April 28, 2022
Dear UA Parents,
Congratulations to our UA Gala Committee who put on an amazing Gala on Saturday night. It was so nice to be able to gather in person and celebrate everything that we are working towards at UA. Thank you to our Gala Chair Maeghan Dewar, Vice Chair Naomi Thé, and the rest of the team for all the time and effort you put in to make it a success. Planning something of this magnitude in the shadow of a 2-year-old pandemic was quite a feat. I also need to thank Sonja Kennedy for her oversight and support of the Gala Team every year. Thank you to everyone who attended and participated, it was a wonderful evening.
I hope you have all read the exciting news that was sent out earlier today announcing the appointment of our new principal, Ms. Brenda Ball. I am thrilled that we have been able to add Ms. Ball to our Senior Leadership Team. She will work very closely next year with Ms. Dadar (our new Associate Principal) to ensure that our educational and co-curricular programs continue to provide a vibrant and engaging education for all of our UA students. A big thank you to Ms. Kennedy, Ms. Dadar, Mr. Twaites, Ms. Bayles and Ms. Dumortier for their commitment and participation in the interview process.
We have other exciting staffing news to share as well – Ms. Fischer (Kindergarten) who left on maternity leave after Spring Break gave birth to two healthy twin boys on Tuesday, April 26. Both mom and dad are doing well after a good night’s sleep last night and are excited to be taking the boys home later this afternoon. We are all very excited for Ms. Fischer and wish her all the best over the next several months as she starts the most important job of her career, being a mom.
It was wonderful to see parents back in the building yesterday and today for Student-Led Conferences. I have always loved the idea of students sharing their learning in their learning spaces with their parents and guardians. I hope you enjoyed the conferences too. For the senior parents, I hope that the parent-teacher interviews were informative as your students head into the last several weeks of the school year.
It is also time for me to say thank you and goodbye to Ms. Emma Jean who has been working at UA as a SFU Co-op Student for the last four months. She has worked with the Marketing Department and has done a fantastic job in bringing increased frequency and life to our social media. Thank you Ms. Jean for all your work, we wish you the best as you finish your education!
Finally, thank you for your cooperation as construction closures change our routines and access to the building over the course of the last few days. It will continue into Monday and Tuesday next week, but the result will be very noticeable as the glass is going up on the new staircase. It is going to be a stunning part of the school facility when completed.
I hope you all enjoy another long weekend. Our teachers will be working tomorrow learning about Ed Tech tools and systems, as well as more learning in the area of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Yours in education,
Mr. Slinger
