Cougar Tracks

Friday, May 27, 2022

Stay-at-Home Guide for Families

When do I keep my child home? Use this guide to determine when to keep your child home from school and when it’s safe to return—refer to the Alberta Health Daily Checklist for students 18 and older. * Last updated on March 3, 2022

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Upcoming Dates and Events

May 27: Band 7-8-9 Final Concert at Salisbury Composite High School at 6:00 p.m.

May 27: Grade 8 Final Exam - English Language Arts Part A

June 1: Early Dismissal at 2:00 p.m.

June 2: School Council Meeting at 6:00 p.m.

June 10-16: Pride Week, Fort Saskatchewan

June 11-16: Pride Week, Strathcona County

June 21: National Indigenous Peoples Day

June 28: Last Instructional Day

June 29: Last Day for Staff

June 30: School Closed for Summer

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Grade 9 Farewell Volunteers Needed

The Parent Committee is looking for parent volunteers who would be helping out the grade 9 parents and sign up for the jobs so grade 9 families can enjoy the evening. If you're interested, please sign up at the link below.


Volunteer Sign Up Form

COVID-19 Alberta Health Daily Checklist

Please remember to complete this form verbally with your child every day. Doing so helps keep schools safer for everyone and, will hopefully, keep temporary online learning to a minimum.

2021-22 EIPS Parent Survey: Results Now Available

The 2021-22 EIPS Parent Survey results are now available. In March, the Division conducted the annual survey, which helps EIPS gauge its progress toward meeting the goals and priorities outlined in its Four-Year Education Plan. Families were asked a series of questions about their experiences with EIPS and the school their child attends, the overall performance of the Division, the quality of education being provided to students and areas for improvement.


Thank you to all families who took the time to share their feedback with the Division. Overall, the survey received 3,450 responses from parents and guardians across EIPS. EIPS, and schools, will now review the feedback in detail and use it to develop new strategies to serve students and the wider community better.

The full results are available online:


The full results are available online:


Updating Your Contact Information

Have you recently moved or has your contact information changed throughout the past year? Elk Island Public Schools (EIPS) encourages families to review their information the Division has on file to ensure it’s up to date. Using the Correction and Verification Form available through the PowerSchool Parent Portal, families can review their information on file for each student—including addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, parent and guardian information, emergency contacts, medical details and other related information—and submit any updates needed.


Reviewing and updating the form ensures the Division has the most up-to-date information regarding your child. Your review is especially important in case there’s any communication the Division or school needs to send out over the summer months related to classes next year. All EIPS families are asked to review their child’s Correction and Verification Form by June 13 at noon. After this time, EIPS will turn the form off for the remainder of the school year—available again at the start of the 2022-23 school year.


NOTE: Only submit updates for the changes that have already taken place. If you’re moving this summer, you’ll submit the necessary updates to your address through the Correction and Verification Form at the start of next school year after you’ve moved.


If you have questions about the form or the PowerSchool Parent Portal, contact the school at 780-467-5930.

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Accessing User Accounts: Students Leaving EIPS

Is your child graduating from or leaving EIPS at the end of the school year? If so, they must ensure any information they want to retain from their school cloud accounts is downloaded onto a personal device before leaving.


· Google account – Students must download any wanted content before August 1—download files either individually or in bulk using Google Takeout.

· Microsoft account – Students must download any wanted content from their OneDrive account before August 1.


After August 1, 2022, EIPS will deactivate the account and delete all remaining files.

For more information, contact the school at 780-467-5930.

REMINDER: 2021-22 School Fees

School fees for the 2021-22 school year are posted on the PowerSchool Parent Portal. All fees are due within 30 days of being posted. Throughout the year, fees are often added to cover the costs for various activities, such as field trips, extracurricular activities, and late, damaged or lost textbooks.


To access your fee information, simply log in to the PowerSchool Parent Portal and go to “Student Fees.” There you can view fees and pay them online using a credit card. Make sure to monitor your child’s account on an ongoing basis.


For more information about school fees, waivers and payment deadlines, visit eips.ca/schools/fees. And, if you have questions, think there is an error or need help creating a PowerSchool Parent Portal account, contact your child’s school directly before the summer break.


NOTE: Pursuant to Board Policy 23: School Fees and Administrative Procedure 505: School and Administrative Fees, EIPS will forward any unpaid 2021-22 fee amounts to a collection agency. To prevent this from happening, remember to pay your fees before August 31, 2022.

Upcoming Performing Arts Shows and Ticket Information

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Performing Arts 8 - Bottle of Joy

This delightful children’s play takes place in the far off land of the Kingdom of Happy where... well, everybody’s happy! Everybody, that is, except the evil Count Cringe and his equally evil assistant Purvis. What brings such happiness to the lucky residents of this kingdom? Waldo the Wizard’s magic bottle of joy! King Har Har keeps the main supply of this magic potion in a large corked bottle, and the town’s inhabitants each refill their own little bottles once a year. Loaded with puns and plenty of witty verbal banter to entertain all ages, you will cringe when Count Cringe attempts to destroy the bottle of joy with his sad ray!
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Performing Arts 9 - Goldilocks on Trial

Amanda Marie Locks, known as Goldilocks or even “Goldie,” is on trial for breaking and entering and destruction of private property. Fairytale characters serve as witnesses for the prosecuting and defense attorneys. To hear the Bare family tell it, Goldie should be found guilty. But an unscrupulous judge and a slew of unreliable witnesses — including a blind witch, a forgetful old woman who lives in a shoe, a dwarf with a nasty disposition, a skittish tuffet-tester, and a country boy so dumb he’d trade beans for a cow — make it hard to build a case against the gal with the golden hair. With so much conflicting testimony, no wonder the results are courtroom chaos!

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Tickets can be purchased through the Parent Portal on PowerSchool under the ‘Fees’ section. There will be 4 different show options. Either Bottle of Joy or Goldilocks on Trial and the showtimes. Each play has 2 showtimes at 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The night of the show you will tell us your name and how many tickets you purchased! There will not be any physical tickets exchanged.


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Earth Steward Teaching Awards - win up to $2,000 in prizes!

Our Earth Steward Teaching Awards recognize an elementary and a secondary teacher for their outstanding contributions to sustainability education in Ontario and Alberta. We are searching for educators in Alberta and Ontario who inspire passion for a more sustainable future. Do you know someone who builds students’ sustainability knowledge, skills, values and perspectives? Do they motivate their students to take action, and help them become responsible local and global citizens?


They could win $1,000 in personal prize money as well as a $1,000 Action Project grant for their school!


  • Nominate an educator that you believe is making an exemplary contribution to sustainability education! Nominations close May 27.

Summer Hours at Elk Island Public Schools

Throughout the summer break, Sherwood Heights Junior High school is closed. It reopens on August 22 at 8:00 a.m. If you have any school-related questions or concerns while the school is closed, contact EIPS Central Services—the office is open all summer to complete year-end activities and prepare for the 2022-23 school year. Students return to school on August 30.


EIPS Central Office Summer Hours: June 29 to August 19, 2022


Open: Monday to Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Phone: 780-464-3477

Address: 683 Wye Rd., Sherwood Park


Statutory Holidays

Closed - July 1 (Canada Day)

Closed - August 1 (Heritage Day)


NOTE: Student Transportation also remains open during the summer months—operating the same hours as EIPS Central Services.

Career Pathways Newsletter

Published May 2022

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Planning to use Student Transportation in the 2022-23 school year? If so, make sure your child is registered so Elk Island Public Schools (EIPS) can plan routes and send your child a bus pass before the first day of school.


All students who indicated needing transportation services through the returning student registration process are now registered. Families registered will received tentative route schedules and invoices by the end of the month—fees are due June 30, 2022.


For those students who didn’t indicate needing transportation service through the pre-enrolment process and want to now register, simply contact EIPS Student Transportation at 780-417-8151 or email st@eips.ca.


For more information about EIPS Student Transportation visit www.eips.ca/transportation.

NOTE: Families can pay fees online using the PowerSchool Parent Portal. To pay in-person contact Student Transportation to make an appointment.

Kudos for a SWH Staff Member

On behalf of the Sherwood Heights School Council, thank you for helping us recognize our amazing staff for the wonderful work they do.

Supporting Students Transitioning to Junior High or Senior High

Are you looking to support your students with transitioning from elementary to junior high or from junior high to senior high? Sign up for a free, interactive, virtual session that will address the topics on your students’ minds. Transitions to Junior High will focus on friendships, lockers, class changes and fitting in, along with how to cope with the stress of something new and how to reach out for support. Transitions to Senior High will cover maintaining balance, healthy relationships in high school, coping with change and accessing supports. We’ll focus on mental health awareness and utilizing a growth mindset through this transition.


Book your session today, and someone from the Mental Health Capacity Building team will be in contact with you.


June 2, 3, 9 or 10, 2022
Register

EIPS Operations Guidelines 2021-22

Last updated on March 7, 2022

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Experiences Canada’s This! Is Canada: Virtual Gallery provides a space for youth to express themselves through art and share their talents with the rest of the country. The gallery highlights the incredible talent, resilience, leadership and diversity of our country’s young people from coast-to-coast-to-coast. We’re excited to announce a new online gallery.


This year’s theme is “Feels Like Home” where we invite youth to submit art—in any medium: painting, sculpting, drawing, printmaking, photography, beading, poetry and more—that represents what makes them feel like home. Whether it be friendships, family, culture or a specific place or community that makes you feel at home, we want to see it. Gallery submissions are open to youth ages 12-25 and will be accepted until June 12, 2022.


Gallery awards will be awarded to three youth—one winner and two runners up—in each age group: 12-15 years, 16-19 years and 20-25 years. A team of volunteer judges will assist Experiences Canada in reviewing all submissions over the last two weeks of June. The final selection will be determined based on three factors:


  • The quality of the submission
  • The artist’s personal bio and their representation of the theme ‘Feels like home’
  • Ensuring a representative balance of Canada’s geographic, cultural and linguistic diversity
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New Online Cougar Wear Store

We are excited to be able to offer a year-round online store!


Enjoy browsing a wide selection of products from a variety of brands that you can then customize with the approved logos and graphics found on the site. Display your pride in fantastic apparel customized entirely by you. Our site lets students, parents, fans, & staff choose from approved merchandise to fit their needs 24/7 with no minimum order quantities. All orders are shipped directly to your own home!


2021-2022 Online Cougar Wear Store

Division Calendar 2022-23

The EIPS 2022-23 Division calendar is now available and includes important dates during the 2022-23 school year, including school-closure dates; holidays; dates for the November, Christmas, spring and summer breaks; PD days; & early dismissal dates.