Week of October 28—November 1, 2013 Superintendent’s Memo WELCOME TO OUR NEW TRUSTEES! This memo marks the last week of October! Unbelievable! If the first two weeks are any indication, the year is going to fly by. There are many things going on in our schools and I am certainly enjoying the time that I am able to spend in classrooms and at events in our schools. This week will see the beginning of the four-year term for our new BTPS Board of Trustees. The official results were released on Friday and our Board for the years 2014 to 2018 will be: AREA TRUSTEE County of Minburn No. 27 – (Innisfree, Mannville, Alice McLaughlin Percy Lake Colony, Creighton Colony) INSIDE THIS ISSUE Wainwright School Division No. 32 From the Supt (cont’d) ............2 Electoral Subdivision #1 (Town of Wainwright) Marie Isaman Grade 1 Book Giveaway ...........2 Electoral Subdivision #2 (Edgerton, Chauvin, Rib- Cheryl MacIsaac Technology ...............................3 stone Colony) OH&S .......................................3 Electoral Subdivision # 3 (Irma, Holt Colony) Sheldon Archibald Transportation .........................4 The County of Vermilion River No. 24 Student Education Services .....4 Electoral Subdivision #1 (Town of Vermilion) Bernie Huedepohl Items of Interest ......................5 Electoral Subdivision #2 (Rural Vermilion, Autumn Jim King Leaf Colony) Electoral Subdivision #3 (KES, KHS, EH Walter)) Darcy Eddleston Electoral Subdivision #4 (Dewberry, Marwayne, Stu- Lanie Parr dents Online, Clandonald, South Ferriby Colony) Provost School Division No. 33 - Provost, Amisk, Benita Fossen Hughenden, Highland View Colony, Continued next page. MISSION: Buffalo Trail Public Schools is committed to maximizing student learning, in a safe and caring environment, supported by a highly effective team. FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT (FROM PAGE 1) While each of the trustees has an Excellence in Teaching Awards electoral subdivision with a number of Program was initiated to: schools in them, it has been the mantra recognize outstanding Alberta of all trustees to consider the needs of teachers all students across BTPS in their decision making. We will be honour creative, innovative and orientating our new trustees this week effective teaching and the Board of Trustees will have their Organizational Meeting on focus public attention on the October 30th. teaching profession and Nominations for the 2014 Alberta involve Albertans in celebrating Excellence in Teaching Awards are teaching excellence. now open. The release information on BTPS has many, many excellent the website shares that, “Since 1989 “. it has been the mantra of all trustees to consider the needs of all students across BTPS in their decision making.” teachers. When there is an FREE GRADE 1 the Excellence in Teaching Awards opportunity to recognize members of BOOKS ARE HERE! Program has recognized the innovative our team, it is also an opportunity to and outstanding The annual TD /Canadian celebrate the many teaching that takes Children’s Book Centre’s good things that we Grade 1 book giveaway has place every day in have to offer! We arrived at Central Services. classrooms across also want to help in This year’s book is Boy Soup, Alberta. The the process. If you by Loris Lesynski, with pic- Awards provide are considering tures by Michael Albertans with an nominating an Martchencko. opportunity outstanding teacher From the CCBC website: to recognize and for this award, “When Giant wakes up with celebrate the many contributions please contact Assistant a giant cold, he turns to his teachers and principals make to Superintendent – Human Resources. home medical guide for help. student learning. Parents, teacher- The prescription? A bowl of [email protected]. He will be colleagues, principals, superintendents Boy Soup. Catching the boys happy to help you through the process is easy, but what he doesn’t and all Albertans are encouraged to and provide any guidance that you count on is Kate. .” show their appreciation by nominating may require. an outstanding teacher or principal for Copies of Boy Soup will be Take care, distributed to an Excellence in Teaching Award.” elementary http:// schools within www.education.alberta.ca/ the next two teachers/excellence.aspx weeks. Look for them in the van The website shares that the GO BACK run. GO BACK 2 OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & SAFETY NEW OH&S LEGISLATION CHANGES COMING INTO EFFECT Occupational Health & Safety Alberta is introducing some amendments to the current OH&S laws, effective January 1, 2014. These changes are aimed at both the worker and the employer. The new legislation gives government inspectors the authority to issue tickets for safety infractions when they are visiting a site. The fines for infractions range from $100 dollars to $5oo dollars. A couple of examples of infractions are: Not using fall protection when working on a roof. The fine is $200.00 for the worker and $500.00 for the employer. Using a grinder without a proper guard is a fine of $200.00 for the worker and $500.00 for the employer. WES students, parents and staff during the September 26 National School Terry Fox Run. The goal behind these changes is to make workers aware that they too share the responsibility for providing a safe work environment; it’s not just TECHNOLOGY management. The Alberta government tried taking an Web Tools—Are you looking for apps and web tools? Here is a link to a curated education approach to make list of different apps and mobile web tools that you might want to use. It is broken everyone aware of their down by compatibility with different devices and operating systems. http:// responsibilities; however they felt bit.ly/BTPSmtools that the educational campaigns were not working. Thousands of Ideas for promoting critical thinking—Here is a link to a really neat link to in- workers were still being injured teractive activities that actually promotes critical thinking. It does this by linking and/or killed each year due to outcomes and results on the student input. There are even some activities that non-compliance with OH&S allow for assessment at the end. It doesn't have the biggest library yet, but as more legislation. We are all responsible for making BTPS a teachers become involved and suggest more ideas, they will continue to develop safe working environment for resources. edheads.org staff and students. We all have a role to play in building a safety ChromeBook Pilots—Links are below if you haven’t applied yet: culture for our division. I don’t Proposal Information: http://bit.ly/BTPScbinfo anticipate this being a huge issue Actual Proposal Form: http://bit.ly/BTPScbpilot (there is a link to this in the in- for us, as we are already doing an outstanding job ensuring our formation document) schools are as safe as they can be. Warning with JAVA update - For some reason the latest update of Java is not For more information about these allowing PowerTeacher to operate. Please do not accept this update until further changes, please click on these notice! links: http:// humanservices.alberta.ca/ GAFE Statistics: documents/OHS-Act-Amended- 5,681 GAFE created accounts LI031.pdf 1,962 authenticated accounts http://humanservices.alberta.ca/ documents/TAPS-ticketable- 35% of accounts( 3% growth since last week) provisions.pdf 1226 actual operating accounts (person has actually been working with it) Don Doherty, OHS Coordinator [email protected] 22 % of accounts (2% growth since last week) (780) 842-8912 Helpdesk—Deb is on vacation for the next 2 weeks. This means the “Safety doesn’t happen by helpdesk phone is not manned until November 12th. We are monitoring accident” all email requests. Email volume is light. Please remember to contact us GO BACK with any problems you are having. Technology collects all of these prob- lems monitoring for trends. Email us at [email protected]. GO BACK 3 TRANSPORTATION SAFELY ON BOARD SCHOOL BUS SAFETY PROGRAM: A reminder to teachers that Cindy House will be coming to the north schools in November to teach school bus safety to K-6 students. Please read below for more information on this pro- gram and to make sure the schedule works for your classes. The Schedule can be found here http://www.btps.ca/files/PDF/Staff/Transportation/ Safely_on_Board_2013_Schedule.pdf SCHOOL BUS DRIVERS WANTED: If you or anyone you know is interested is becoming a school bus driver, please contact our office at 780-806-2051 or talk to your local bus contractors about how to get started. It is a very rewarding and important role in a child’s education. SCHOOL BUS FEES: School bus fees (i.e. intown bussing, transportation to care- giver, ineligible bussing, and yard service) are now due. Parents can make pay- ments at their school or the school can send it in the van mail. Post dated cheques are accepted and payment plans are available. For information on fee amounts, please call Lonnie Tipler at 780-806-2052. GO BACK “The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.” - Khalil Gibran STUDENT EDUCATION SERVICES Wainwright & District Council for dents at Risk Conference Adult Lifelong Learning presents: Where: Hotel Blackfoot –5940 Black- MHFA Canada: For Adults Who Inter- foot Trail S.E. Calgary, AB act with Youth. This workshop focuses on mental health problems and first When: March 17 – 18, 2014 aid for youth ages 12 to 24. Cost: Registration Fee- $279 inc. GST When: Thursday & Friday, December 5 & 6, 2013. Accommodations: Hotel Blackfoot, 5940 Blackfoot Trail SE, Calgary, AB Where: Wainwright Provincial Build- T2H 2B5. A room block has been held ing for $138 per night plus taxes. Reserva- Cost: $ 100 tions can be made by contacting the in Course is a total of 14 hours.