A New Year

Hello Parents;

Welcome to 2018. Our first week back went by very smoothly. Unfortunately the extremely cold weather forced us to keep the students in the building for their recess breaks from Tuesday through Thursday. Although the student would prefer to be outside,they were very good about being confined.

Since October, I have been promoting the mission trip that 34 of our high school students will be involved with from January 31 to February 7. The goal was to raise enough money for our students to build two homes while in Tijuana. This would require the students raising and receiving donations in excess of $22,000. As of last week, we met our goal and our students will be able to build two houses. We want to thank the people and organizations who put our students to work and then donated to our cause and to the many people who just gave a straight donation. We are overwhelmed by the generousity of so many people. The mission trip will have a hugh impact in the lives of our students and they will return to us with a very different perspective on life. For everyone who made a donation and for all who prayed for this endeavor, thank you. We will keep you updated on the mission trip.

This week we have a guest speaker coming in to our grade 7/8 class to speak on money management. This is arranged through Junior Achievement and their classes are very informative. Our guest speaker will be at Brant for Tuesday and Thursday morning. We have another speaker scheduled for our grade 5/6 for later in January and a presenter for our grade 9/10 class in February.

This past week also saw the start-up of our athletic program which includes our junior high boys and girls basketball teams, our junior/senior high curling team and our choir. We are fortunate to have teachers and parents who are willing to give up their free time to offer these opportunities for our students.

Over the Christmas break we reconfigured the learning center room in the elementary/jr. high hallway. The room was re-purposed to allow for storage of band equipment while the remaining portion will be a more suitable area for our chaplin, Marlyn Brunnng and counsellor, Kathy Roe to meet with students. There is an upright piano that remains in the room that we would like to donate to anyone who is in need of a piano. Please drop by the school to take a look. If the piano meets your needs, then you are welcome to take it.

January is also exam month for our high school students. The end of the month marks the halfway point of our school year and the end of the first semester. Our grade 12 students wrote their first half of the their English exam on Friday and will continue writing exams over the next two weeks. Our grade 9 students will be writing their English exam as well over this time period.

Please continue to keep our school in your prayers. There will be a great deal happening over the upcoming months as our society board continue to lay the foundation for getting our new school up and running. A very exciting time lies ahead.

Kevin Bailey