Hello Louis Families
Welcome back to another year of learning and growing together as a community at Louis Riel School. Every year we welcome returning students back to our Bison community as well as larger cohorts in kindergarten and grade 6 who get to learn how we do school at Louis Riel. The first week of school is always very telling as we get to see how our students orient themselves to the new normal of not only being back in school again for ten months but also as a student in a new grade level. This year’s start-up week saw our brand new Bisons settle right into the herd of returning Bisons and take up the business of learning from our staff and each other right away. I’m not sure if you can imagine every teacher knocking on wood as you read this bulletin, but this was one of the smoothest start-up weeks we’ve seen in some time. If this week was any indication of the year of learning that lies ahead we will have all of your students to thank for it by the end of June 2026.
Please read through the remainder of the Bison for upcoming events, highlights, reminders, news from our councils and more!
Meet The Teacher Night - Thursday Sept 11
Our annual evening to meet your students’ teachers is a little earlier this year because we can’t wait to meet our families! Thursday evening this week from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm we invite you to come meet our staff. Classrooms will be open and teachers will share rotating presentations about teaching and learning in their classrooms as well as answering your questions. This is still early days so please keep in mind that we’re still getting to know your student(s) so a deep conversation about your student would be better suited to a private meeting at another time. If you would like to connect with our staff please book a time via email and our staff will be happy to accommodate you.
Athletics Updates
Tryouts for our Cross Country running teams began this week and we saw a great turnout. We are looking forward to our first meet next week!
Basketball Tryouts and Coaching Shortfall
Tryouts are slated to begin next week with limited opportunities to support teams due to a coaching shortfall. A special “Call for Coaches” message was sent to all families of students in grades 6 through 9 earlier this week. We still have a need for a community member willing to coach Jr. Boys Basketball with support from Louis Riel staff members (they will attend all practices and games to manage students, forms, fees, and communication on behalf of the team).
Without a community coach we will need to collapse the Jr. and Sr. boys into one team rather than run both as we have in the past.
If you can volunteer your time to coach Jr. Boys basketball please reach our to our Athletic Director Myles Olsen at msolsen@cbe.ab.ca
School Council
LRPAC: https://www.wearelouis.ca/
Our School Council provides a means for parents and community members to work together with administration, staff and students to promote well-being and overall effectiveness of the school community. The main role is advisory and information exchange. The Parent society is a means for parents and community members to provide additional financial resources and support the school through fundraising. See you at the Meet the Teacher night this week.
Meetings are Virtual through Zoom and on the last Wednesday of the month. Wednesday September 24 will be the first of the year. Links are sent to all families in advance.
GATE Parent Association
GATE Council: https://gatecalgary.ca/
The GATE Parent Association is a volunteer group committed to supporting the GATE Program within the Calgary Board of Education. Meetings are virtual and links will be sent to families in advance. Look for us at the upcoming Meet the Teacher Night next week!
Transportation
We have a new service provider this year for our bus transportation: Southland Transportation: https://southland.ca/ and they use a different bus tracking application: https://www.myschoolbusmonitor.ca/Index.aspx
The CBE Busing and Transportation landing page: https://cbe.ab.ca/schools/busing-and-transportation/Pages/default.aspx is an excellent resource to start learning more about how students get to and from school working with our service provider. You can also learn about what to do if things are not working quite as planned.
The ride home presented challenges with delays caused by inaccurate student attendance at the end of the day. Please remember to notify the office directly by phone 403-777-7650 or email louisriel@cbe.ab.ca if you are picking up your student and they are not taking the bus home.
Dropping off students: Please be mindful of no parking zones, school zones, and crossing the road. Dropoff and pickup times are busy; please be safe!
Upcoming Dates to Know
Athletics Tryouts Continue Next Week: Basketball
Sept 11, Thursday Evening - Meet the Teacher Night 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm