam or junk, or sometimes when your email server senses that an email is coming from an electronic mailing system and tries to prevent spamming and block our emails. You will also be blocked from all CBE emails if you click the Unsubscribe link at the top of a CBE message in your email. To prevent blocks, it can be helpful if you add our CBE email addresses to your address book or safe senders list. This helps your email system recognize the messages as ‘safe’ and not flag them as spam. Emails to add could be our school’s email address, the teacher's email addresses and anyone else who usually sends the messages.
If you also add cbecommunications@cbe.ab.ca and transportation@cbe.ab.ca (if using CBE bus services) or studentfees@cbe.ab.ca (central fees) it will help to ensure you receive central messages.
50/50 Fundraiser
QUICK - GET YOUR TICKETS - SALES CLOSE TOMORROW AT 8 PM
The Dr. George Stanley Fundraising Society wants to fund your Spring Break with our 50/50 CASH RAFFLE! The winner will take home 50% of the proceeds - up to $2,500.00! 100% of the profits from the raffle will fund student learning around native plants and restoring natural habitats in the flower beds in front of the school.
The current jackpot is at $1645.00. To learn more, click HERE!
Book Drive
We are asking that families take a look at their bookshelves and see if there is anything they are ready to part with. We will accept any kind of book (children, youth, young adult, adult, fiction, non-fiction, etc.) so long as it is intact and still readable. Ask your family members, friends, neighbours "do you have any books you have been meaning to donate, and just haven't gotten around to it?" If the answer is yes, we will take them off your hands and find them new loving homes. Any unsold books after our sale will be donated to Calgary Women in Need Society (WINS). You can send your donations to school with your children or arrange to drop them at the office from now until March 13. The sale will be held after spring break. Specific sale details are TBD.
Healthy Hunger
Orders can be made through Healthyhunger.ca
Upcoming Events
March 20 Last day of classes before Spring Break
March 20 & 21 School Conferences (Online)
March 31 First day of classes after Spring Break
April 1 Spring Photo Day
Respectfully,
Chris Keuben
Principal, Dr. George Stanley School