Denman Island Community School

Love Where You Learn: Our Home, Our Place, Our Community 1100 Northwest Road, Box 45, Denman Island, BC V0R 1T0, Tel: 250 -­335-­2324, Fax: 250-­335-­2824

November 29, 2013 Shelley Robinson

We wanted to give two of our teachers the opportunity to communi-­cate about their departure in their own way (through a letter and a note in the newsletter). Each teacher is leaving for different rea-­sons.

Bethany Ireland is taking some time with her family, but will not be gone long as she hopes to return to work with the students through the DICES community education program where she has some flexibility with evening hours. Therefore, your children will still have the opportunity to benefit from her talents in the new year. She has given us some recommendations for other musicians from on and off island to take over her music program, and we are endeavoring to get these people in place.

Karla Neufer has been given the opportunity to share her expertise to fill an emerging role as a K-­7 Curriculum Support Teacher under the direction of Bruce Carlos. Secondment positions, just like ma-­ternity leaves or other mid-­year leaves often come up quickly. Karla is making every effort to insure continuity of programming for her students as she outlined in her letter. We are supportive of her op-­portunity to try a new role in the district in an area where she has worked before.

As well, we (the district and myself) have researched carefully who will be coming into the program starting Monday, and are confident in a teacher, Chantal Stefan, who comes to the school highly rec-­ommended. My conversations with her have left me feeling posi-­tive about this transition. She and Karla will meet together on Mon-­day to review the program, and Chantal will take over on Tuesday. I am confident that there will be ongoing communication regarding this primary classroom as the students are important to all of us.

CALENDAR Dec. 6 Report Cards

Dec. 7 & 8 Denman Island

Christmas Craft Faire

Dec. 11 Early Dismissal (PLC) 1 pm

Dec. 13 Vanier Ravens

Dec. 13 Feasty Friday

Dec. 16 ABED Enhancement

Ceremony 10 am

Dec. 20 Last Day of Classes

Jan. 6 Back to School

Jan. 6 PAC meeting 2:30 pm

Jan. 13-­Feb 21 FSA

Jan. 15 Early Dismissal( PLC)

Feb 3 PAC meeting 2:30 pm

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The islands are encountering some complex changes which have the potential for a ripple effect into

size);; economic challenges;; transportation questions regarding the ferry;; community school budget questions and other. All of these have the potential to instill a sense of uncertainty, mistrust and stress in the school communities. This is the exact time where we need to work together to continue reinforcing strong school and community relationships. As the changes unfold, I will help with the transition process to insure that we are all adapting well, and making the very most of these new op-­portunities. Shelley Robinson, PhD Principal of Denman and Hornby Island Schools Denman Island School Monday and Thursday Hornby Island School Tuesday and Wednesday

SCHOOL WEBSITE ~ We are in the process of updating our school website so that it is current and functions in a way that meets the needs of our school community and represents some of the technology outcomes highlighted in some of the district and provincial initiatives to make technology part of our school learning opportunities.

Please complete this survey to help us develop our website and to be thoughtful of how we use it. For the present, the goal is to consider the function and framework of the website design as the district will likely be developing a new model in the spring. Therefore, time and attention to graphics and creative details will be dedicated to it once we have direc-­tion from the district.

This survey is designed to ask: What do you want to see or be able to do within it? What considerations should we make when developing it?

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1-­r0NmxzdkCHFGaoTxFHuuRf2EmN-­nUn1mPn7BJlPAEY/viewform

Please forward this to any stakeholder affiliated with the school and who will benefit from the website, as I would appre-­ciate their input by January 6, 2013. It will help to inform the website process and design.

Thanks for taking the time to do so.

Sincerely,

Shelley Robinson, PhD

NEW EMERGENCY PROTOCOLS- Our school district has adopted a new Emergency Protocol system by Hour Zero. Administrators across the District have received training and staff is beginning to use the training modules and classroom lessons. (We used the new protocols for our last Earthquake drill). District Health and Safety Principal, Paul Berry, will be here next month to go over Emergency Protocols with the staff, including lockdown procedures. There will likely be a Lockdown drill before the end of December. More information to follow.

November 28, 2013 Dear Parents, I have been awarded an internal secondment to fill a position as a K-­7 Curriculum Support Teacher in Aboriginal Education. I will be working at the Aboriginal Education Centre, Nalat'si, starting on Tuesday, December 3rd. This is a unique opportunity that offers many positive possibilities for me. It is not easy for me to leave the classroom and Denman. I will leave the classroom set up the way it is in order to allow a thoughtful transition that has some sense of consistency for the students as they get to know the new teacher. The guinea pig and the fish have been given to staff, who will care for them. I will leave master copies of the mandalas for photocopying. Sherry Frost has been working in the K-­2 classroom over the last few years and will continue to do so. This will offer the children some continuity and stability through change. I have had discussions with Sherry and with our school counsellor, Scott Montgomery, about supporting the children through transition. The new teacher will start on Monday, my last day. I will be helping this person with getting to know the class. Thank you so much for sharing your children with me, it has been an absolute joy. With gratitude and appreciation, Karla

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CRAFT FAIRE DECEMBER 7 & 8 ~Craft Faire will once again welcome Denman Children with their home-­made crafts, delicious food items and music merriment. Come enjoy the fun.. Feasty Friday has been postponed until December 13th.

VANIER RAVENS ~ Mr Blake Tobacca and 17 of his Raven students will be visiting our school, they will be sharing some stories and masks they have created. They will also be joining us in our Feasty Friday.

STUDENT VERIFICATION & FOIPPA FORMS ~ Please complete the Student Verification

and return them to our office. Thank you for those parents who have done this. Student Verifica-­tion forms keep us current with emergency contacts and with out the FOIPPA forms we can-­not publish photos of students for newsletters or the Flagstone.

REPORT CARDS ~ Term 1 has ended and all students will receive a report card on Friday December 6th. Thanks for the hard work of the teachers, and informed by our LST and EA support

ABED ENHANCEMENT CEREMONY ~ Students are welcome to attend the signing of the 3rd Enhancement Agreement at the Sid Williams on December 16. There will be some performances and a short signing cere-­mony. If your student would like to attend arrangements can be made through Dr. Robinson.

CHRISTMAS EVENT ~ Stay tuned for updates on our Christmas event. The students are warming up their voices and tuning up their instruments for this celebration of the season.. All families are invited to attend this year end performance.

PLC UPDATE ~ During our current PLC time the staff has been meeting to discuss bringing the con-­cepts of Social Responsibility and Volunteerism to the day program. With the support of DICES through Sparks funding and with input from the In-­termediate teacher (Phil) and the Primary teacher (Karla), we are in the beginning stages of creating learning opportunities for the students. The Inter-­

mediate students have been sharing their ideas about what kind of interests and passions they have in relation to Social Responsibility and Volunteer-­ism. From here the staff is working on creating Community Based Sparks experiences. The Primary class will be work-­

ing with their teacher and DICES staff member Matta Schaal to create an art based fund raising project for the charity Innovative Communities. The Intermediate students will be involved in Sparks activities based on the question, "What can we do to make a difference in our community?".

Many thanks to all of you who use our school library, & help to make it such a warm & friendly place. Thank you for taking the time to look around your house & gather any long-­forgotten library books to return before our Christ-­mas break. Please let me know if you have any truly lost or seriously damaged books, so that we can replace them, as I will be ordering soon. And last but not least, a huge appreciation to everyone who ever orders books from Scholastic. This month's order totalled over $500. which means many lovely new books for our li-­brary, & for such a small population that is amaz-­ing! Happy Holidays to all of you, AND TO ALL A GOOD BOOK!

Asherah Woodburn

Library Clerk

Denman Island Community School/067

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UNDERSTANDING BUS SCHEDULES AND POWER/SNOW CLOSURES~

SUPERINTENDENT SHERRY ELWOOD

As the snow season is upon us, it is helpful for parents and the community to understand how we come to make calls on the closure of schools and how those calls are related to bus sched-­ules.

Each day, we have over 1000 students who travel by bus to attend school. The departures of those buses and the picking up of students in the morning are major goalposts for us. Buses in the morning begin routes at about 6:45 am and begin picking children up by about 7:00 am. In the afternoon, most buses are on the road by 2:00 pm.

If there is snowfall overnight and accumulating in the morning, we make every attempt to make a call about school clo-­sures prior to the morning pickup of children by the buses. If we do not make the call by this time (again about 7:00 am), then students are on their way to school and we need to be prepared to receive and care for them. It is extremely difficult for us to make a call on school closures as late as 8:00 am. It is long past the time buses have left and we have approximately 1000 children on their way to school.

If there is snowfall accumulation during the day, we need to ensure the safe return of children home to parents. Many parents are working and cannot pick up their children or the children are too young to be at home alone if we run buses early. We would need to then contact all parents to let them know that their children are returning home early. For these

reasons we believe that it is better to keep students safely with us in our schools rather than to dismiss early from the school day. We would, in these cases, dismiss at our regular times and bus students home as safely as possible.

We hope this gives parents some information and understanding about our routines that we consider when there is snow or a power outage andwe need to close schools. We care about the safety of your children and always want to make the most prudent deci-­sion given the conditions. We make these calls with great thought and care, recognizing that weather patterns throughout the Valley can be very different within the school day.

Finally, once again, if there are any concerns and we do make a call to close schools, our local FM radio stations (The Eagle, 97.3, (250) 703-­2200 and 98.9 JetFM, (250) 703-­2538) are the first point of contact. Parents and staff should re-­gard these stations, as well as the district website (www.sd71.bc.ca) as the source of communications for school closures due to power outage and snow.

FUNDAMENTAL SKILLS ASSESSMENT ~ FSA ~ Please be aware of the upcoming FSA testing. The Foun-­dation Skills Assessment is an annual province-­wide assessment of British Columbia students' academic skills, and pro-­vides a snapshot of how well BC students are learning foundation skills in Reading Comprehension, Writing, and Nu-­meracy.

The main purpose of the assessment is to help the province, school districts, schools and school planning councils evaluate how well students are achieving basic skills, and make plans to improve student achievement. FSA is designed and developed by British Columbia educators. The skills assessed are linked to the provincial curriculum and provincial performance standards.

The assessment is administered annually to Grade 4 and 7 students in public and provincially funded independent schools.

FSA 2014 Administration Dates

Assessment Administration in Schools:

January 13 February 21, 2014

Page 6 OF 12 PAC MINUTES A copy of the minutes of the last meeting.

Denman Island Community School PAC Meeting, November 4, 2013

Present;; Scott Wagner, Magdalene Joly, Autumn White, Veronique Eriksson, Bethany Ireland, Phil Apter, Mary Hicks, Sarah Seabrook, Keith Porteous, Sherry Frost, Shelly Robinson, Brad and Serena Olivera.

1.Welcome, and call to order.

2.Motion made to approve previous minutes;; approved.

3.Reports:

b)Treasurers Report;; Next meeting we will have a full report. The gaming grant deadline was missed, but we are looking into resurrecting that for this year.

4.a) Sister school proposal by Norma Rejall: Norma is absent today, and so we will follow up next meeting.

b) Vote to adopt the mission statement: Autumn reads aloud the mission statement. Keith makes a motion to adopt the statement, and Magdalene seconds the motion. All in favour. Passed. Shelly thanks Keith and Autumn for their thought-­ful consideration in their efforts to put it together.

c) Vote to adopt new bylaws: Autumn moves to adopt new bylaws, Keith seconds the motion. All in favour. Passed.

d) Vote for new signing authorities: Veronique makes a motion that Autumn White and Keith Porteous become new sign-­ing officers for PAC. Scott seconds the motion. All in favour. Motion is passed.

e) Thrifty cards fundraising program: We would like to get this fundraiser going again. Sarah has the file and will start it in motion.

f) Vulnerability sector check: This is a new initiative aimed at adults in contact with children, as well as parents going on

5. New business;;

a) Nutrition in our school;; Magdalene: Questions regarding what foods schools give to children, and how to foster better nutrition in the school. Perhaps we could reintegrate the cooking component in the sparks program? DICES funds pro-­vide snacks, and we are assured that these are relatively healthy. Whether to become involved in bulk purchasing for the school, staff, principal, parents would have to be involved. We agree that the emphasis be on school action, providing positive role modelling, examples: through Feasty Fridays, Sparks. Magdalene would like to ban some foods from the list she has provided, that the school serves children. A sub-­ committee has formed to draft a letter to give to school employ-­ees from PAC re: nutrition and gifts to children at school.

b) Request for archery equipment: Phil: Would like to introduce archery program to the school, and needs funding. Roughly $2000, for bows, arrows, targets, netting. It could be an after school program, and make back some funds that way. Magdalene will approach DICES to ask if they would be interested in sharing expense and equipment.

c) Christmas raffle basket: We have a table reserved at the craft faire. Keith and Autumn will send out a letter to parents reminding everyone that we need to get donations.

Next meeting to be announced.

PAC MEETING ~ The next PAC meeting will be January 6th at 2:30 pm. We will be discussing nutrition in the school, vulnerability sector checks, cross country skiing and more. All parents are encouraged to join us. If there is anything you would like to see on the agenda, please email me at aaawhite@telus.net Thank you, Autumn White, PAC Coordi-­nator

Future PAC meeting dates (tentative):

Mondays @ 2:30 pm

Jan 6, Feb 3, Mar 3, Apr 28, May 26, and Jun 16th.

Page 7 OF 12 PAC NEWS

Below is an article written by Magdalene Joly on Nutrition. This PAC initiative will be open for discussion at the next PAC meeting in January.

Denman Island Community School Food and Nutrition Brainstorm

1st draft by Magdalene Joly RHN (250) 335-­0970 oakandcamas@gmail.com

This is the 1st draft of our school food and nutrition guidelines and should be seen as a flexible living document totally open to parents feedback, ideas, concerns, brainstorms etc.

Why is this important?

ossible foundation for growing into amazing healthy beings. As our kids spend a significant amount of time at school we want to ensure that they are receiving food that is nourishing and not harmful, and furthermore, that they are receiving instruction in healthy eating hab-­its and the building blocks of good nutrition from their education.

There is a growing mass of information which confirms much traditional wisdom around healthy food;; that sugar, artificial dyes, cy of

disease and bad health.

ldren a healthy diet, and to teach children about preparing healthy meals.

People are eating substances that the humans did NOT evolve eating over the last million years. Did our cave-­dwelling ancestors feed their children fruit-­rollups, store-­bought cookies and muffins, candy, soda, frozen waffles and kid's cereals? Far from it! Our ancestors ate very lean meats and fish, roots, greens, berries and nuts. Few grains, if any. "Kid foods" are especially bad and are just full of sugar, refined wheat (which gets into their blood just as fast as table sugar), artificial hydrogenated oils, and food col-­ors. Don't fall for the slick marketing by the giant food corporations. Did you know that artificial food colors are made from petro-­leum? Do you assume that these foods must be healthy because they are legal?

Healthy food is a basic human right and a fundamental essential need.

However there are many barriers to ensuring these needs are met such as

Lack of awareness and education about what constitutes healthy food and how to prepare it

The challenges of parenting and demands of feeding picky kids

Economic challenges around affordability and accessibility of wholesome food

Our cultures emphasis on cheap, convenient, fast-­foods, industrially produced, nutrient poor food which can become ingrained in our eating habits

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Continued from page 8

Healthy food is a basic human right and a fundamental essential need. However there are many barriers to ensuring these needs are met such as

Lack of awareness and education about what constitutes healthy food and how to prepare it

The challenges of parenting and demands of feeding picky kids

Economic challenges around affordability and accessibility of wholesome food

Our cultures emphasis on cheap, convenient, fast-­foods, industrially produced, nutrient poor food which can be-­come ingrained in our eating habits

Food in the school;; both provided by the school and food parents send for lunches

This would be criteria that the staff would follow when preparing or serving any food to kids

These would be seen as guidelines and goals for parents while recognizing the various barriers, such as accessi-­bility and time constraints, that are present in our lives

1. Foods to completely ban/avoid -­MSG

-­Sodium benzoate

-­Artificial colors such as

-­FD&C Yellow No. 6 (sunset yellow)

-­D&C Yellow No. 10 (quinoline yellow

-­FD&C Yellow No. 5 (tartrazine)

-­FD&C Red No.40 (allura red)

BHA, BHT, sodium nitrate, and TBHQ

Artificial sweeteners like Aspartame

Trans Fat

Sugary foods like pop and candy

2. Foods to avoid if at all possible -­Foods with sugar as a main ingredient

-­White bread

-­Empty carbs

-­Juice boxes ect

-­Processed foods

-­Food products that is pre-­packaged (to reduce garbage)

-­Any foods that your child may be allergic too

-­Sandwich meat with Sodium Nitrate & Sodium Nitrite

3. Foods to encourage that fully support vitality and optimum nutrition

-­Local and Organic whenever possible

-­From whole food sources

-­Nutrient-­dense and protein rich

-­Rich in Omega fatty acids

-­Rich in minerals like zinc, magnesium, calcium, and iron

examples;; Hard boiled eggs from local organic pasture raised hens, organic raw veggies, raw nuts, whole grain bread, whole organic yogurt with probiotics, cheese, fresh fruit, nut butters, hearty stews with root veggies, lean organic meats and broth, organic and nitate-­freemeat, homemade muffins with flax seeds, eggs, whole grains and honey, antioxidant and flavanoid rich fruits like berries,

Possible Implementation strategies

School lunch program $3 per day per kid =$90 per day

Look into sources of funding privately and from school board

Get local donations/sponsors to cover cost of any kids

Weave hot lunch program into school garden

Young chef program

Encourage communal preparing and sharing of food

Ensure a high level of nutrient-­rich food for our kids

Make life easier for parents

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Continued from page 9

Good food box program

A program that makes fresh organic food accessible

http://thegoodfoodbox.ca/

Education

Free workshops for parents to educate and empower towards the goal of healthy food;; nutrition basics, creative kid-­friendly meal planning on a budget, instruction of healthy cooking techniques.

Community kitchen program

Please contribute any thoughts or ideas in person or over email, or join the working group.

Resources http://www.feingold.org/Research/adhd.html A ton of research on ADD, nutrition, behavior

http://www.foodforthebrain.org/nutrition-­solutions/adhd-­and-­hyperactivity/about-­adhdhyperactivity.aspx

http://www.westonaprice.org/childrens-­health/family-­meal-­planning-­strategies

THIS FALL IN THE SCHOOL GARDEN ~ MAGDALENE JOLY ~ DICES has received a $3000 grant from the Ev-­ergreen foundation! This is a wonderful opportunity for our community school and we really appreciate the support! The money will go towards a garden shed to be used for storing tools and supplies, and an irrigation system to ensure our garden and orchard receive the water they need to flourish over the hot dry summer. This fall children have participated in two in school gardening sessions. Getting into the soil to plant our crop of garlic, sow cover crops, harvest kale to take home, and pulling out the last of the summer annuals were some of the activities we did and the kids seemed to be enjoying themselves!

Our next work party is scheduled for Dec 10th. Please consider coming out to lend a hand with your kids. Work parties are always a fun opportunity to get to know other families, learn some new gardening tidbits, and contribute to our garden project. Bring an extra wheelbarrow if you have one, plus raingear, and perhaps a thermos of tea. We will be gathering materials for the garden and doing the last of the fall clean-­up.

If you are a parent interested in volunteering with garden programs please get in touch;; we always need more volun-­teers!

-­-­

Come on out to the Community School Garden Work Party!

When: December 10th from 230-­4:00 pm

Who: Parents, kids, anyone who wants to contribute, share, learn.

Bring: Gloves, a wheelbarrow, extra fork or shovel.

What: Gathering leaves, manure, weeding, cleaning up. Contact Magdalene at 335-­0970 or

oakandcamas@gmail.com for more info

DICES NEWS

Thank you for all of the enthusiasm and volunteer help that have made the October and November Hot lunch event such a success: helpers were Magda, Charlotte, Sylvie, Rachel, Norie, Scott and Shana. Next Feasty Friday will be December 13th. If you would like to sign up to help with the shopping, food prep or cleanup, please put your name down on the sign-­up sheet posted on the window of the front office. We are looking for volunteers for January onward. Here is the recipe for the delicious Miso Soup prepared for Novembers FF, recipe shared by Norie McGillivray:

Miso Soup recipe (4~5 serving)

Ingredients:

4 cups water

1 cube of Vegetable bouillon (or "DASHI"=Kelp or Fish stock)

3~4 Tablespoons Miso

2 potatoes

1 carrot

1~2 onions

150g tofu

Green onions

1. Cut vegetables.

2. All ingredients in the pot except miso.

3. When vegetables are cooked, turn off the stove.

4. Put miso into the pot.

5. Top with green onions and serve.

Enjoy

Norie

Feasty Fridays!

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Open Gym continues to be going strong on Mondays after school. A big thank you to Charlie Johnston for coaching this activity and to parent volunteers, Frank and Keith. Also, we would like to thank Mike Addision for his long time commitment to coaching afterschool Soccer. At present, we are taking a break from this activity but hope to resume in the spring with interest.

Art Adventures has had full enrolment in the program and the children have enjoyed the stories and crafts, thanks to leaders, Asherah and Veronique. In the New Year, DICES will continue to offer activities on early

dismissal PLC days: January 15, February 5 & 26, and March 5. Art Adventures, will continue with a focus on stories and arts and crafts. As well, we will offer Pasta Making with Colleen Forrest for two classes in January. Please look for more details the 1st week back to school or call 335-­2058 for more information or early registration.

DICES staff members are now turning our attention to our Christmas hamper program. We gratefully accept donations of cash, non-­perishable food items, specialty items, treats, wrapping paper and small gifts for children and adults. Cash and cheque donations can be dropped by our office in the school, cheques made payable to DICES. Other donations can be added to the Hamper Box in the front foyer of the school. If you are in need of a Christmas hamper, we have applications posted in the school, CAP site and at the General Store. Please fill in and return to our office by December 13th. If you would

st, for packing, wrapping gifts and /or deliver-­ing, please give us a call at 335-­2058.

Afterschool Activities

PLC DICES-­‐led Afterschool Activities

Christmas Hampers

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Bits and Bites December 2013

Community Programs: We have some very exciting community program planning and activities started on both islands. More information about this will be shared with the communities by DICES and HIES commu-­nity programs directly, but I wanted to say how pleased I am about all of the enthusiasm over these programs, and a very special thanks for the special and creative efforts of the program coordinators with input from the teachers during our PLC collaborative time.

Ready Set Learn Successes: Thanks for everyone who helped to facilitate or were participants in the suc-­cessful Ready Set Learn events that we hosted at each school for our little people ages 3 to 5 on November 18 and 19, 2013. They were well-­attended and the feedback was positive.

Building a Culture of Mutual Respect Process: Scott Montgomery (school counsellor) and I, along with the teachers, will be engaging some students in some conversation around the school code of conduct seeing that ours is outdated and it is an expectation of the school to communicate this to its students and school community. A helpful support document that really speaks to creating a culture of mutual respect is the Safe, Caring and Orderly Schools Document http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/sco/guide/scoguide.pdf I would suggest taking a peek at it as we work together to help students to identify, through language, what a safe and caring school means and how we can work together to create and sustain this type of learning environment. We will likely have something in place in the next few weeks.

Aboriginal Enhancement Agreement Ceremony: On December 16th, our students of aboriginal ancestry (or other if space are available), are welcomed to attend this multicultural celebration at the Sid Williams Theatre that will begin at 10 AM. We are allowed six seats in the ceremony, and I will be chaperoning this field trip. Please let me know if you are interested in attending.

Christmas Events: This year, after consultation with each island school staff, we have put together what we think will be very interesting and engaging Christmas events on each school campus. There will be more in-­formation to following in the coming week as teachers have time to plan. We are thoughtful of how to best engage students in celebrating the holiday season, while also considering the capacity of the small student and staff population on each island.

Website Input Requested: It will be helpful for you to provide input on our school website development on the following survey link at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1-­r0NmxzdkCHFGaoTxFHuuRf2EmN-­nUn1mPn7BJlPAEY/viewform. I discuss this a bit more in the newsletter and on the link itself.

FSA Testing: Please be aware of the upcoming Fundamental Skills Testing that happens January 13 to Feb-­ruary 21, 2014 for students Grades 4 and 7 students, and provides us some information regarding reading comprehension, writing and numeracy. We will be providing more information as we get closer to the testing dates.

School District No. 71 (Comox Valley) 607 Cumberland Road

Courtenay, B.C., V9N 7G4

Fax (250) 334-­‐5552

Telephone (250)334-­‐5528

Superintendent of Schools

_______________________________________________________________

November 29, 2013

Dear Denman Parents;

We have received many telephone calls and email messages from parents expressing their concern and anger over

Karla Neufer and Bethany Ireland leaving the school. We know you have a lot of questions about the two teachers leav-­‐

ing in addition to the lack of communication about these changes. Please know that the two teachers leaving the

school are not connected in any way. Bethany has requested a personal leave and we hope to see her back in the New

Year. Karla has accepted a district position working in Aboriginal education with other lead teachers (this position came

about mid-­‐year due to a maternity leave). Karla has been at the school for a very long time and she will be missed, but

this is an opportunity for her to share her many talents with all of the students in the school district and please remem-­‐

ber that she accepted the position.

The communication plan unfolded in the way in which Karla requested she wanted the time to write a letter to her

parents and she wanted the time to meet with her students first. She has been able to do that so we now can commu-­‐

nicate the change to you from our office.

The transition plan is for Karla to be at the school Friday and Monday. She will start her new position at the Aboriginal

Education Centre on Tuesday. There will be a teacher in place on Monday and they will remain until the staffing proc-­‐

ess is complete and the position is filled.

We know how deeply you care about your children and we will do everything possible to support them.

Yours truly,

Sherry Elwood

Superintendent of Schools

SE:dp

cc.: Shelley Robinson, Principal, Denman Island Elementary School