Mustang Memo - June 6, 2025

This week, students in grades 3-5 attended the Earth Day assembly. Students learned about the importance of protecting wildlife and the various ecosystems in which endangered animals live. Students got to see some live animals including a real life armadillo! Thanks to the Earth Rangers for coming out to our school!

Enjoy your weekend,

Helene Hewitt & Jay Robertson

Principal & Assistant Principal

You belong here!

Table of Contents

Week At a Glance

Action

• Mustang Mention Prize Assembly
• Accessing User Accounts: Students Leaving EIPS
• Reminder: 2024-25 School Fees

Opportunity 

• Pick up a summer reading kit for your child in Grade 1!

Information

• Counsellor's Corner
• EIPS Annual Education Results Report
• Notification Emails from your PowerSchool Parent Portal
• Parents Make the Difference

WEEK AT A GLANCE

ACTION

Mustang Mentions Prize Assembly

Our School Council Wellness Committee is currently seeking prize donations to reward our DCE students for their Mustang Mentions!

The prizes donated, the more prizes we can give our kids! Prize ideas include: outdoor games, bubbles, sports balls or coupons. No prize is too big or small!

Receive a shout-out in a future Mustang Memo and on the DCE Facebook page for your donation!

Email dcewellness@gmail.com to donate or for more details. 

Accessing User Accounts: Students Leaving EIPS

Is your child graduating from or leaving EIPS at the end of the school year? If so, they must ensure any information they want to retain from their school cloud accounts is downloaded onto a personal device before leaving.

• Google account – Students must download any wanted content before August 6—download files either individually or in bulk using Google Takeout.
• Microsoft account – Students must download any wanted content from their OneDrive account before August 6.

After Aug. 6, 2025, EIPS will deactivate the account.

REMINDER: 2024-25 school fees

School fees for the 2024-25 school year are posted on the PowerSchool Parent Portal. All fees are due within 30 days of being posted. Throughout the year, fees are often added to cover the costs for various activities, such as field trips, extracurricular activities, and late, damaged or lost textbooks.

To access your fee information, simply log in to the PowerSchool Parent Portal and go to “Student Fees.” There you can view fees and pay them online using a Mastercard or Visa credit or debit card. Make sure to monitor your child’s account on an ongoing basis.

For more information about school fees, waivers and payment deadlines, visit eips.ca/schools/fees. And, if you have questions, think there’s an error or need help creating a PowerSchool Parent Portal account, contact your child’s school directly before the summer break.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Pursuant to Board Policy 23: School Fees and Administrative Procedure 505: School and Administrative Fees, EIPS will forward any unpaid 2024-25 fee amounts to a collection agency. To prevent this from happening, remember to pay your fees before Aug. 31, 2025.

OPPORTUNITY

Pick up a summer reading kit for your child in Grade 1!

The Strathcona County Library prepares reading kits for Grade 1 students to encourage children to practice reading throughout the summer so they can build on their newly acquired reading skills. The kit is free and contains fun activities to keep students reading all summer long. Kits are available from June 1 to Aug. 24, 2025. Families can pick up kits from the main floor Information Desk at the Library or meet the Bookmobile at any of its weekly stops. Library staff ask families to bring their children to pick up their kits in person so staff members can meet them and welcome them to the library. Learn more

INFORMATION

Counsellor's Corner

As we welcome the arrival of summer and the end of the school year, I wanted to remind you to look into the Family Resource Network Summer Programs Guide.

Here is a highlight from their summer programming!

Spark of Nature Grade 1-3 - Appreciating and exploring nature can have a positive impact on your overall well-being. Participants will enjoy outdoor games and activities aimed at helping them learn more about themselves and how they can overcome challenges. For children entering Grades 1 to 3 in Fall 2025.

Healthy Me Grade 3-4 - Fuel your mind, move your body and connect with others. Learn new, fun activities that can boost your mental health and well-being. For children entering Grades 3 and 4 in Fall 2025.

Glow Up Grade 6 - Embark on an incredible journey of self discovery and growth. Participate in fun activities they help you understand who you are and learn that it’s okay to make mistakes. Build your confidence, explore your strengths and make new friends. Celebrate being your amazing, unique and powerful self with us! For individuals entering into Grade 6 in Fall 2025 who identify as female.

Also, just a reminder that the Family Resource Network will be open all summer! If you need any support over the summer, please connect with the FRN by calling 780-416-6730.  You can self-refer and all their services are free for Strathcona County residents.

EIPS Annual Education Results Report

Every year, Elk Island Public Schools (EIPS) publishes an Annual Education Results Report, which outlines the Division’s Four-Year Education Plan, growth opportunities and how it supports students in achieving the best possible outcomes. Read through this year’s EIPS Annual Education Results Report 2023-24 and discover how EIPS fosters learning environments for all students to learn, grow and thrive—and why it matters.

June Spotlight: EIPS Four-Year Education Plan: 2022-26 (Year 4), which details the Division’s priorities, goals and outcomes over a four-year period.

• Priority 1: To promote the growth and success of all students.
• Priority 2: To enhance high-quality learning and working environments.
• Priority 3: To enhance public education through effective engagement.

The plan also outlines the performance measures, key insights and strategies the Division will use to meet each priority, goal and outcome in the 2025-26 school year.

RELATED INFORMATION
Annual Education Results Report 2023-24: Overview 
EIPS Four-Year Education Plan: 2022-26
EIPS Three-Year Capital Plan: 2026-29

Notification Emails from your PowerSchool Parent Portal

Through the PowerSchool Parent Portal, parents and guardians can subscribe to receive email updates from the school and about their child, as well as the frequency for receiving the updates. These PowerSchool notifications are separate from the emails you receive from the Division and your child’s school sent through SchoolMessenger.

In June, Elk Island Public Schools is updating the domain configuration where these PowerSchool emails come from to support more cost effective and efficient modernization of technology within the Division. As the updates take place, notifications may come from one or the other email address. By June 13, when the update is complete, messages from the PowerSchool Parent Portal will come from only the new email address:

• Current email sender: powerschool@eips.ca
• New email sender: DoNotReply@powerschool.mail.eips.ca

We encourage you to add this new email address to your safe-sender list to avoid missing any updates you’re subscribed to. At any time, if you’d like to update your subscription settings within PowerSchool, simply log in to the Parent Portal and click the “Email Notifications” tab in the left-hand menu.

Parents Make the Difference

Reflect on the school year and celebrate your child’s successes

As the school year winds down, it’s a great time to help your child look back, look forward and celebrate. Here’s how:

• Talk to your child’s teacher. Ask about your child’s strengths and weaknesses. How has your student improved? What areas need more work? Ask what you can do to help your child over the summer.
• Talk to your child about the school year. Ask, “What do you think went well? What challenged you the most?” Help your child figure out what changes to make for the upcoming school year.
• Review your child’s successes. Look over schoolwork you’ve saved during the year. Point out how much your child has learned—how many new words, for example. Or, how to add and divide. Or, how your child’s writing has improved.
• Help your child set learning goals for the summer, such as how much time to spend reading daily and which math concepts to work on mastering. Guide your child’s choices, based on the suggestions from the teacher.
• Encourage your child to thank people who have made the year work—the teacher, school nurse, librarian, food service worker, etc. This boosts appreciation for all of the people who help children learn.
• Celebrate the year’s accomplishments with a special activity. It doesn’t have to be elaborate or cost anything. Just make plans to enjoy one-on-one time with your child.

Reprinted with permission from the May 2025 issue of Parents make the difference!^®  (Elementary School Edition) newsletter. Copyright © 2025 The Parent Institute^®, a division of PaperClip Media, Inc.