Hello Louis Riel Families,  

With Spring break behind us and the final three months of school ahead of us, this is the time of year when students start to believe they see a light at the end of the school-year tunnel. Although teachers may joke about that light being the oncoming train of teaching and learning still to happen, they may reluctantly agree that it is the distant glimmer of longer summer days in the distance. Time seems to speed up when the snow starts to melt in Calgary. More accurately, the snow just turns to ice and then puddles and then back to ice again and again and again until June. However, we can agree that the days are getting longer, the ice on the playground is starting to disappear, and the trees and other plants in the naturalization area may soon be springing to life.

The school itself is emerging with a fresh coat of paint, our CUPE members are back helping us keep our schools looking good, athletics have resumed with the Badminton season, and our Drama production can now be performed for students and families soon. Spring has sprung and we’re all excited for the months ahead as we continue to teach and learn together at Louis Riel School.

Thanks for taking the time to read the entire Bison Bulletin, or simply the bolded points in the bulletin that apply to you and your student.

Labour Action in the CBE

The Calgary Board of Education Board of Trustees ratified the collective agreement with Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 40 after it was ratified by its members on March 19. CUPE Local 40 members returned to work on Friday, March 21 and they were welcomed back enthusiastically by staff and students. 

Staff Vs Students Volleyball

The occasionally victorious teachers who may or may not be trying to relive past glories or make up for missed opportunities will take on the Junior Volleyball teams on Monday and the seniors on Tuesday. Although we model good citizenship for our students in the classrooms all bets are off when we step on the court to face our significantly younger and athletic opponents. We welcome the opportunity to teach our students valuable lessons about healthy competition… it’s fun to pretend to be fierce competitors but we really just hope they’ll take it easy on us.    

Louis’ Painting is Complete!

After months of hard work, the painting of Louis Riel’s hallways, bathrooms, and offices is now complete. Our friendly crew of painters have packed up their brushes, buckets, and scaffolding and headed on to the next lucky school in need of updated paint. It’s amazing how much brighter the hallways look with a fresh coat of paint in a light shade of grey.  

Louis Riel’s Drama Department Presents: The Wizard of Oz

For the first time in a long time, we are thrilled to have Ms. Beare and Hotzel leading and directing our young actors, artists, and stage techs through their final rehearsals and preparations for their live theatre performances at the end of the month. Tickets for our school production Wizard of Oz are live! If you’d like to buy tickets - families can go to MyCBE to purchase and support our school production! Shows are on April 30 and May 1 at 7pm. 

Louis Riel Parent and School Council(s) 

Louis Riel Parent Society’s AGM and School Council meetings will be held back-to-back on Wednesday, April 30 at 6:30 p.m. The meeting is virtual and anyone is welcome to attend, we hope to see you there as we discuss various topics of interest to students and parents alike.

Being an engaged part of your student's community helps to ensure we are all informed. The agenda will be posted the week prior on the Louis Riel website and on the day of, you will be sent a live link to the meeting.

Agenda & Minutes: https://www.wearelouis.ca/agendas-and-minutes-and-budgets

GATE Parent Association

The GATE Parent Association is comprised of parents whose children attend the Calgary Board of Education’s GATE Program. The GATE Parent Association is unique in that it represents parents and supports the GATE Program in all GATE schools, but it is independent of the Calgary Board of Education and other parent organizations within those schools. If you have a student registered in GATE for this current school year, you are a member of the GPA.

Goals of the GATE Parent Association:

  • To undertake FUNDRAISING to enhance the educational pursuits of the GATE Program.
  • To ADVOCATE for the GATE Program and the students and parents of the Program.
  • To encourage and sponsor EDUCATION for parents and professional staff.
  • To promote COMMUNICATION with the Calgary Board of Education, Alberta Learning and among parents and other stakeholders.

GATE Parent Association: gatecalgary.ca

Email us: info@gatecalgary.ca

Connect with us: www.gatecalgary.ca    Facebook    Instagram

Fun Lunches

With another calendar year come more Fun Lunches to save you and your student from un-fun ones! You can log into www.HealthyHunger.ca at any time to see the upcoming schedule and order ahead and there is always a link on the Louis Riel School website. Remember, orders always need to be placed by the Wednesday prior.
January and February dates are:

Grades 6 – 9: April 9: Golden Bell Vietnamese

Grades 1 – 5: April 16: Golden Bell Vietnamese

Due to health and safety protocols on food storage, the school cannot accommodate storing left-over lunches for the next day if your child is absent. Left-over lunches will be donated.

Accessing Academic and Assessment Information Online

Even though report cards are only published twice a year, families can always access achievement information through MyCBE and are also encouraged to reach out to our teaching team to discuss how we can work together to support our students. If you are looking for current information about how or what your student is doing in class, log in to MyCBE with your student to ask them to help you understand what they’ve been working on or if they need any help to complete overdue or missing assignments.   

Helpful links to current assignments, assessments, and attendance information:

Lost and Found

Our lost and found collection continues to grow, and grow, and grow. If your student is one of those kiddos who happens to leave their possessions on the playground with regularity, please consider adding tags, labels, or some other visible means of identification in or on their clothing or personal items. After a few months of collecting lost items, our Lost and Found reaches maximum capacity and we have to assume the unclaimed items are abandoned and they are donated to organizations who get them to others in need.

School Parking Lots

Please do not enter school parking lots to drop off or pick up your student(s). These lots are unsafe loading and unloading areas due to heavy traffic congestion during the morning and afternoon rushes. There have been numerous near misses reported to the office by staff and families so please drop your student safely at the sidewalk.

Field Trips, Forms, Payments and Deadlines

​​​​​​​This is a reminder to please pay close attention to the forms that come home with your student for any upcoming field trips, field studies, or special events. We often have hard deadlines for confirming student numbers with service providers and venues that do not allow us to be flexible by accommodating last minute changes or adjustments. Teachers will always communicate the deadlines for forms to be returned and fees to be submitted as well as by following up with a reminder. If you cannot meet a deadline, we may not be able to accommodate a last-minute request to attend. When paperwork comes home, we request your prompt attention to avoid disappointment for your student.  

Louis Riel is a busy and dynamic K-9 school, and it can be challenging to keep up with everything that happens here daily. Providing families with multiple information streams and sources including our website, teacher/classroom emails, paperwork for field trips, and the Bison bulletin should cover everything that families need to know. The challenge for some families may be that the information, timelines, and deadlines for activities can be hard to track. Our school and staff do our best to notify and remind families of upcoming dates and deadlines through the Schoolmessenger app and email. Thanks for reading the bulletin.

Upcoming Dates of Importance

  • April 7 – Grade 4 Teacher’s Pet Visit
  • April 9 – Junior High Fun Lunch
  • April 9 – Grade 9 Vertigo Theatre trip
  • April 9 – Grade 7 (7.3&7.4) Military Museum Trip
  • April 10 – Grade 7 (7.1&7.2) Military Museum Trip
  • April 16 – Grade 5 Heritage Park Trip
  • April 16 – Elementary Fun Lunch
  • April 17 – Grade 9 BGI Parent Meeting
  • April 18 – NO SCHOOL – Good Friday
  • April 21 – NO SCHOOL – Non-Instructional Day