A reminder about our Bike Roadeo taking place tomorrow morning from 8:40 to 12:00 noon. Police officers from the Saanich Police Department will be on hand to help as well as parent volunteers. This will be an opportunity for students to have their bikes go through a safety check and then go through an obstacle course on the paved area at the back of the school. Students in grades 1 - 3 will park their bikes at the back of the school while students in grade 4 and 5 can use the bike racks at the front. Please remember to arrange for a pick-up of the bikes at the end of the day.

Thank you to LEPAC and the Community Arts Association of the Saanich Peninsula for sponsoring Artist-in-Residence Paul Hann for our school this year. Our students and staff enjoyed writing songs and singing with Paul for three weeks in April.

For the remainder of this school year all Saanich teachers have decided to withdraw their voluntary participation in extra curricular activities at this time. Athletic activities such as cross country or track and field, as well as other extra curricular activities like drama or choir, will not take place.

It has been suggested that elementary administrators could have parent volunteers run extra curricular programs with administrators acting as sponsors for practices and events. Although administrators appreciate parents’ willingness to step forward, there are several factors that have led to a decision to not use these volunteers:

1. It would be difficult to get consistent qualifications of volunteers (skill set, experience with diverse groups of children, commitment to confidentiality).

2. It would be difficult to get the number of coaches necessary to effectively run these programs

3. It would be impossible for an administrator to be present at each practice and or event, making it difficult to ensure that School District expectations for student behaviour are met by all.

4. Liability issues arise when District personnel are not present.

We regret that elementary schools (and for the most part middle and secondary schools) will not be offering extra curricular opportunities for our students at this time. We understand the clear benefits to children from participating in these activities and look forward to these resuming, hopefully in the near future.