It is hard to believe that we are in June already and we would like to thank you all for your incredible support and flexibility throughout this unprecedented school year. There certainly have been many challenges this past year and we appreciate the communication and engagement with our families in these unchartered waters. Looking ahead, we would like to announce the BES team for the 2021-2022 school year:
Kindergarten: Deb Cavanaugh and Teresa Daffern
Gr. 1: Christine Cherrett and Caleigh Dobie
Gr. 2: Erin Emro
Gr. 2/3: Ralene Anderson
Gr. 3: Erica Roth
Gr. 4: David Mannix and Alysa Amirault (new to BES)
Gr. 5: Christy Bennett and Kristen Reed
Gr. 6: Stephanie Wilkinson and
Sharlyn Kelly, co-teaching with Cori Fraser (new to BES)
Gr. 7: Dean Conniff and Nikki Thomson (returning to BES)
Gr. 8: Callahan Weller and
Elissa Sunderland, co-teaching with Jennith Peart
Music: Grace Gadon (returning to BES)
Reading Support: Jennifer Beecroft
Learning Support: Nathalie Poulin
French as a Second Language (FSL): Cori Fraser (new to BES)
English Language Learning (ELL): Jody Keon
Educational Assistants: Rosemarie Layug, Robyn Schebek, Tricia Tiesmaki, Jayne Chilton (returning to BES) and Landis Burr (new to BES)
Administrative Assistants: Jodi McKenna and Joanne Geyer
Librarian and Food for Learning Coordinator: Fumie Craven
Housekeeper and Custodian: Janna Palma-Bunao and JC Reyes
Right From the Start (RFTS): Kat Wiebe and Megan Jenniex
School and Family Wellness Worker: Ashley Butenschon
We would like to wish good luck and farewell to the following staff:
Alexa Haugan will be teaching at CCHS
Susan Hollett and Isaline Sander will be teaching at LGMS
Stacy Ramdyal will be teaching at Exshaw School
Ashli Lewis will be on a leave of absence
Please note that we will not be accepting teacher requests as this can create unbalanced classrooms. Teachers invest a lot of time and effort to consider criteria such as academic successes and challenges, social and emotional needs and friendships.
On August 27th, you will be able to view your child’s homeroom teacher on Parent Portal. For Kindergarten families, this information will be shared on August 31st.
We look forward to greeting our students on the morning of Monday, August 30th, on the Elk field. Teachers will each have a sign for a visual cue for students to line up and be ready to start the new school year!
To conclude this school year, here are some highlights:
Outdoor Pursuits: We have had to adapt some of our outdoor activities due to the pandemic, but students have been able to participate in activities such as snowshoeing, downhill skiing, geocaching, skating, tennis, canoeing, and T-Ball.
Nature Explorers: this is the 7th year of a full NE program which supports a strong connection to the classroom, the curriculum, and the Teacher Effectiveness Framework. A huge thank you to the Pauw Foundation and School Council for ongoing support of this program.
In mid-March we welcomed our new School and Family Wellness Worker, Ms. Ashley Butenshon, who shadowed Ms. Allyson Van Impe to set her up for success to best support our students.
RFTS has continued to play an integral role in our school, especially during a pandemic, where all students have benefitted from universal strategies around wellness, and general mental health.
There have been ongoing, numerous, high-quality learning classroom opportunities for our students, thanks to our dedicated staff - please see our weekly E-News for more details.
On a personal note, Ms. Keon and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Banff community for making us feel so welcomed, even though our acquaintances were mainly virtual! We feel privileged to work with supportive families who truly are invested in their child’s educational journey!
We look forward to another successful year at BES.
Nadine Trottier, Principal Jody Keon, Assistant Principal
