Happy New Year everyone,
I hope the winter break was restful and afforded everyone some time to rest and recharge. 2024 is going to be another exciting year for UA with so many events already on the calendar. I am excited to have everyone back on Monday as the building has felt a bit empty this week. That being said, it has been great to see a number of our UA students participating in the Sport Discovery Camp, and members of the administrative staff who have been back at work making sure we are ready to go for school next week.
I would like to put out a BIG thank you to our facilities team who have been busy at work over the break upgrading various aspects of the school facility while everyone has been off. Mr. Kuzyk and Mr. McCulley-Hayden have done a wonderful job leading several contractors to get the work done.
Some items you will notice upon returning to the building:
- Some colour has been added to the front foyer with new signage
- Sound dampening has been added in the main foyer, 4th-floor classrooms, and in some parts of the 5th floor
- The door to the girls’ changeroom has been moved creating more storage space for the athletic department
- A new storage closet has been built in the theatre
- Many of the benches in the gym have been wrapped in UA colours
- The stairwell down to the gym, or “Lion’s Den”, now has colourful racing stripes leading the way to the gym along with some new UA artwork making it feel like home!
- We have new photo canvases added to all floors of the building with more current photos of our students and their activities
- A new installation on the 4th floor recognizes all of the previous UA grads, that will be updated annually going forward
- Finally, the school underwent a full deep clean and is ready for everyone to return
That is a lot of projects to complete in a very short period over the break!! But our UA team did great work.
It looks like the first week of school might also bring colder temperatures as well as some snow. Please be reminded that it is up to each family to determine if the road conditions are safe enough for you to send your students to school or not. If you do choose to keep children at home due to weather conditions please notify the school as you would with any other absence. If the conditions are severe enough for the school to close you will receive communications through SMS messaging and email, plus it will be posted on the school website. Ideally, these messages would be sent out before 7:00am. Fingers crossed that any snow just makes things look nice and doesn’t stick to the roadways.
I hope you all have a wonderful final weekend of the winter break. Please make sure to check the calendar as the full schedule of events, games and practices begins as normal on Monday. Let’s all work together to make 2024 an amazing year at UA.
Yours in education,
Mr. Slinger
