SORRENTO ELEMENTARY SCHOOLNewsletter #1 September 6, 20191135 Passchendaele Rd, Box 220 www.sor.sd83.bc.caSorrento, B.C. V1E 2W0 Like us on FaceBook!Phone # 250 - 675-2311

Dear Parents,

Welcome back! Our school team is looking forward to another year and all it brings. My name is Jodi Garries and I am extremely pleased to be at Sorrento Elementary School as Principal for the fourth year. We are very proud of our generous, friendly and caring school community . I very much look forward to getting to know you and your children, and help them achieve their school and personal goals.

Our school has grown significantly this year! Last year at this time we had 183 fabulous Sorrento students. This year, as of today, we have 210 students registered here! This has resulted in the need to add an additional classroom, so we will be hiring a new teacher. The new classroom is located in room 4 (formerly what we called the “ski room”), and it will be a grade 1/2 class. We hope to confirm who the teacher will officially be by the end of next week (fingers crossed). For now, we have Mrs. Quintal with the class, and she been a wonderful addition to our team.

Our floors are shining and everything is ready. Our wonderful custodial team worked hard this summer at our school. Our teachers, secretary, and CEAs have also been very busy getting things prepared. We appreciate all their time and effort, too!

With all the changes and busy-ness this week, this newsletter is rather brief, so stay tuned and I will get additional information out in the coming weeks. This newsletter is also being sent home this time in paper format, but once we have all the parent email addresses entered, you can expect newsletters to come to you electronically. If you think we might not have your email address, or if it has changed, please call the school and speak to Melinda, our secretary.

We have a few changes so please let me introduce our fantastic 2019/2020 staff: Kindergarten: Mrs. Andrea RuckleKindergarten: Mrs. Emily Zinck Grade K/!: Ms. Camille Kellie Grade 1: Mrs. Chelsey HudsonGrade 1/2: To be announced (but Mrs. Quintal right now)Grade 2: Ms. Addie Chaddock and Mrs. Christine BlacklockGrade 3: Mrs. Carmen DawkinsGrade 3/4: Mrs. Cristine LawrenceGrade 4/5: Ms. Sara HauglandGrade 4/5: Mrs. Angela NitschkeMusic: Mr. Jesse Marshall Library: Ms. Michelle KrummLearning Resource Teachers: Mrs. Shera Neiwenhuizen, and Mrs. Dianne VanNostrandSecretary: Mrs. Melinda PlatoStrongStart Coordinator: Ms. Kim Robison

Indigneous Education Worker: Mrs. Barb LeBeauCertified Education Assistants (CEA): Ms. Pauline Hartley, Mrs. Pam Nelson, Mrs. Tamara Smolne, Mrs. Amber Mackie, Mrs. Kiley Sitter, Mrs. Carol Berg, Mrs. Emily Verlinden, Ms. Margaret Chaffee, Mrs. Donna Soderquist, Mrs. Alana Taylor, Mrs. Shona Blair, and Ms. Sandra JohnsonEducation Support Worker: Ms. Kathy Sigaty Custodians: Mrs. Barb Scafe, Mr. James FergussonCounsellor: Mrs. Marie SeibelSpeech/Language Pathologist: Mrs. Jean BrighouseLiteracy Intervention Teacher: Mrs. Dianne VanNostrand

It’s going to be a terrific year! We all look forward to working with you and your children! Ms. Jodi Garries, Principal

*Pro-D Day is on Friday, September 20 th

*Students do not attend on this day*

Class Placements…Teachers, the LRT, the counsellor, and the principal in a school take many

hours to make decisions about class placements. This year was no different! There are sometimes hard decisions to make, but we truly do take into account: academic strengths and challenges, gender balance, and lots of

other factors as well. Once children are placed in their new classrooms, we check in on them frequently to make sure they are feeling happy, settled and

comfortable. Happy kids are important to us too

The 2019-2020 PAC Needs You! The first PAC’s AGM meeting date is set for Mon. Sept. 16 at 6:00 pm in our Indigneous Ed room. Hope to see

you there!

Speaking of Volunteers…We are once again offering a free breakfast program at our school. In order to do this, we rely on volunteers. We have funding to pay for the groceries, but need the “human power” to run it. If you may be interested in helping with this in some

capacity, or if you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact Ms. Garries at school. We already have some volunteers who are in place, so that’s a great start!

Save the Date! Sept 26!

Our PAC (Parent Advisory Council) organizes a back to school BBQ/Meet the Staff Open House each fall. Here are the details, and we hope you can make it! We run it like a potluck (not including free hotdogs) so we will be sending home an additional request soon.

Parking – Always a Hot Topic!

Our parking lot can be a real challenge, and is even more so, now that our staff has grown so

much. We know how difficult it can be for parents too. We would like to gently ask that

parents do not use the parking lot for pick-ups or drop-offs. Instead, please use Passchendaele Rd or Vimy Rd.

We would also like to ask that if you pick up your child on foot, please do

not cross the road in front of the buses. We try to teach our students the safety rules around buses, and this can inadvertently show them what we don’t want them to do.

Thanks!