Text Box: Principal’s Message Text Box: Cedar Community Secondary News Text Box: 1640 MacMillan Road Nanaimo, B.C. V9X 1L9 Tel: 722-2414 Fax: 722-3071 http:\\schools.sd68.bc.ca/ceds Text Box: Susann Young, Principal Bill Rounis, Vice Principal SEPTEMBER 11th, 2009 Text Box: Dear parents, community members and students, Welcome back to a new school year! I hope your children all had a wonderful summer and are looking forward to a new beginning! I would like to extend a warm welcome back to all our returning students and their families, and give a warm welcome to our new grade 8’s, our international student, new staff and new students! New staff for this year are: Mary Berlanda (Skills for Life, Resource Room, Math & Learning Assistance), Michelle Kennedy,(English), Sandra Kempf (Foods & Jr. Math), Stephen Epp (Law), Lloyd St Cyr, Starr Faux and Teresa Wardill (Education Assistants). We wish them a rewarding Cedar year. Welcome also to our international student, Leonardo Tavaris from Brazil. As a staff we are starting the new year with a Bcesis pilot project called “Teacher Assistant”. This pilot will give teachers the ability to do class by class attendance on the computer (instead of us having the information once in the morning and once in the afternoon), give teachers a web-based grade book and access to IEP’s for students with specific learning needs. Our hope is that as a staff we can more quickly respond to student attendance and academic achievement concerns. Attached, please review the school’s Code of Conduct. We will be reviewing it with the students as well. In October we will also be piloting a Daily Physical Activity (DPA) program (as mandated by the Ministry of Education) for our grade 8 and 9 students. This will see us using 20 minutes every day during the double block to provide opportunities for classes to engage in some kind of physical activity. More information will be sent with your sons and daughters as we get closer to the end of September. Also new this year is the implementation of our BC First Nations Studies 12. This new course gives students a grade 12 credit course and counts as a grade 11 Social Studies. It will be running in Semester 2 and is almost full! This past week has been very busy as we accommodated a number of course changes and new registrations. Many thanks go out to our office staff, counseling staff and Mr. Rounis for their hard work. And many thanks go to our teachers who have remained patient as we worked through balancing class sizes and accommodating changes. We are looking forward to an exciting school year with many opportunities for our students to focus on their learning, participate in leadership/citizenship activities, participate in fine arts and athletics and generally have a great year. As always, Mr. Rounis and I are available to meet with parents and students to discuss any questions or concerns. Please feel free to contact us at 722-2414. If we are unavailable, please feel free to leave us a message—Mrs. Young at local 226 and Mr. Rounis at local 225. Sincerely, Susann Young Text Box: Tuesday, Sept 22 Grade 9s’ Immunization Wednesday, Sept 23 School Photo Friday, Sept 25 Terry Fox Run @ 10 am Monday, Sept 28 School Pro D Day Thursday, Oct 1 PAC Mtg. @ 7 pm Thursday, Oct 8 Interim Reports Newsletter out Monday, Oct 12 Thanksgiving Friday, Oct 23 Provincial Pro D Day Tuesday, Nov 3 Take your Kids to Work Day (For Grade 9s) Thursday, Nov 5 Newsletter out Saturday, Nov 7 Daylight Saving Time Wednesday, Nov 11 Remembrance Day Thursday, Nov 26 Report Cards/ Early Dismissal @ 1:30 pm -(Meet the Teacher evening) at 4 pm—6:30 pm Nov 24,25 & 26 Grad Photos- Room 202 Text Box: Dates to Note Text Box: Mr. Rounis (Vice Principal) I would like to take this opportunity to welcome everyone back to Cedar for the start of our 2009-2010 year. It has been an exciting first year for me at CCSS and I am so thankful for the welcome and support that I have received during my first year. Looking ahead this year I am excited about many of the excellent programs that we will be continuing to offer and the possiblity of a number of new initiatives that are going to help design a positive learning experience for our students. In planning for this school year, a main focus will be the Academic Achievement of our students. There are a number of programs this year that are all being put forward to support this goal. Research shows a direct link between both physical activity and student performance. The Daily Physical Activity (DPA) pilot program at Cedar starting in October is the first of its kind in SD68 at the high school level. In preparing for the new BC Mathematics curriculum that has been introduced by the Ministry of Education we have prepared a plan that will translate into success. For our youngest students we have created a new Pre Math 8 program to ensure that our students have a strong foundation to build on prior to entering Math 8. For our middle aged students we are looking to start the Cedar Homework Club. This will be run by our leadership and strongest Math students to help their peers in the mornings. I believe that these new initiatives will keep us moving towards our goal of success for our Cedar students. We are preparing for a successful year at Cedar and asking our students to strive for excellence in education. With many distractions in front of us such as the H1N1 virus, the Environment, 2010 Olympics, and ongoing Global Recession it is easy to sway off course. I urge you to begin with the end in mind. Make goals for yourself and plan for success this year! I look forward to seeing and working with you this year. Sincerely, Mr. Rounis

“CEDAR:  WE’RE IN IT TO LEARN!”