Our October School Council of Calgary Academy (SCOCA) meeting is set for Wednesday October 16, 2019 at 6:30p.m.

We encourage all parents to come join us and see the value in their input and engagement in council meetings. It’s also a great way to connect with other CA parents, meet the CA admin team and SCOCA board, and to learn about the exciting plans for the year ahead.

The agenda will proceed as follows:

School Council of Calgary Academy
October 16, 2019 – 6:30p.m.
Agenda

1. Welcome/Call to Order
2. Approval of Agenda
3. Reports:
a. Chair Report: Carolyn Whitelaw
b. Principal Report – Tim Carlson
c. Volunteer Report – Shannyn de Kruyff
– Parent Teacher Interviews Lunch, Terry Fox, Dig Pink
d. Student Council President
– Report – Sarah Johnson
e. Teacher Rep Introductions
5. Next Meeting – November 18, 2019 – 6:30pm
a. Future Agenda Items
– Student Anxiety and Exams
b. Survey Measures and Results from Spring of 2019
6. Q&A
7. Thank you/Adjournment

We’re looking forward to seeing you on Wednesday!

September 16, 2019 – 6:30p.m.

Agenda

1. Welcome/Call to Order

• Meeting called to order at 6:35 pm
• Welcome to our first Facebook live streaming of the meeting

2. Introductions of the School Council Executive 2019/20

• Carolyn W – SCOCA President/Chair
• Ken B – SCOCA Vice Chair
• Shannon K – SCOCA Volunteer Chair
• Pritha K – SCOCA Secretary
• Elliot G – Director at Large
• Garth D – Director at Large

3. Approval of AGM Minutes & Agenda

• Carolyn W asked for a motion to approve the AGM minutes and agenda. Ken B made the motion. Shannyn seconded the motion.  Motion carried.
• Reports:
• Mr. Jim Grey, Past Chair, Board of Directors of Calgary Academy
  • Calgary Academy will celebrate a 40 year anniversary
  • Introduced Douglas May, Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of Calgary Academy
  • Well wishes for the new academic school year were extended
  • Mr. Gray reiterated how CA is a family that prepares students for the ever changing world. As such, CA renovated and modernized the classroom environment
  • CA’s model is financial and economically sound which enables independence to allow flexibility to serve students
• President and CEO Report – Dr. Greg Bass
  • Welcome message extended
  • Congratulations to Carolyn and SCOCA team
  • Welcome to Aaron from Calgary Academy Parents Association (CAPA)
  • Engaging with the parent community is paramount. Wonderful to see the volunteer base grow.
  • Refer to the Strategy Plan for the current and two-yeare strategy plan
  • CA’s satisfaction survey positive
• Principal Report – Tim Carlson
  • School routine falling into place 
  • Fall Welcome a success
  • 2019 enrollment is 600+; 2019 enrollment was 530
  • PowerSchool settling in despite some initial setup issues
  • Over the summer, CA had a few updates and changes
  • New furniture placed in classrooms to increase the learning environment
  • Washrooms almost complete
  • Parent/Teacher Meet and Greet and Open House on September 27, 2019. Parents are encouraged to check out the new additions
• Volunteer Report
  • Two volunteer orientation sessions underway – September 16 and October 21
  • First one well attended
  • 30 new volunteers so far
  • Established Sign Up Genius to the Teacher Appreciation Lunch scheduled September 27
  • Another volunteer opportunity will be Terry Fox Run on October 2
• Review of scheduled dates and times of future SCOCA meetings
  • October 16, 2019
  • November 18, 2019
  • January 20, 2020
  • Feburary 24, 2020
  • April 14, 2020
  • May 11, 2020 – AGM

Next Meeting – October 16, 2019 6:30 p.m.

• Future Agenda Items
  • Student Council Report
  • Power School Parent Portal Presentation
• Other

Q&A – N/A

Thank you/Adjournment – 7:05 pm

Our first School Council of Calgary Academy (SCOCA) meeting is set for Monday September 16, 2019 at 6:30p.m. We encourage all parents to come join us and see the value in their input and engagement in council meetings. It’s also a great way to connect with other CA parents, meet the CA admin team and new SCOCA board, and to learn about the exciting plans for the year ahead.

The agenda will proceed as follows:

School Council of Calgary Academy
September 16, 2019 – 6:30p.m.
Agenda

1. Welcome/Call to Order
2. Introductions of the School Council Executive
3. Approval of Agenda
4. Reports:
a. President and CEO Report – Dr. Greg Bass
b. Principal Report – Tim Carlson
c. Mr. Jim Gray
d. Volunteer Report – Shannyn de Kruyff
e. Review of scheduled dates and times of future SCOCA meetings
5. Next Meeting – October 21, 2019 6:30pm
a. Future Agenda Items
– Student Council Report
– Power School Parent Portal Presentation
b. Other
6. Q&A
7. Thank you/Adjournment

We’re looking forward to seeing you on Monday!

Hello CA Parent Volunteers!

On behalf of the School Council of Calgary Academy (SCOCA) we are thrilled to have many of you back volunteering with us again this year and also welcome many new parents joining this year for the first time.

As many of you know, SCOCA was initiated in September 2018 as was our parent volunteer community. As an organized volunteer parent group we provide support to Calgary Academy teachers, staff and the admin team in a variety of ways.

Last year we started a CA Staff Appreciation Meal tied into Parent interview dates to give teachers a hot meal prepared and donated by parents. Our first event was an Italian themed dinner and was a great success and so appreciated by the CA staff that we decided to prepare meals tied into all parent teacher interview dates. In addition to an Italian theme, we also have a Chili night and an International theme night that encompassed many treats from our diverse cultural heritage of many of our families. Our first CA Staff appreciation meal is planned for September 27. We look forward to your ideas on themes for this year!

We also provide support with scribing for students that require help for many of their provincial exams. Other opportunities include: create themes and decorate the hallway Bulletin boards, provided onsite support at CA Sporting and Drama productions, the annual Terry Fox Run and Dig Pink event etc.

We value your gift of time and will be extending a variety of volunteer opportunities via email to you recognizing of course that some requests may not work with your schedule or area of interest.

All new volunteers are required to attend a volunteer orientation, complete the volunteer application and confidentiality form and also obtain their Calgary Academy Volunteer police security clearance.

Police Background Clearance to Volunteer – You can apply online at  www.policeinformationcheck.calgarypolice.ca or visit your local police branch in person.  When applying for your Calgary Academy Volunteer Police Background check, you will be required to provide a letter from Calgary Academy ( see attached form letter)  to the police department in order to qualify for a reduced fee of $15 rather than their standard fee of $55. Once approved by Calgary Police,  you will have clearance to volunteer for 5 years with school.

The first volunteer orientation is planned for September 16 at 6:00 at Calgary Academy and will cover off volunteer guidelines etc. The first general SCOCA meeting will follow at 6:30pm and we invite all CA families to attend. This meeting provides a great opportunity to meet other families, the new SCOCA Board and CA Admin Team and learn about the exciting plans for the 2019/2020 year ahead.  If you could kindly RSVP your attendance to Shannyn de Kruyff, SCOCA Volunteer Coordinator so that we can plan for appropriate attendance numbers. If you are not able to attend the Volunteer Orientation on September 16, there will be a second one offered in October.

If you have any questions about volunteering, please do not hesitate to contact Shannyn de Kruyff anytime at volunteers@calgaryacademy.com.

Thanks so much to all those who came out to the SCOCA AGM in May. It was a great meeting! We heard from Principal Tim Carlson that the Board has approved new furniture for all classrooms to support a flexible learning environment. This furniture will be in place for September, when the students come back for another year of learning. Something to look forward to, for sure!

Jackie McDougall, Chair of SCOCA, provided a summary of SCOCA’s activities throughout the past year. In this, our inaugural year, we have been busy! We’ve hosted several SCOCA meetings, kept in touch with parents through website blogs and emails, established a volunteer base, volunteer orientation and a volunteer handbook. We have kept the volunteers busy with a variety of activities from scribing to helping at Sports Events, Drama Productions, as well as helping out with many other school activities. We have also instituted Teacher Appreciation Meals. We have a lot more planned for next year, so certainly stay tuned!

The new SCOCA Executive was voted in at the AGM. Many thanks to those parents who committed their time and efforts this past year and welcome to all incoming Executive members. Your new SCOCA Executive for the 2019-2020 school year is:

Chair – Carolyn Whitelaw

Vice Chair – John Johnston

Volunteer Coordinator – Shannyn de Kruyff

Secretary – Pritha Kalar

Directors at Large – Ken Bews, Elliot Geskin

SCOCA will be offline during the summer months but we look forward to seeing you at the first SCOCA meeting, which will be on September 16, 2019. Details to follow! Look forward to seeing you then.

Wishing all our CA families a safe and restful summer,

Your SCOCA Executive Team

The minutes for the 2018-2019 School Council of Calgary Academy meetings are available below:

September Meeting

October Meeting

November Meeting

January Meeting

June Meeting

Our Junior High Drama performers recently wrapped an incredible four-night  Junior Production of The Rockin’ Tale of Snow White! Students in Grades 6-8 entertained audiences with CA’s very own tale of a modernized Snow White. In addition to the well-known original Snow White cast, this musical introduced some fresh new faces such as the rhyme-happy Ladies-in-Waiting and a stick-in-the-mud Governmental Representative out to ruin everyone’s good time!

Filled with tongue-in-cheek humour and a rousing mixture of hip-hop, rock and roll, and doo-wop songs, this production was an excellence showcase of the talent, dedication, and skill of our junior high cast and crew, for many of whom this was their first performance or involvement in a large-scale production.

“When we find the things in life that we truly love, we will also find success. That is exactly what our Junior High performers did: they embraced their own strengths, talents, and came together to put their hearts, and jokes, onto the CA stage,” said Director Leeanne McLim.

The Junior High Drama Production is an annual opportunity for students in Grades 6-8 each spring.

Since 2005, Calgary Academy’s International Travel Studies Program has journeyed across the globe to provide our students with experiential learning that simply cannot be achieved in a classroom setting. Our mission is to provide students and staff with authentic travel experiences and opportunities to share the REACH philosophy through altruistic service-learning projects at home and around the world. We are incredibly fortunate to have students who have participated with ITS and have truly been ambassadors for our school on the global stage.

As someone who was bitten by the travel bug as a student in Grade 9, I have developed a love of travel that has taken me into the Amazon rainforest, across the Sahara Desert, and through the immortal temples of Asia. I have bathed elephants in the Mekong, climbed volcanic peaks in the Andes, and eaten street food the likes of which you would never see here in Canada. To see the world for what it truly is, and to live beyond the confines of Calgary is what motivates me to seek out new adventures every year. You could almost say I’m addicted to travel, and I just can’t quit.

Our ITS Program is also more than just travelling to new destinations. One of the core tenets of our program is service learning. Every trip includes time spent in an orphanage, school, or village that has requested help from the global community. Trust me when I say there is no purer form of altruism than flying halfway across the world to help children in another country build better lives for themselves, their families, and their communities. Our students also give of themselves here at home, by volunteering with local charitable organizations that serve a variety of needs. We believe very strongly in helping our students become true global citizens.

For the 2019-2020 school year, we are thrilled to present a new selection of trips that will travel over March and April 2020. The four trips being offered are Laos & Thailand, Nepal, Morocco, and Brazil. Applications are open to students who will be entering Grades 10 through 12 as of September 2019. Please click the links below to access the Destination Reveal Presentation and Student Application package.

Destination Reveal Spring 2020

ITS Application Form – STUDENT 2019-2020

Student Applications are due by Tuesday, May 21st, 2019 and placements will be announced shortly thereafter.

This year’s destinations are shaping up to be phenomenal trips and I look forward to welcoming new students into the ITS Program. Get ready, it’s going to be one wild ride!

Sincerely,

Darren Chu
International Travel Studies Coordinator

The final School Council of Calgary Academy (SCOCA) meeting will occur on Monday, May 13 at 7:00 p.m.  This is the Annual General Meeting (AGM) and the SCOCA executive is excited to review the progress made in their first year and to look ahead at the goals for next year.  At the AGM we will be electing positions in the executive. These positions are elected on a yearly basis and a few of our executive are parents of graduating students and will not be with us next year.

The positions are:

Chair
Vice Chair
Secretary
Volunteer Coordinator(s)

Currently we have nominations for a few of these positions but would love to have more individuals involved as well so if you have any interest in any of these positions or would like more information please view our bylaws.

Contact Principal Tim Carlson if you would like to be involved on the SCOCA executive next year so we can prepare for Monday night. We will take nominations from the floor but it would be best to have a heads up. Please note that you do not have to be nominated for a position, you can nominate yourself.

Thank you for a great first year and we look forward to your support of our school at SCOCA next week.

Happy January Parents!!!

We hope everyone has settled in for the next half of the year after our Christmas Break.

As usual there is a lot going on at CA and with that there is always a need for parent volunteers to help out in a variety of ways. Our Volunteer Coordinators have been busy recruiting new parent volunteers and facilitating new opportunities for them. If you would like to join our team of volunteers, please contact us at volunteers@calgaryacademy.com

SCOCA had its monthly School Council meeting on January 21^st. We covered some interesting and informative topics:

Tim Carlson presented on the annual CA Alberta Education Report, which outlines and illustrates how CA performed on its 2017-2018 Academic Targets and its Strategic Plan goals. Tim also advised on the progress that CA has made towards instituting a Kindergarten class for 2019-2020. Final approval from Alberta Education is pending.

SCOCA Student Showcase highlighted the accomplishments of Kierah, a current Grade 12 CA student. She explained how she was selected from over 300 applicants to participate with 31 other students on the Minister’s Youth Council this year.  An amazing accomplishment! The Youth Council provides insight and feedback to the Minister of Education on a variety of topics such as curriculum updates, diversity in education, and strategies to increase focus on STEM classes.

Our next SCOCA meeting is going to be a very interesting and important one! The Board Chair Gary Purcell and CEO Dr. Greg Bass are going to present updates from the Board. There will also be a presentation on the new design plans for the upcoming CA renovations. This is an important milestone for Calgary Academy and this is your chance to see it first and ask questions!!

We hope to see you there February 25, 7 pm.