Hard work and dedication pay off at Standard School

Times Contributor

 

School is in, teachers have lessons prepared and the clean and shiny faces of students sitting at their desks are familiar scenes all across East Wheatland schools.

Standard School is no different. They celebrated the new school year with a family picnic on Monday evening for teachers, parents, students and all those who put in the many volunteer hours in helping construct the new school playground. Due to the rapid change in weather with the cold and winds gusting up to 90 km per hour, the picnic was held indoors in the school’s gymnasium.

Karen Smith, Principal to Standard, Hussar and Rockyford Schools said, “I am excited about the new school year and the great kids that we have, with roughly 200 students enrolled this coming year.” 

Smith had the faculty introduce themselves and speak about what courses they taught and any extracurricular activities they were involved in. 

New to the school this year is Amy Van Vliet, taking the position of Associate Principal. Van Vliet comes with vast experience in teaching and an administrative/leadership background. She previously taught at Crowther Memorial Junior High in Strathmore and was part of the CBE (Calgary Board of Education). Apart from her administrative duties Van Vliet is excited to be teaching Grade 2 Math and Language Arts, Grade 4 Math and is in charge of all special programming at Standard School this year. All the staff have welcomed her aboard and are helping her decode the small town idiosyncratic way of doing things.

Mr. Stephen Wiewel and Mr. Adam Sommerfeldt have incorporated a new extracurricular program this year in the form of an “Outdoor Education Club”. Students who join will be participating in three back-pack and overnight hiking trips including some cross country skiing in the winter season. Mr. Ed Yu is enthusiastic about incorporating a Fine Arts Performance program this year with the Junior and Senior High, to encourage students in showcasing their natural abilities in music, drama and various forms of art.

This year the Grade 5 & 6 class from Rockyford will be joining the students at Standard School in both woodworking (with Mr. Cam Holloway) and a Music and Drama class led by Shelby Gregory and Crystal Cavanagh. This will give the students an opportunity to be with more of their peers and prepare the way for Junior High.

The High School is excited once again to offer both a Cosmetology program run by Sharon Sundgaard and a Photography class led by Mrs. Tiffany Phillips. 

After the introductions everyone went outside to dedicate and officially open the new playground that was constructed at the end of the school year in June. While they are still waiting on one final piece of equipment they went ahead and had a ribbon cutting ceremony involving one child from each of the Elementary grades participating. The school community was pleased to have Encana representative Luigi Vescarelli present to be part of the celebration as Encana donated a large financial contribution to the project. The following children participated in the ribbon cutting: Kindergarten Daniel Jensen, Grade 1 Sarah Krap, Grade 2 Rosina Christensen, Grade 3 Angelina Pan, Grade 4 Keavey Boyd, Grade 5 Joely Dahm and Grade 6 Maren Everett.

The evening concluded with a Parent and School Council meeting to set the agendas for the year into place. Have a fantastic year Standard School.