It’s exciting to see the sun sticking around a little longer at the end of the day, and we’ve come out of the cold snap relatively unscathed - seems like spring is just around the corner! The sad news is that I Love to Read month is now over but what a great month it was! It was another successful month highlighting literacy at MES with guest readers like the Piston players and Mr. Corny Rempel, whole school story writing project, special challenges, prizes, and energizing assemblies. Big congratulations to ALL of our MES readers. You are all winners in our book. Keep reading!

We are also right in the middle of another pizza fundraiser and there is a lot of excitement around the possibility of starting work on the Meteor this fall. Please remember that the fundraiser ends on March 7th and deliveries will be on March 22nd. There are other ways to be involved in this special project as well, just give us a call in the office and we would be happy to discuss other fundraising opportunities.

MES would like to welcome Lisa Moser (EA), Judy Schmid (EA), Krista Edel (EA), and Sarah Horishney (EA Candidate at Red River Community College) to our dynamite team.

Order sheets are to be handed in to the school office by Tuesday, March 7th.

Pick up date is Wednesday, March 22nd from 3:20-5:30 pm with details to follow.

Parents/Guardians are encouraged to register their children soon. Early registration will assist us in preparation and planning for the upcoming school year. Registering before March 15, 2023, will ensure there is sufficient time for school appointments and provide parents/guardians with the opportunity to participate in Kindergarten orientation activities. Visit www.hsd.ca for registration instructions.

We are looking forward to another great season of baseball and girls softball in Mitchell.

Please visit www.mitchellminorball.ca to register for the upcoming season.

For other updates throughout the season please follow Mitchell Expos Baseball on Instagram and Facebook.

For questions about a specific age group please contact the rep for each level (https://www.mitchellminorball.ca/contact.html). Any general questions can be sent to this email address: mitchellminorballassociation@gmail.com.

**Note that there is currently no charge for 18U registration as in the past few years players have been transferred to other towns as we didn't have enough players to have a team. Please still register with Mitchell, and if there is enough interest we will have a team, if not we will transfer players out again.

Hanover School Division is excited to announce that we have partnered with The Lions Club to

offer vision screening to all of our students in kindergarten starting April 2023. The program is very similar to the hearing screening we conduct in the fall every year.

Members of The Lions Club have been trained in the use of the SPOT Vision Screener and will

use this tool to screen children in all HSD kindergarten classrooms. The screening is done from

a distance of about 3 feet with no physical contact, takes just a few seconds, and can screen for

Myopia (near-sightedness), Hyperopia (far-sightedness) and Anisocoria (pupil size deviation). In

addition, Astigmatism (blurred vision), Anisometropia (unequal refractive power) and

Strabismus (eye misalignment) which can result in Amblyopia (lazy-eye).

More information will be provided in the coming weeks.

ARRIVALS & DEPARTURES

Thank you to all parents for keeping our bus loop clear and safe. This is just a quick reminder to all our students and parents of the bus loop rules:

1) Refrain from using the bus loop between 8:00am and 4:00pm (during school hours).

2) If you are dropping off or picking up students please do so from the street in front of the school (please do not drive onto the staff parking lot.)

3) Always walk around the front of the first bus, or the back of the last bus (not between them!) when more than one bus is stopped in the bus loop.

4) Please remind children who walk or bike to school to do so on the appropriate sides of the street so that buses and other vehicles can pass safely.

PARKING & PICK-UP:

Please take note of the areas that are safe for parking. The Mitchell Gospel Church is willing to let parents use their parking lot during the hours of 8:15-9:00 and 3:00-3:45 pm. This is the parking area one block directly south of the school down the path that connects to Willow & Oakview.

In the interest of maximizing learning time in the classroom and keeping interruptions to a minimum, please make home time arrangements with your child(ren) before they leave for school in the morning.

Send a message on Seesaw if home time arrangements are different from your normal routine, whether your child is going home with someone else or being picked up at the end of the day.

If you must phone the school regarding a change in home time arrangements please call before 2:30 pm.
If you are picking your child up for an appointment during the school day, please sign your child out at the office and the secretary will call your child to meet you at the office.

We are excited that you want to volunteer in our school!

The volunteer process is as follows:

• Fill out the Child Abuse Registry Forms at the school office.

• Email Carole at the RCMP to request the form for a Vulnerable Sector Check (VSC). Her email address is: carole.robidoux@rcmp-grc.gc.ca

• When emailing her, please include the letter that we will provide to you indicating that you are a volunteer. This will ensure that you are not charged a fee for the check.

• Be sure to let Carole know if your mailing address is different from your physical address.

• Once you receive your VSC in the mail, please bring it to the school so that we can forward it to the appropriate department in the school division.

• Once you are approved, it will be noted under the Student Information tab in your Parent Portal account.

Please note that this whole process can take 4 - 8 weeks until you are approved.

You will be required to complete an annual declaration form each school year to verify that you have had no convictions since the date of your application.

**Please note*** Pizza tickets are sold in bundles of 4 for $10 (1 ticket per slice).

We will not be selling individual tickets. Tickets can be purchased by sending cash or cheque (payable to MES) to your child's homeroom teacher. If you would like to make a payment via the Parent Portal, please notify the school office by email to mes@hsd.ca to make arrangements.

**Please note** Milk tickets are sold in bundles of 10 for $10.

We will not be selling individual tickets for milk cartons. Tickets can be purchased by sending cash or cheque (payable to MES) to your child's homeroom teacher.

If you would like to make a payment via the Parent Portal, please notify the school office by email at mes@hsd.ca to make arrangements.

Chair: Meagan Plett

Corinna Rickey

Kara Fehr

Andrea Nedohin

Meghan Matthews

Elly Carr

Naomi Reimer

Heather Ginter

Angie Koop

8 Kindergarten Report Cards

10 Admin Day - No classes

14 Winter Fun Day

15 Grade 1-4 Report Cards

21 Parent/Teacher Conferences (by request only)

22-23 Skating

27-31 Spring Break