Dear YMS Families
This is the last dispatch of the year. It describes what will happen in the last week of school. We will also attempt to thank all the parents and people who have helped us this spring.
We would like to thank all the board members. It is a big time commitment and the integrity and perseverance of the board members is remarkable. They have accomplished a great deal in the last year.
Operating a lot of behind the scenes tasks that keep the school on its feet
Christine Smith was our chair and president, Martha Taylor our past –President, Joanne Petersson was our secretary, and directors at large were Manon Levesque, and Michelle Murphy. Thanks also to Nicole Bringsli and Cindy Freedman who helped with specific tasks earlier in the year. Our treasurer Helen Terry also did a huge amount of work. She has done the entire payroll, budget assessments, and managing of tuition payments. The board participated in a two-part vision meeting over two weekends, worked with the department of education to secure some funding to families, hired a new teacher for the lower elementary program, established a new administrative position, and prepared job descriptions for all three positions now part of the school, connected with the preschool board to work towards discussing joint projects, and meeting once a month to do all of this in between. These women are remarkable and priceless.
We also want to thank all the parents who have chipped in to do specific jobs. Here we think about people like Stephen Anderson-Lindsay who is doing a great job of posting on our website and Facebook site pictures from events. We are also thinking of parents who have taken a lead to help us at specific events like the running races with either driving or leading us like Derrick Lewis did at the Vanier Run. Finally the ever present Sarah Lewis and Stephen Anderson-Lindsay who have done a great job of documenting the children’s efforts with great photos now available for you to see on the website. These people and those we have forgotten to thank but wish we mentioned here have made your children’s school experience richer and we thank them for it.
Finally, We want to thank all parents who do send the children to YMS. We would be empty with out your children in our lives and we are very aware of the deep trust you have in us as an organization, and staff who serve your children. We are also very happy to say we appreciate so much in each child in the classroom and what they continue to bring to us each day.
Last week of school is busy. Monday and Tuesday is relatively straightforward with a few additional street hockey games at lunchtime. On Wednesday night a small group of the Upper Elementary children will sleep out at Rod and Martha Taylor’s in a wall tent with Dominic. They will arrive after supper and then leave early in the morning for school. On Thursday AM a group of children will go to Mt. McIntyre on the 9:20 bus to play disc golf and then come back to the school for lunch. The other half of the class will stay with Laurie to prepare supper for Thursday night. In the afternoon the groups will switch so that one half will go biking at Mt. McIntyre and the disc golfers will now prepare a second part of the meal. At least three parents and Dominic to seek out a good bike ride will join the bikers.
We will all end the school day at 3:15. The BBQ first planned has been replaced by a sit down supper in the classroom as prepared by the children. The menu will be
Cold Roast Chicken
Roasted potatoes
Cut vegetables
Bean and Mango Salad
Ice Cream and Desert
Bread
Fruit
Juice
All families and siblings are welcome to the meal.
The Schedule
AM Cooking or Disc Golf
Lunch
PM Mountain Biking or Cooking
Dismissal 3:15
Supper 4:30 to 6 ish
We arrived at this schedule to accommodate the last night of ski practice and soccer for many of the students and their parents. The supper will be a chance to celebrate the year’s events as well as recognize two of our students who will be in grade 7 next year. These students will be with us next year but will moving into a slightly different academic program than the Upper elementary students. Finally, we will distribute report cards at this supper. The report card will consider work done this spring term.
Friday
As a class we will clean up from the night before and then clean the classroom. After lunch we will set up a “slip and slide” polyethylene plastic slide at Shipyard’s Park Hill. For this project we would like to borrow any blue jugs for water transport families may have that we can borrow and a pull wagon. The children will need to be in swim clothes and a towel. If the weather does not cooperate we will consider a plan B. Dismissal will be at regular time or earlier if there are families that are wanting to get the weekend off to an early start.
