Pine Street Elementary

Dear Parents/Guardians of Pine Street Elementary,

It is with profound sadness and regret that we announce the passing of Corporal Zachery McCormack, a former Pine Street student.  He was killed in action serving Canada just outside of Kandahar, Afghanistan on December 30, 2009.  Zachary grew up in Sherwood Park and his lifelong dream was to serve in the Military.  He joined in 2006 with the Loyal Edmonton Regiment 4PPCLI and in 2008 he enlisted to serve in Afghanistan. 

Zach paid the ultimate price to protect not only the freedom of us Canadians, but served to protect the freedom of those oppressed.  His courage and bravery were exemplified by his words and actions to his fellow soldiers and all that knew and loved him.

The McCormack family has been part of our Pine Street family for many years with all of their children attending.  Zachary's sister Isabelle is currently in grade six at Pine Street.

A few weeks ago you may have seen the tribute to Zachary's life that was aired on Global T.V. which Pine Street took part in.  When you visit the school you will see that our leadership students put yellow ribbons on the trees out front to welcome Zachary, a fallen soldier home.  They have also created a memorial for the month of February in our school display case with Isabelle sharing her thoughts and ideas about her big brother with our leadership students.   

During our "We Believe in Peace" Christmas Sharing Evening we had families write letters to families whose loved ones were away serving in the military.  If you wish to write a letter to the McCormack family we would be pleased to deliver them on your behalf. 

Yours truly, on behalf of our staff,
Ellen Yakimyshyn, Principal & Trish Huntington, Assistant Principal

Please check out what else is new at school by reading the February Newsletter in it's entirety.

Updated: February 1, 2010

Pine Street's motto "Pride and Excellence" is reflected daily by our students.  Our "Pawsitive" referral program is one opportunity for our staff to link with parents in celebration of student accomplishments with a phone call home, a certificate with their picture on it and hand prints being left on Mrs. Yakimyshyn or Mrs. Huntington's doors.  A tradition here at Pine Street has been for parents to share their "sunshine" messages with us through phone calls, personal visits, cards or letters.  These encouraging comments reaffirm our staff's belief in working closely with our families and are much appreciated.  To help us enhance our webpage as an effective communication site please use the principal contact form as a way to send a "sunshine message" and we will be sure to share your thoughts with the appropriate staff. 

Pine Street is accepting Kindergarten registrations for the 2010/11 school term.  If your child is five years old by March 1, 2011, he or she will be eligible to start Kindergarten in Sept. 2010.  If you know of anyone with kindergarten age children please pass this information on to them.  When coming to register please ensure you bring a birth certificate or other government issued I.D. such as a passport.  Enrolment has a large impact on school funding and the services we can provide students.  We hope that families will actively participate in early student registrations.  Please speak to neighbors and friends and encourage them to tour Pine Street and visit Mrs. Macdonald's and Mrs. Kavalinas' wonderful kindergarten classrooms! 

We here at Pine Street are taking a more "green" approach to how we distribute information home to our parents. With that said, we ask that you become more familiar with the site, as there will be some new areas coming and a few changes to how the information is presented. We will always try to highlight the most important news on the front page, but there are other areas that new information might be posted to. As a rule, we have tried to put all the information that would normally go home under the "Parents" tab at the top, but you may also want to check out to see whether your child's teacher has an eTeacher page. As more teachers are getting eTeacher pages, this is a wonderful way to see what is happening in individual classes. And, as always, if you ever have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact us here at the school. We welcome your feedback! You can call us 780-467-2246 or use the contact form (use the pull down menu to see the name of who you want to contact).

Our students, staff and families continue to demonstrate "A Tradition of Pride and Excellence" in supporting a vibrant learning community so as to assist students to achieve academic, social and behavioral growth. Research clearly indicates that student success and parent-school partnerships are directly related. The Pine Street community believes in a diversity of growth opportunities for each and every child through active, daily involvement in learning, both in the home and school. Students also benefit from the gifts and talents of community volunteers who share their expertise to enrich the learning environment. Our staff and families demonstrate character, competence and compatibility in fostering the relationships that make learning possible and translate to success for students.

We welcome children and parents to  be a part of the Pine Street Family!
~Mrs. Ellen Yakimyshyn (Principal), Mrs. Trish Huntington (Assistant Principal), and all the Pine Street Staff

To learn more about our wonderful school and to find more in-depth descriptions please read over the 2009-2010 Student-Family Handbook.

We at Pine Street care about all of our students and want to help them as much as we can. If you have a child that requires medications to be taken at school, we ask that you please print off, fill out and send the Medical Form to the school at your earliest convenience. One form must be filled out for each child that requires medications to be taken at school.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call us here at the school.

If your child is absent or is going to be, feel free to use the handy contact form. Just select "attendance" from the pull down menu, and send the name of child/children along with the reason that he/she is absent.