February 14, 2022 Reminder

Catholic Central will offer TWO information evenings for grade 9 parents/ guardians (same presentation on both nights) who require some guidance and assistance with transition to high school and course selection. These presentations will start at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 15 on CAMPUS EAST in the CAFETERIA and on Wednesday, February 16 on CAMPUS WEST in the GATHERING SPACE. As your grade 9 students will be receiving the same presentation in their schools this week, we ask that you limit attendance to one parent/ guardian per household so that we can accommodate all those who wish to attend. Should you choose not to attend and still require the information, the Google presentation can be accessed here after the parent information evenings have been completed: https://cch.holyspirit.ab.ca/school/registration 

Additionally, we are here to help you and your student walk through this process so please contact us if you need assistance.

February 7, 2022

Catholic Central Grade 9 Parent Information Evenings have been rescheduled to:

– Tuesday, February 15 on Campus East in the gymnasium at 7:00

– Wednesday, February 16 on Campus West in the gymnasium at 7:00

We will run two nights so that everyone who wants to/needs to attend is able to attend (it is the same presentation on both nights so choose one night or the other). All parents or guardians planning on attending must provide a QR code for proof of vaccination or have a negative PCR result within the past 72 hours, along with a valid photo ID. Additionally, masks must be worn for the entirety of the presentation. We ask that only parents/guardians attend at this time as the administrative and guidance counselling team at Catholic Central are working in collaboration with your child’s junior high school administrative team to visit classrooms later in February (the week of February 14-18). This request is so that we are able to accommodate as many parents and guardians as possible while adhering to our ⅓ gym capacity for indoor gatherings. While we do not anticipate either gym filling to capacity, please plan to arrive early to ensure that there is room. Should there be a need for alternate ways of “meeting” (as in a virtual platform), please contact Mrs. Polec at polecj@holyspirit.ab.ca

January 17, 2022

Please read this letter from CCH regarding Grade 10 Orientation for the 2022-23 School Year:

Please contact CCH or FLVT if you have any questions.

Thank you.

Please see this flowchart to help answer some questions parents have regarding if students are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms:

Last week, our government shared their plans of supplying all students and staff with rapid tests and masks.  Tomorrow, our supply of rapid tests and masks will be arriving.

We will receive the following:

• One five-pack of rapid tests (a 2 ½ week supply, testing twice per week on a Monday and a Thursday) for every student and staff member;
• Twenty masks (a 10-day supply – 2 per day) for each student and staff member, ECS to grade 6 will receive pediatric masks; grade 7 – 9 and all staff will receive adult masks. 

ECS to grade 6 will receive two bundles of 10 pediatric masks.  The school will need to repackage the adult masks for our junior high students and staff.

Tomorrow, we plan on distributing the rapid tests and masks to students.

IMPORTANT – if you do not want your child to receive a rapid test kit to take home, please get in touch with Mrs. Swanson by email at swansonc@holyspirit.ab.ca  by January 13, 2022, 9 am.  Also, if you do not want your child to receive the masks, please inform your child to tell us, and we will use them in our office.

Please contact the school if your child is absent and you want to arrange a pick-up time for either the rapid tests or masks.

The rapid tests are meant for home use; there will be no testing of students at school.  Here is a video from the government about administering a rapid test https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4q7EuAbgE8

Finally, if you complete the rapid test and it’s negative, please continue to do the Alberta Health Daily Checklists.

If you complete the rapid test and it’s positive, please follow the required isolation policy:

Thank you,

FLVT School

Please do this important city survey regarding possible changes to their snow removal policy:

https://getinvolvedlethbridge.ca/snow-control-and-street-sweeping?tool=survey_tool#tool_tab

If the city changes the current policy, it could create unsafe student pick-up and drop-off on Red Crow Blvd. and Stoney Cres.

Thank you,

FLVT School

Re-Registration

Families who already have students in our school should expect an email during the week of January 17-21, 2022, asking that the online “Registration Update Form” be completed.

This pre-populated update lets us ensure that the information we have on file is accurate and that any legal declarations, preferences, and consents are renewed. It also allows our schools to plan for the upcoming school year.

PLEASE NOTE:

• Parents/guardians who are hoping to register younger siblings new to the division will have the opportunity to submit a “New Student Registration Form” at the same time that they are re-registering older students.
• Students transitioning from elementary to junior high, or junior high to high school, will have their designated school assigned to them in the “Registration Update Form.”
• Ensure that you are filling in the correct form. Please complete the assigned “2022-2023 K-12 Registration Update Form” OR “2022-2023 Early Learning Program Registration Update Form.” If you believe you have been assigned an incorrect form, please contact your current school.

New Student Registration

All Early Learning to Grade 12 students new to the division and who wish to enroll for the 2022/2023 school year are invited to register online starting on Tuesday, February 1, 2022.

For information about our programs and age-related guidelines:

• Early Learning Programs are for children aged 3 and 4.
• Kindergarten Programs are for children aged 5 on or before December 31, 2022
• Grade 1 registrants must be 6 years of age on or before December 31, 2022.

To learn more about our Early Learning and Kindergarten Programs or discuss your child’s specialized programming requirements, contact the Early Learning Coordinator at 403-381-8495 or earlylearning@holyspirit.ab.ca.

https://www.holyspirit.ab.ca/schools/registration/new_family_registration

For More Information

If you need assistance with the online registration process or have any questions, contact Father Leonard Van Tighem School or the school division’s main office.

This spring, our junior high students will perform Aladdin Jr.  Special thanks to all the students and staff involved, especially to Miss Loman for Directing the production.  We need your support.  Please see the below letter on how you can support our Fine Arts Spring Production:

Thank you for considering supporting our production.

February 9, 2022 Update

There were some minor changes to the Covid-19 Alberta Health Daily Checklists. Please review the new document:

January 8, 2022

As we welcome students and staff back to school on Monday, January 10, 2022, we want to do our best to ensure everyone is as safe as possible. Two essential measures to protect against the highly contagious Omicron variant are properly wearing masks and completing the Covid-19 Alberta Health Daily Checklist.

We are asking everyone to be diligent in properly wearing their masks. The only people exempt from this are those individuals with a medical exemption.

Please review the updated Covid-19 Alberta Health Daily Checklists. Depending on your vaccination status, there are different outcomes. There is a checklist for adults (over 18) and children (under 18). Here is a copy of each checklist:

Children Checklist

Adult Checklist

Thank you for your support of these two important measures.

February 1, 2022 Update

Please see the following announcement from our Superintendent:

As previously communicated, we would be reviewing our position on athletics and extracurricular activities on a regular basis.  

After consulting with each junior high and high school principal, it was also decided to allow two spectators for each student participant engaged in an extra-curricular activity except for tournaments. For sports activities, a maximum of two spectators for each athlete will be permitted for league games or fine arts performances only; spectators will not be allowed for tournaments at this time.

This will be effective for league games starting Friday, February 4, 2022. 

It is important to note that schools will host events with spectators only if they have the internal capacity to do so.  Absenteeism of students and staff is significantly more evident in some schools compared to others and therefore, not able to host spectators at this time.  Other contributing factors include, but not limited to, the health of participants in the activity cohort and available space in the gymnasium/gathering space.  Schools will communicate with parents if they are not able to welcome spectators.  While this is far from ideal, I encourage parents to support this decision should it have to be made by the administration of a school in the short term or for a specific game.  Should a school be open to welcoming 2 spectators per student participant/athlete, visitors to the school are required to provide proof of vaccination (or a negative COVID-19 Rapid Test result within a 72 hour period) with accompanying government-issued identification.

The staff in our Catholic schools remain committed to making everything work in their local schools’ contexts.  As we transition slowly in the direction of opening up to spectators, we are indebted to our school administrators who continue to make difficult decisions while managing and operationalizing daily activities of every kind while ensuring that our two key guidelines are being met:

(1) Schools remain open for learning, with attention to measures that mitigate the spread of COVID.
(2) Students are involved in activities that enhance their overall experiences in school and promote their well-being.  

We will continue to vigilantly review our practices and make the necessary adjustments along the way.  Please continue to pray for our entire school community as we move cautiously to what will eventually be a non-pandemic reality.

January 26, 2022 Update

We were pleased with the recent announcement that our basketball games could proceed. Please remember, at this point, spectators are not permitted.

Since the game of basketball is quite different than volleyball, we have had a lot of difficulty with live streaming. We will be trying again today, unfortunately, the quality may not be very good due to our limited technology. Our camera will be stationed at one end of the gym and may not pick up quality images at the other end of the court.

FYI – On January 27 there will be no live stream due to our school’s internet being serviced.

The live stream can be found on our school’s website: https://flvt.holyspirit.ab.ca/

Thanks for your patience as we examine our options.

January 7, 2022

As we prepare to welcome students back on Monday, we have an update regarding extracurricular activities. Today, our Superintendent provided the following information:

As you know, our first priority is to ensure the health and safety of our students and staff.  Secondarily, we want to provide opportunities for our students to be involved in some of the extras that schools have to offer in terms of supporting and promoting that sense of holistic wellness and wellbeing. Keeping this in mind, here is an update regarding Extra-Curricular Activities:

1. For the week of Jan 10 – 14, 2022
   • athletics/sports – 
     • limited to practices within the school; 
     • no scheduled games with other schools are permitted; 
     • no tournaments up to and including Jan. 16th
     • no field-trips
   • other activities/clubs at the school level only
   • as before, there is to be no inter-school play or activities for our elementary aged students
2. For the week of Jan 17 – 21, 2022
   • scheduled league games only, but spectators are not permitted 
   • schools are encouraged to livestream games so that interested individuals can at least watch the activity. We will be looking into setting this up at FLVT, although livestreaming an end-to-end basketball game provides some challenges.
   • other activities/clubs at the school level 
   • field-trips are not recommended
   • no tournaments to take place up to and including Jan. 23rd

Thank you for your support as we continue to make our school as safe as possible.

Also, just another reminder of our new muster points starting on Monday.

Today, our Minister of Education announced students will be returning to school on January 10, 2022. Please see her announcement:

Also, please remember our new muster points (there was a typo in yesterday’s post, it has been corrected):

Due to the construction of our new portables, we are revising our outdoor muster points. The construction does not allow us to use the east field and the east exit.

Once students return to school, we will be using the following muster points (please check out the map carefully as the change affects many classes):

Please contact the school if you have any questions.