December 17, 2021
Dear UA Parents,
Well, we have made it to the final school day of 2021. Looking back on the year, it has certainly been one to remember in our province. Thank you to our entire UA community for your support as the school has maneuvered through the pandemic, construction, and the various weather events of this past year. What I have appreciated the most is how our UA community of parents and staff have come together to ensure that our educational programming has been maintained for the benefit of our UA students.
It was wonderful to see our UA community come together for our Winter Concert at the Massey Theatre this week. I know the students all loved performing on the stage, and the response from the audience was fantastic. A BIG thank you to our Performing Arts teachers – Ms. Brooke, Ms. Kilpatrick, and Mr. McDiarmid – for their dedication to providing these types of experiences for our students. Additionally, I would like to thank the remaining UA staff who helped out backstage and supported extra rehearsals to help everything come together.
On a wonderfully positive note, our Annual Appeal has continued to move towards our goal of $130,000. We are now just shy of $120,000 raised which is fantastic. We are very hopeful that we will be able to surpass our goal in the weeks ahead. We have already begun to see the benefits of these funds as we have now had sound dampening materials installed in four classrooms to help improve the acoustics for teachers and students. We are looking to add more classrooms to the list over the coming months as the improvement has been so significant. We currently have 41% of our families supporting the Appeal; if you have not yet given, we are hopeful that you remember UA in your holiday giving should you want to get the tax receipt before the end of this year.
And finally, as many of you are aware, the Province announced new Health Orders around social gatherings and events this afternoon. I hope you all are able to adapt to the new orders while still being able to enjoy the holiday season with your family and close friends. I know we were all looking forward to a more ‘normal’ holiday season this year, but once again we need to be adaptable and resilient. If you are traveling out of the country, please make sure you are aware of restrictions and expectations for school-aged children returning to school. You will also find a message below from Public Health that we have been asked to distribute to our school community.
I wish you all a wonderful winter break – be safe. We will see you all in 2022.
Yours in education,
Mr. Slinger
