Dear Parents of FLVT,

I hope this email finds you and your families well as we end another school year. This will be my final communication with you as the principal of our wonderful school as I start my retirement.

Reflecting on the past five years, I am grateful for our school’s incredible community support. It has been a privilege to serve as your principal, and I am humbled by the trust you have placed in me. Together, we have nurtured the minds and faith of our children, instilling in them our HAWKS virtues that will guide them on their journey through life.

I have witnessed many achievements during my time here, but the true measure of our success lies not only in educational or co-curricular accomplishments but also in the growth and development of our students as individuals. It is with joy that I reflect on the moments of laughter, smiling faces, prayerful celebrations, and shared experiences that have shaped our school.

As I bid farewell, I leave you in the capable hands of our new administrative team and staff, who will continue to provide an outstanding education for your children. Undoubtedly, they will carry on the traditions and values that make our school so special.

May this summer break be filled with moments spent with loved ones, exciting adventures, and the opportunity to recharge for the upcoming school year. I encourage you to embrace the spirit of exploration, curiosity, and learning even during this time away from school.

Thank you again for entrusting me with the privilege of serving as your principal. I wish you all a blessed, safe, and relaxing summer!

Greg Kostiuk

June 1, 2023

Please help Father Leonard Van Tighem School receive $10,000. We entered the Kidoodle $1 Million School Giveaway contest. Please follow this link, watch our video, and vote for us:

While you are at it, please vote for some other Holy Spirit Catholic Schools.

Thank you for your support.

We are continuing to plan for the next school year. We hope to have our staffing and class structure finalized soon.  Therefore, the staff at Father Leonard Van Tighem will be working hard to develop class lists for next year to create rich educational environments for all the students.  A lot of thought goes into making homeroom classes to ensure a balanced classroom.  As a team, we will discuss the following:

• Student needs
• Educational Assistant supports
• The male/female ratio
• Academic balance
• Behaviour needs
• Number of students in classes
• Student relationships with other students
• New students joining FLVT

Parent requests make it difficult to keep classes balanced; therefore, we are not accepting parent requests. Please do not contact your current child’s teacher with a request to be in a particular classroom or with certain other students. Parents are welcome to contact me if they want to share any information that will help staff make better decisions.

To help for a smooth transition to the new school year, class lists will be posted in either the gathering space or outside our front doors at Father Leonard Van Tighem School on Thursday, August 31, 2023 at noon. We hope this helps with any student anxiety about the first day.

Once class lists are posted, we ask parents to be patient with any classroom change requests. As mentioned earlier, parent requests make it difficult to keep the classes balanced. Please contact next year’s principal, Mrs. Collier, in mid-September if you still need to request a change. The first day of school for our Grades 1 to 9 students is Tuesday, September 5, 2023.

Thank you for having your children at Father Leonard Van Tighem School. The 2023-24 school year promises to be another terrific year.

Greg Kostiuk

May 16, 2023 Update

Please download the below letter for some important information, including:

• more details
• Google Form
• Request for pictures

May 4, 2023

Our 2023 Grade 9 Farewell will be in our school gym on Thursday, June 15, at 7 pm. We initially hoped to have it on June 8 (the date in our May newsletter), but we had to change it due to some unforeseen circumstances. We wanted to inform our families of the change as soon as possible.

Soon, we will be sending out some more information.

Thank you,

FLVT School

SPACES is a digital portfolio assessment tool that will be used in the elementary grades next year at Father Leonard Van Tighem School. It will be replacing the eLuminate Report Cards. Many of our Holy Spirit Catholic Schools began using it this year.

Here is some information regarding SPACES:

We will share some more information with our parents, and we plan for a parent information night at the beginning of the next school year.

Please click on this link for information and the Summer School registration process at CCH:

Please contact CCH if you have any questions.

Our 2023-24 Bell Times have been confirmed with our school division and Southland Transportation. Here they are:

Why the change?

• Our current bell times were reviewed due to an inequality in the amount of time students were at school compared to other schools.
• There was no plan to redo all the bell times at all the various schools.
• The options for our school were to either maintain the inequality of time or move to an earlier Friday dismissal.
• We had to extend our Monday to Thursday times to accommodate the earlier Friday dismissal.

Here is a pdf version:

If there are any changes, we will contact our parents.

FLVT School

Please read the below letter for an update regarding yesterday’s incident:

We continue to plan for the 2023-24 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.

June 27, 2023 Update

Our new LA 9/Options teacher is Miss Alexie Beaulac. Miss Beaulac did her internship at FLVT this school year. She is very familiar with our school, staff and students. We are lucky to have Miss Beaulac join our staff. Welcome back, Miss Beaulac.

June 26, 2023 Update

Today, we received information that the following Educational Assistants will be returning to FLVT:

• Maria Demers
• Monica Elhert
• Dina Henderson
• Thea Loose
• Mark Overes
• Laura Hartman
• Anna Zrim
• Samantha Wagner (transferring from St. Francis Jr. High School)

Thank you to all our terrific EAs for all they do supporting our students.

June 19, 2023 Update

We are pleased to announce Miss Kyra Peake is joining the FLVT staff next year. Miss Peake’s primary responsibility will be LA 8 and Jr. High Options. Welcome, Miss Peake, to Father Leonard Van Tighem School.

Also, Ms. Boutland was named a Grade 4 Homeroom Teacher for next year.

June 14, 2023 Update

Ms. Gabruck will transfer to St. Teresa of Calcutta School next year as their new Gr. 5/6 homeroom teacher. We want to thank Ms. Gabruck for all her years of service and excellent teaching in our Jr. High. She will definitely be missed by both our staff and students. We wish her all the best in her new school.

We are happy to announce that Mrs. Ami Smith will be joining the staff at FLVT next year. Mrs. Smith will replace Mrs. Van Vaerenbergh’s Gr. 5 class while she is on maternity leave. Ms. Lajoie, who is currently filling in, will be moving to Hanna to start her teaching career. Thank you to Ms. Lajoie for teaching our Gr. 5s this May and June. Welcome to FLVT, Mrs. Smith.

Here is a little introduction to Mrs. Smith:

I am an RCMP member’s daughter and grew up all over Alberta, but Lethbridge has been home for almost 20 years now. I graduated from the University of Lethbridge in 2013 with a degree in Sociology and again in 2016 with my Bachelor of Education. I moved to Calgary and taught in the Catholic School Division from October 2016 until June 2018. While there, I focused much of my time on the Elementary and Jr High drama productions and the music for school liturgies. For the past 4 years, I have been teaching Grade 2 in Stand Off with the Kainai Board of Education.  In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my husband and our 19-month-old daughter. I am very excited to be joining Father Leonard Van Tighem and am looking forward to this new year. 

June 12, 2023 Update

Our Early Learning Program staffing is complete for next year. Joining our Early Learning Program Leader, Mrs. Smith, will be:

• Ellen Bran
• Tara Brown
• Dionne Williams

Joining our Kindergarten staff will be Lisa Lee.

We want to welcome back Mrs. Bran and Mrs. Brown and welcome Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Lee to our staff. Unfortunately, Mrs. Hoytos will not be returning. Mrs. Hoytos will be working at Children of St. Martha School. Thank you to Mrs. Hoytos for all she does in supporting our Kindergarten students this year.

June 9, 2023 Update

Mr. Magierowski will be transferring to St. Teresa of Calcutta School as their new Associate Principal. We want to thank Mr. Magierowski for all he has done at Father Leonard Van Tighem School for the past five years. He has proven himself to be a great leader and a terrific teacher. We wish him all the best in his new school.

Replacing Mr. Magierowski as Associate Principal of FLVT will be Mrs. Laurie Campmans. Ms. Campmans is a proven leader and master teacher. Although she will be missed in her current role as a Grade 4 homeroom teacher, she will become a valuable member of the Administrative Team at FLVT. She is excited about her new role at our school.

June 8, 2023 Update

Recently, it was announced that Children of St. Martha School will only have an AM Early Learning Program next year. This decision has caused some staffing movement in our school division.

Mrs. Kroetsch will be moving to Children of St. Martha School as the AM Early Learning Program Leader. We thank Mrs. Kroetsch for all she has done to support our young students here at Father Leonard Van Tighem School. Mrs. Kroetsch has developed strong relationships with our families. We thank her for sharing her many gifts with our school community, and we wish her all the best at her new school. She will be missed!

We are pleased to welcome Mrs. Lindsey Smith to Father Leonard Van Tighem School as our new Early Learning Program Leader in our AM and PM programs. Mrs. Smith has worked at FLVT in the past, and she is excited about returning to our school. Welcome back, Mrs. Smith!

June 1, 2023 Update

Recently, we advertised for a 0.5 FTE teacher. We are pleased to announce that Ms. Boutland’s position has been increased from her current 0.5 FTE to 1.0 FTE. Ms. Boutland will be teaching a variety of Jr. High and elementary classes. We are excited to have Ms. Boutland full-time at FLVT!

May 25, 2023 Update

We welcome a new teacher to our staff next year. Hannah Evans has transferred from St. Michael’s School, Pincher Creek, to fill our Grade 1 position. Currently, Miss Evans is teaching Kindergarten at St. Michael’s. On behalf of everyone, welcome, Miss Evans!

May 18, 2023 Update

Next year, there will be some changes in our library. Ms. Pierson will be the librarian at St. Catherine’s School. We want to thank Ms. Pierson for all she does here at FLVT and wish her all the best at her new school. Ms. Pierson will be missed. Next year, we will share a librarian with St. Patrick Fine Arts School. Our new librarian is Ms. Krista Hedivan. Ms. Hedivan is currently the librarian at St. Francis Jr. High School. On behalf of everyone at FLVT, we welcome Ms. Hedivan to our school community.

May 16, 2023 Update:

Mrs. Mabin (1M) will transfer to St. Teresa of Calcutta School next year. We want to thank Mr. Mabin for sharing her skills, knowledge, and positive attitude with our school community. We wish her all the best! Once we know of her replacement, we will notify our community.

April 19, 2023 Update:

We have a new Associate Principal for next year. FLVT welcomes Mr. Justin Molas to our staff. Mr. Molas is currently a teacher at Senator Joyce Fairbairns Middle School. We hope to share some more information in an upcoming newsletter. Welcome, Mr. Molas!

https://www.holyspirit.ab.ca/resources_publications/news/whats_new/staffing_announcements_2023_2024

March 20, 2023 Update

In mid-May, Mrs. Van Vaerenbergh will be starting her maternity leave, and it will extend into the 2023-24 school year. We are excited for Mrs. Van Vaerenergh and her husband as they start their family, and we wish them all the best. The process of finding a new temporary Grade 5 teacher has begun.

March 16, 2023 Update

Mrs. Pilsner will be the new principal of St. Teresa of Calcutta School next school year. We want to thank Mrs. Pilsner for sharing her many gifts with our school community. The process to replace Mrs. Pilsner and find a new Associate Principal has already begun. Best wishes to Mrs. Pilsner.

February 1, 2023

Mrs. Shannon Collier has been appointed to be the principal of Father Leonard Van Tighem School, effective August 1, 2023. Mrs. Collier is currently the principal of Children of St. Martha School. Welcome, Mrs. Collier.

March 2, 2023 Update:

We are glad to inform you that our divisional staff were able to identify the problem in our south portables bathroom (broken toilet seal) and they were able to solve the problem. The sewer smell is gone!

February 17, 2023