Student Belongings, Learning Activities & More

Hi everyone,

We hope this message finds you well and adjusting to our temporary reality.  It has been difficult to be at school without the students we all care so much about.  All of our staff hope that we are back together soon.  Teachers have reported that it has been wonderful to have the opportunity to talk with each family this week.  We are working hard to provide learning opportunities that will be meaningful and easy to complete at home.  We understand that nothing can replicate the work done by teachers in their classrooms, and are working hard to offer activities that add to students’ learning and don’t increase stress at home during this pandemic.

We are passing the information collected from teachers regarding Essential Service Workers and families who would benefit from food support to our Senior Leadership Team at School District 83.  A big thank you to all you from all of us at SMS for keeping the essentials available to us!  Assistant Superintendent, Carl Cooper and his assistant, Sharon Wood, will be reaching out to those families, beginning with those in Tier 1.  The priority for child care for Essential Service Workers is:

Tier 1:  Healthcare Workers and Emergency Responders
Tier 2: Workers that support vulnerable populations, utilities workers, workers that support chain functions (groceries, pharmacies)
Tier 3:  Teachers and childcare workers who do not have access to childcare and who are providing instructions to the children of ESWs.

In addition, our Learning Resource Teachers are working with families to determine which of our students with unique needs require support.

We will share information about food support as we receive it.  Our community is working together to determine how to best support families during this difficult time.

We have been working hard to carefully put together each student’s belongings.  We have done our best to retrieve personal belongings from both classrooms and lockers.  This was a difficult process (not just because of the moldy sandwiches) as it seemed very personal to be collecting items.  Staff did this very respectfully and missed our students even more in the process.

Pick up will begin on Monday, April 6th from 12:00 – 3:00.  We will be open on Tuesday, April 7th from 8:30-3:00.  Please make arrangements to have someone attend during these times.  With 670 students, we need to work together to complete this task.

To follow physical distancing protocols, the following is in place:

• Only one person per family may come to the school.  We would prefer an adult, as most students have large bags that will be difficult to carry.
• Please enter the gym from the stairs adjacent to the field on the side of the building.  There will be lots of signs to help with directions.
• As you enter the gym, there will be a bin for library books, textbooks or other school items that you are returning from home.  Grade 6 and 7 students are welcome to keep library books if you are still enjoying them.
• Locker and desk contents are well marked and laid out in the gym (in bags)  by CORE classroom.  Please respect physical distancing as you pick them up.
• The exit will be the side gym door so that people are entering and exiting from different areas.
• Band instruments that belong to the school (grade 7) are to be delivered to the outside door of the band room.  Grade 8 experienced players may keep theirs for practice.  Band instruments that need to be retrieved (ie. owned personally or rented from a music store) may be picked up from the outside door of the band room as well.  Please note that not all band instruments are labelled with names.  Students may need to pick them up from the band storage room as they are the only ones who know which cubby they have used for storage.
• The school is closed and access to other sections will be denied, including washrooms.

Please take care during this difficult time.  Teachers will be in touch regularly with students.  Please do not leave messages on the school phone as we are needing to close the building due to a shortage of cleaning supplies district wide.  Mr. Matheson, Ms. Major and I are always available by email as well:

cmatheso@sd83.bc.ca
smajor@sd83.bc.ca
wwoodhur@sd83.bc.ca

Sincerely,

Wendy Woodhurst
Principal