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Dear Parents, Guardians and Students Welcome Back to a New School Year Welcome back to all our students, parents and staff members to a new school year! Classes are officially in full session on September 10th. For those of you new to the St. B community, you've now joined a place that truly cares about students and their success. We want to get to know your children, their strengths, their challenges, their dreams and hopes for the future so we can help them realize that success. We look forward to working with our St. B school family on providing a great year of learning for our students. Welcome! I would also like to warmly welcome two returning staff members to our school community this year: Mrs. Jaime Riou (ELA, Media Lit, Interactive Media and Digital Film); Mr. Anthony Ramos (ELA, Phys. Ed, Health). Our theme this school year is the ST. B - ATTITUDES. According to Blu Murphy, published in Christianity on May 19, 2008 , “The Beatitudes can very often go unnoticed, but they are very important for those who have made the decision to follow Christ. They should guide us, point us in the right direction, teach us, and show us the values that Jesus cares about. As we read them we should be looking at whether or not we are trying to follow them.” This year, we explore the Beatitudes, and all of us at ST. B will do are very best to follow the Beatitudes and to model good moral values that they invoke. The media has provided many reports in regards to the H1N1 Virus and some of them can be confusing. We do expect to see lots of flu activity this fall, yet we do not want people to panic. At St. B, we share the concerns of all parents, students and staff in regards to this medical issue. St. B has a plan in place according to provincial guidelines and regulations for H1N1 preparedness. From a community preparedness perspective we'll be well served because we have developed the relationships that are going to be important if we start to see increased numbers of cases of the flu. Please take time to read the following documents in this month's issue of the Linkletter provided by the Province of Manitoba :
If you have any questions regarding our H1N1 plan, please do not hesitate to contact the school. On the first week of school parents and guardians receive a flurry of paper to be filled out. This is our only contact with many of you and as such we need it to be filled out completely and accurately. Parents are welcome at St. B at all times. Please drop by the office to return forms, pay school fees, introduce yourself, visit, find out how your child is doing, ask questions, meet the administration and administrative assistants or to work together to solve a problem. St. B is our school and you are a member of our St. B Family. Technology and all of the gadgets that are available make the world a smaller, more accessible and safer place. Please ensure that you go over the Computer Acceptable Use Policy. Many of our students have cell phones (complete with text messaging and cameras), MP3 players, pagers, CD Players, hand held DVD players, watches that play games and the list goes on. Students are not allowed to use cell phones in classrooms at all. Students who do, will have their phones taken to the office and parents or guardians will be called to retrieve them. If you have any questions regarding the policy change on cell phones, please contact the school. The importance of our parent commitment to St. B is realized through the volunteerism we require from our families. This commitment is vital to our success. When this partnership between St. B and the families we serve is strong, student achievement is also strengthened. All of us, old and new alike to St. B are committed to listening to and learning from the families who make up our St. B school community. Please remember your volunteer hours can be served through working with the Parent’s Guild, sports teams, building projects or in other areas. I am working with these groups to increase parent involvement with our school and to make sure we remain responsive to your ideas and concerns. As we embark on another school year, I would like to genuinely say “Thank You.” Educating children is a team effort. Sydney J. Harris stated that, “The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.” Each one of you is so important in this vision we share, and I appreciate all you do every day. I look forward to another fantastic school year at STB. God Bless and have a Great Year!
Mr. Jeff Beaudin
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