We are continuing to plan for the 2022-23 school year and want to share information about our school’s staffing. Please know, though, that this plan is continually evolving as we try to best meet our students’ needs. As we learn more, we will update this page. Thank you for trusting us with your children’s care and educational needs.

May 1, 2023 Update:

Today, Mrs. Kundrik announced that she will be retiring at the end of this school year.  Mrs. Kundrik has been exemplary in performing her role as an Educational Assistant.  We want to thank Mrs. Kundrik for sharing her many gifts and supporting countless students over her years at Father Leonard Van Tighem School.  Enjoy retirement Mrs. Kundrik.

Miss Giannetti (7G) will not return to her teaching duties this school year.  Mr. Gamble will continue to fill in for her.

Mrs. Van Vaerenbergh (5V) has begun her maternity leave.  Miss Lajoie began replacing her for the rest of the school year.

April 17, 2023 Update:

Miss Giannetti (7G) is beginning to transition back to work.  Mr. Gamble will continue to be on staff during the transition.

We are pleased to announce that when Mrs. Van Vaerenbergh (5V) begins her maternity leave, Miss Lajoie will replace her for the remainder of the school year.  Miss Lajoie is currently interning in our 4LC class.  Welcome to our staff, Miss Lajoie.

March 1, 2023 Update:

Miss Giannetti will be away until the end of April.  Mr. Gamble will continue to fill in for her.

Mrs. Paniagua was an Educational Assistant at our school last year.  We have been able to rehire her to help a student in Mrs. Koshuta’s 3K classroom.  Welcome back, Mrs. Paniagua.

January 30, 2023 Update:

Miss Giannetti will still be away for some time.  Mr. Gamble will continue to replace her until her return.

December 22, 2022 Update:

Miss Giannetti will be away until the end of January 2023.  Mr. Gamble, who is currently filling in for someone else, will replace Miss Giannetti in January.  We are glad Mr. Gamble is staying at FLVT for another month.

December 19, 2022 Update:

Mrs. Kroker will be returning to FLVT starting January 9, 2023.  She will return to her assignment of 8PK homeroom, LA 8, LA 9, Social 8, Health/Wellness 8, and Jr. High options.  Welcome back, Mrs. Kroker.  Thank you to Miss Oxley for her terrific work filling in for Mrs. Kroker.  Miss Oxley will be staying at FLVT until January 31, 2023.  We have not finalized Miss Oxley’s January duties.  

Recently, FLVT received funds from Alberta Education from a Learning Disruption Grant.  The grant intends to help at-risk students in Grades 2 to 4.  With these funds, FLVT has hired a full-time Educational Assistant from January 9, 2023, to March 31, 2023.  We are pleased to announce that we have hired Rose Jodoin, and she will be starting this position in the new year.  Welcome to the FLVT staff, Mrs. Jodoin.

December 12, 2022 Update:

Mrs. Martin-Weersink announced her retirement to our staff today.  Like Mr. Kostiuk, Mrs. Martin-Weersink will finish the current school year and stay on until June 2023.  We want to acknowledge and thank Mrs. Martin-Weersink for all that she has done for our school community.  She has been an integral part of our school since the very beginning.  We wish her the best, and she will be missed.

Also, starting in January, we will be welcoming two U of L interns.  Miss Elizabeth Lajoie will be joining Mr. Templin’s 1T class, and Miss Ashley Pearse will be joining Mrs. Campman’s 4LC class.  Welcome to FLVT!

December 5, 2022 Update:

Recently, we announced Miss Paul accepted a new position.  We are happy to announce Mr. Aaron Gamble has joined our staff for the rest of the month of December.  Mr. Gamble will be teaching a variety of grades and subjects while he is with us.  Welcome, Mr. Gamble.

November 25, 2022 Update:

Last week, Mrs. Kasprick returned from her maternity leave.  We are glad she is back teaching at FLVT.  Welcome back, Mrs. Kasprick.

Also, for the past month, Miss Paul has been teaching some Jr. High and elementary classes.  Miss Paul has accepted a new position at St. Patrick’s School in Taber starting December 5.  We wish Miss Paul all the best.  We will notify our parents once we have a replacement for her.

October 31, 2022 Update:

Mr. Magierowski will be away for a few weeks. Ms. Gabruck will fill in as our school’s Athletic Director during his absence. Miss Leah Paul will be coming to teach Mr. Magierowski and some of Ms. Gabruck’s teaching assignments. Welcome to FLVT, Miss Paul.

October 3, 2022 Update:

Miss Giannetti will miss her afternoon classes, Monday to Thursday, for a few weeks. Ms. Boutland will be replacing her.

September 14, 2022 Update:

Starting on September 19, Miss Oxley will fill in for Mrs. Kroker.  Mrs. Wolochaty will be replacing Miss Oxley and filling in for Mrs. Kasprick.

August 23, 2022 Update:

Mrs. Kasprick will still be on maternity leave to begin the year. We are pleased to announce Miss Gemma Oxley will be filling in for the first 5 or 6 weeks of the school year. Welcome to FLVT, Miss Oxley.

August 19, 2022 Update:

During the summer, an Administrative Assistant position became open. We are pleased to announce that Mrs. Kennedy McKenzie will join our front office staff in the Administrative Assistant role. Our front office staff will be Mrs. Weighill, Mrs. Scott, and Mrs. McKenzie. Welcome to FLVT, Mrs. McKenzie.

July 18, 2022 Update:

Our division hired an additional EA to support our English Language Learners this summer. We are pleased to welcome Maria Baque to our staff.

June 27, 2022 Update:

Our Educational Assistant staff was recently finalized. Here is a listing of our talented EAs:

• Mrs. Kundrik
• Mrs. Zrim
• Mr. Overes
• Mrs. Henderson
• Mrs. Demers
• Mrs. Ehlert
• Mrs. Loose
• Ms. Hartman

June 23, 2022 Update:

We are happy to announce that Ms. Hartmann will be joining our staff as an Educational Assistant. Ms. Hartmann is currently an EA at Children of St. Martha’s School. Welcome to FLVT, Ms. Hartmann.

June 6, 2022 Update:

We are pleased to announce that Mrs. Carolyn Scott will join our front office staff in the Administrative Assistant role. Mrs. Scott is currently performing that role at Trinity eLearning School. She is replacing Mrs. Swanson, who will move to St. Basil’s Catholic Education Centre. Welcome, Mrs. Scott.

May 24, 2022 Update:

We are pleased to announce that Ms. Dana Visser will join us next year in the role of  Elementary/Jr. High music and Jr. High core. Ms. Visser is currently teaching at St. Teresa of Calcutta School. Welcome, Ms. Visser.

April 28, 2022 Update:

We are pleased to announce that Mrs. Verna Mabin has transferred to FLVT
from Children of St. Martha School. Mrs. Mabin will be teaching Grade 1 next
year.

We want to thank Ms. Pelletier for all she has done this year as our
temporary Grade 1 teacher and all the extras she did to support our students.
We wish her all the best in her future endeavours.

Pleas read the below letter from CCH regarding Summer School 2022 Registration:

We are pleased to open our Summer School 2022 online application process!
Please take some time to carefully go through the information provided below, and determine if select summer school offerings are appropriate for your student. If you have further questions about summer school operations, requirements, application process, or courses please contact Mr. Anthony Vercillo directly at 403-327-4596 or via email at vercilloa@holyspirit.ab.ca.

All courses require daily attendance, either physical attendance OR via online Google Meet platform (course depending). Please see the CCH Summer School 2022 Course Calendar (below) for projected class schedules and course delivery type. Due to the compressed nature of the courses, mandatory daily attendance is expected. If a student is not able to commit to full attendance, or they miss class sessions during the progression of the course itself, they will not be considered for enrollment and/or will be dropped from the course.

Please complete the following to indicate your interest in summer school for the 2022 session. Please note that summer school may be subject to enrollment limits, and as such admittance is not guaranteed. All applications require a discussion, review, and graduation progress check with administration prior to enrollment.

***Students in Religious Ed courses will require digital accessibility, therefore all students must have a device that has a camera and microphone in good working order (not a phone) capable of accessing meets, digital resources etc.***

Please note that this form is for information gathering only and does not constitute automatic acceptance into summer semester programming. Summer school course offerings are currently pending and not finalized. Therefore, no enrollments or time frames can be guaranteed at this time.

Summer School Semester runs from JULY 4-JULY 29**Course pending
THIS FORM MUST BE SUBMITTED NO LATER THAN FRIDAY MAY 20

Please enter your STUDENT HOLY SPIRIT EMAIL ADDRESS in the linked form below to get started!

On April 13, 2022, our government shared the new Math, English Language Arts, and Physical Education and Wellness curriculum for Kindergarten to Grade 3. This new curriculum is to be implemented in September 2022. After the Easter break, our staff will begin some Professional Development activities. Here are some links regarding the new curriculum:

Math

https://www.alberta.ca/curriculum-mathematics.aspx

English Language Arts

https://www.alberta.ca/curriculum-english-language-arts.aspx

Physical Education and Wellness

https://www.alberta.ca/curriculum-physical-education.aspx

Once there is more information, we will share it with our community.

June 9, 2022 Update:

Here are our planned bell times for the 2022-23 school year for our elementary grades, junior high grades, Early Learning Program and the Kindergarten program:

We do acknowledge there is a lot of discussion about the recent changes to our bell times due to divisional transportation changes. We have done our best to provide the required structures to create our students’ best possible learning environment. Two additional points to address are the lateness of the elementary nutrition breaks and junior high lunch and before-school care.

Elementary Nutrition Breaks and Junior High Lunch

• Our elementary nutrition breaks and our junior high lunch break are later than our current times due to our start times. Therefore, we encourage all our students to eat a healthy, nutritional breakfast. Teachers will be monitoring this issue and providing snack breaks when necessary.

Before School-Care

• Due to the later start times, some parents brought forward the issue of before-school care. Earlier this spring, we did a needs survey to help better understand the problem. The results of the survey indicated approximately ten families and 15 students requested support for before-school care;
• Father Leonard Van Tighem does not have the staff or resources to provide a before-school care program;
• We initially approached the It’s a Blast program to see if they could operate an on-site before-school care program. Unfortunately, they are unable. It’s a Blast program will continue to operate an after-school program for our students at Children of St. Martha School. Here is a link to help with their registration process https://itsablastprogram.com/school-year-program/
• We approached the Boys’ and Girls’ Club program to ask if they could provide an on-site before-school care program. They, too, are unable to help us;
• Next, we approached the YMCA Child Care Program. Although the YMCA does not provide a before-school program at school sites, they offer a before-school program at the Cor Van Raay YMCA. This service is for students up to the age of Grade 6. We are glad to tell you the YMCA will support our families and provide before-school care off-site at their facility. In addition, they will bus students from their program to Father Leonard Van Tighem School in the morning. Here is a link to their program: https://lethbridgeymca.ca/BASC-Form  Please note that although FLVT is not listed on the website, the YMCA will offer bussing from the YMCA to FLVT.
• We acknowledge this is not a perfect solution; we hope it will help our families.

April 2022

This week, Holy Spirit Catholic School Division and Southland Transportation informed us of our Grade 1 to 9 bell times for the 2022-23 school year. Here they are:

• Monday to Thursday start time of 8:55 am (when classes start)
• Monday to Thursday end time of 3:40 pm (when classes end)
• Friday start time of 8:55 am
• Friday end time of 1:23 pm

We plan to have a staggered end of the day for our elementary and junior high students, so the exact end of the days is yet to be determined. We are still working on our daytime bell schedule. Also, we have not determined the start and end times for our Kindergarten and Early Learning Program. We will share all our bell times once they have been set.

Please see this document explaining the need to change bell times:

This school year, 2021-22, FLVT converted our past PD Centre (Room 11) into a First Nations Student Centre.  The two reasons to do this were to create a safe place for our First Nations, Metis, and Inuit students and assist our First Nations, Metis, and Inuit students transitioning from Children of St. Martha’s School.  To date, the centre has been thriving.  Approximately 15 Jr. High students consistently use the centre. In addition, the centre has attracted both First Nations and non-First Nations students.  Also, the centre serves as a workstation for our First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Support Worker, Kendrick Fox.

Earlier this year, Mr. Fox and the students who use the centre began to suggest a name for the centre.  After a brainstorming session with Mr. Fox and our students, they came up with the following name:

Ayinnimaoyiiyis = Hawks Nest/Lodge (eye-yin-nima-oi-yee-yis)

• Unsure how to pronounce Ayinnimaoyiiyis? Thank you to Mr. Fox, here is an audio file of the pronunciation:

Ayinnimaa=Hawk      

Moyiis/Oyiis=Tipi/Lodge      

Oyiiyis=nest

The Blackfoot name ties nicely with our HAWKS Virtues and our school co-curricular team’s name.  Also, Mr. Fox translated the words to Blackfoot.  Mr. Fox has gone through all the rights of passages and initiations to being a Blackfoot Elder.  Mr. Fox has the authority to give Blackfoot names. Mr. Fox came up with Ayinnimaoyiiyis for a few reasons:

1. It fits with our school logo

2. He started the seasonal round – learning from the land for classroom presentations. The biggest lesson was always preparing the Lodge for the next season.

3. The room is being used for student connections to our school, and the most prominent safe place is the lodge.

4. The nest and lodge are very similar linguistically in the Blackfoot language.

After the initial suggestion of Ayinnimaoyiiyis, Mr. Fox sent out an email to our First Nations, Metis, and Inuit parents asking for their thoughts.  No parents objected.  One guardian, a respected elder in the community, supported the name.

Recently, we surveyed our FLVT parent community and staff with the following question:

Here are the results:

Parents (121 responses) – Yes – 93.4 %, No – 6.6 %

Staff (18 responses) – Yes – 94.5 %, No – 5.5 %

We want to thank Mr. Fox and our students for their work in renaming Room 11. Also, we want to thank our School Council and St. Martha’s Parish for letters of support.

At the March 2022 School Board Meeting, our trustees voted in support of renaming Room 11 at FLVT to Ayinnimaoyiiyis. 

Thank you to our School Board for their decision and support.

We look forward to Ayinnimaoyiiyis Student Centre being a valuable place and a focal point for all of our students.

Every month, our divisional office provides all our schools with resources based on the various patron saints of our schools.  The resources help with the implementation of our divisional faith plan.  Special thanks to Mr. Skretting, our Director of Religious Education, for providing us with these valuable resources.  This month, April 2022, the resources feature the patron saint of Father Leonard Van Tighem School, St. Kateri.  Here are the resources: