As you can tell our field is a mud pit! In order to have enough room for the kids to play, we have been taking a group of grade 3-5 students to the Shale Pit so they can continue to play soccer and tag games. Right now it seems to be the "lesser of the two evils". In the next two weeks, the City and Board are coming to finalize plans for the fence to be moved, so we can possibly use the City property. This is the area beside the pool. Also, we've asked the Board to plant sod to replace the mud (although it can be fun too)! They may choose to wait until the City/Board finalizes their plans, as it doesn't make sense to plant if they are going to track heavy machinery over it in the process. We do know that we are going to have to stay off of it for 3 months for the grass to take. I figure we've been using the shale pit for 2 days now, what is another 12 or so more weeks! When we know exactly what the plan is, I will share on the blog and also at Parent Council.
We are also having difficulty with our roof, as many of you know. We have many leaks in the roof for various reasons, one being that the roof (inverted) wasn't installed properly. We have had the Board in to come up with a plan to fix the leaks as they are not acceptable. They are going to fix the leaks that are causing the most concern, and then they will either repair the 15 year old roof or replace it. Again, I will let you know when that decision has been made.
A couple of issues have come up lately with student access to the internet. The internet, when used properly, can be a great educational tool, and the majority of our student body is respectful of the boundaries. We have had a couple of incidents lately that leads to a few reminders of the internet rules. Just to let you know that the kids are not allowed to be using social networks, like Facebook or You Tube at the school, unless under direct supervision of staff, for educational purposes. Sometimes the kids do use email to send their essays to staff, but that should be the extent of its use. They shouldn't be "checking" emails for social reasons. We will reiterate to the students, particularly the junior/intermediate students as we just finished discussing this at our last staff meeting. Of note, we are in the process of rescheduling our Mediacs presentation for May. We will send home a flyer later.
