Dear Urban Academy Families,
Thank you for a wonderful week working together. We so enjoyed the JK/K Winter Concert in our own theatre on Monday night. It was the perfect venue for our youngest students, and they performed wonderfully! Thank you to senior students who provided some lovely Christmas music with an ensemble in the foyer as guests gathered for the JK/K concert, a preview of a “Frozen Jr” number and supporting the little ones in their finale. The concert on Wednesday evening at Massey was a great deal of fun to produce and thank you for your appreciation of “Holiday Road Trip” and “Frozen Jr”. We have an excellent program in the Performing Arts and thank you to our teachers, Mr. McDiarmid, Mrs. Brooke and Ms. Kilpatrick as well as every staff member at UA, this is a team effort with everyone supporting the productions and our students’ learning.
Our senior students travelled to Capilano University this week to take part in GeneSkool. This is one of many opportunities we provide our students to learn about genetics and to experience firsthand the campus of our post-secondary institutions that are within our Metro region. We were so pleased this week to see that the transit strike was averted – very helpful to a school with so much field study on the go.
The Board of Directors has approved the schedule of Tuition Fees and OOSC Fees for the 2020-21 school year and these are attached to this email for your information. The fee schedule, as always, represents the adjustment needed to keep pace with a growing school, developing programs and current costs to operate the school. The overall fee adjustment ranges between 4.7 and 6% for our K-Grade 12 program and is in line with all fee schedule adjustments in previous years. The growth of enrolment, additional classes for students and developing programs are funded in a thoughtful and prudent manner by the Board of Directors as they ensure that we provide a solid program for our students and maintain the development of our educational programming as we grow a vibrant school. Please feel welcome to email with any questions that you might have regarding fees and timelines to complete for upcoming obligations. We are completing on new admissions to Kindergarten before Christmas and will move on to the other grades and re-reg for our current families after the holidays.
Thank you to all of our families who have contributed to the Annual Appeal. We have topped the $115,000 mark and well exceeded our goal of $65,000! Thank you for your support and generosity, it is most deeply appreciated. If any families require a donor form or information to complete on their donation, please let us know and we will help you out with what you require. We will do up tax receipts early in the New Year and get those out to families so that they have them for filing for the current tax year.
The City of New Westminster has just informed me that they intend to plant our front beds on Rousseau and side ones in the lane on Monday and Tuesday. Please be aware that City trucks may be out there at drop-off and pick-up.
We are looking forward to the last week before the holidays with a number of wonderful learning opportunities provided to our students as noted in the email I provided earlier this week. Please note the uniform (and non-uniform!) requirements of the activities of the various grades as we move through the week.
Have a lovely weekend. We look forward to seeing all of you on Monday morning.
Mrs. Cheryle Beaumont
Head of School
