Dear Evergreen Families,
Through story, art, poetry, and song, our Grade 4 students led our school in Truth and Reconciliation Week activities and our Orange Shirt Day assembly. Throughout the week we reflected on the legacy of residential schools, which took away Indigenous children’s languages, families, and cultures, leaving many unable to speak the words that tied them to their identity.
As part of the assembly, Grade 4 students shared their original poem, which demonstrated a deep understanding of the painful history and lasting impact of residential schools. Their words emphasized the importance of remembering this history, showing empathy for survivors, and committing to a better future. By ending with a call to action, their poem reminded us that we all share the responsibility to honour survivors and work toward truth and reconciliation.
Each year in September,
The truck would arrive.
To take away children,
Knowing some wouldn’t survive.
As you climb on the truck,
Your knees start to shake.
And as the truck rolls away,
You heart starts to ache.
You look back at your family,
A tear drops from your eye.
But the truck driver yells,
Don’t you dare cry!
As you wind down the road,
You feel alone and sad.
You arrive at the school,
And all the teachers are mad.
The first thing that happens,
Is they make you change clothes.
It’s almost like jail,
Shivering from head to toes.
The next part is worse,
When they chop off your hair.
Everyone looks the same now,
Which seems so unfair.
To erase the past,
You’re assigned a new name.
You know from that moment,
Things won’t be the same.
You aren’t able to speak,
In the language you know.
They’ve changed you so much,
You’ve never felt so low.
Each day you hope,
You will make it to another.
Crying each night,
Missing your mother.
Graves were dug,
And children never returned.
Their families had questions,
But answers weren’t learned.
As young Canadians,
It’s a story we hear.
But the past stays with us,
Year after year.
We gather each year,
At the end of September.
To support the survivors,
Which help us remember.
The youth will rise up,
And help better our nation.
So wear your orange shirt,
For Truth and Reconciliation.
Over the course of the week, students also heard Melanie Florence’s story Stolen Words, about a little girl and her grandfather. The grandfather explains that as a child at residential school, his language was taken away and he was no longer allowed to speak Cree. With the help of his granddaughter, he begins to reclaim his language, reminding us that words, culture, and family can be recovered with love and care.
Connected to our school theme Every Word Tells a Story, students created feathers with words meaningful to them—some in English, some in their home languages, and some in Indigenous languages such as Blackfoot. Together, the feathers formed wings, symbolizing that every child, every word, and every culture matters.
Grade 4 students also performed a haunting rendition of The Stranger by Gordon Downie, set alongside artwork inspired by The Secret Path by Gordon Downie and Jeff Lemire. This performance told the story of Chanie Wenjack, a young Anishinaabe boy who died in 1966 after running away from a residential school. Through music and art, students gave voice to Chanie’s isolation and suffering, helping us see the devastating impact residential schools had on children and families. Their work reminded us of the importance of listening to survivors, remembering children like Chanie, and committing ourselves to reconciliation.
The Stranger by Evergreen Grade 4 students
Through Phyllis Webstad’s story, the wearing of orange shirts, and the display of orange hearts representing the lives of Indigenous children, students reflected on the harm caused by residential schools and the importance of listening to survivors, remembering the children who were lost, and ensuring such injustices never happen again. The assembly reminded us that residential schools brought deep loss—of language, family, and life itself, while also calling on us to honour survivors, take responsibility for truth and reconciliation, and hold close the message that every child matters, every word matters, and every story must be told.
UPDATES AND INFORMATION
Funding Impacts and Changes at Evergreen School: Each year, our funding is finalized on September 30th, which guides staffing and support allocations across the school. Beginning October 1st, we will be making adjustments to better balance classroom numbers and address the complexity of student learning needs. These changes affect a small number of students and families, who have already received direct communication. If you have not been contacted by myself or your child’s classroom teacher, please be assured that there is no impact to your child’s current classroom placement. We recognize that transitions can be unsettling, and we are confident this restructuring will provide students with smaller class sizes, stronger connections, and a more supportive learning experience.
Fun Lunches are Back!: Thanks to our School Council and an amazing group of parent volunteers, Fun Lunches through Healthy Hunger are back for the 2025-2026 school year. To register your student(s) please visit the link below. October’s lunches are posted. The hot lunch program is set up through Healthy Hunger. Fun Lunches are a way for your child to enjoy meals from different restaurants around our city. The food is delivered to the school during lunch hour. Volunteers then distribute the orders to each classroom to ensure the kids can enjoy it while it’s still fresh!
https://healthyhunger.ca/index.php
Noon Supervision for Grades One to Five: Registration for noon supervision is now open. Families of students staying at school during the lunch period are required to pay the annual lunch supervision fee. Please register if your student will be staying at school during lunch time. If you do not register for this service and your child stays the fee will be assigned to your account in October. Lunch attendance is taken daily.
For inquiries on fees, parents can email StudentFees@cbe.ab.ca
- For questions on waivers parents can email feewaiver@cbe.ab.ca
- For general program inquiries parents can email noonservices@cbe.ab.ca
Reminder - Allergy Aware: Evergreen is an allergy aware school. We have a number of students with life threatening allergic responses to peanuts and tree nuts. We kindly ask that you do not send foods with these ingredients to school in your child’s snacks or lunches so that we can keep everyone safe. We aim to create an environment where students with allergies can thrive while fostering a culture of understanding and support among all students. If your child has any allergies, please ensure that you provide us with accurate and updated medical information to support our efforts in keeping them safe. Given these allergies we do not allow edible birthday treats such as cupcakes to be brought to school and distributed to classmates.
Reminder - Personal Belongings at School: We kindly remind families that students should not bring toys or personal belongings to school unless it is for a special classroom activity organized by the teacher. On those occasions, items will be safely secured in the classroom.
Bringing items not needed for school can cause distractions, and the school cannot take responsibility for lost or damaged belongings. If personal items are misused during the school day, they may be removed by staff. Students may also be asked to write a reflection explaining why the item was a distraction.
We ask for your support in helping your child understand what is appropriate to bring to school.
Terry Fox Run: This year our school will participate again in the Terry Fox Run to continue on with Terry’s dream of a world without cancer. Our school run will be held
on Friday, October 3rd. Students may bring a donation to be collected in their homerooms starting the week of September 22nd or the safest and easiest way to fundraise is to donate online through our school pagefundraising page found here https://schools.terryfox.ca/98260 Donationsmade online over $20.00 receive a donation tax receipt.
Required Forms: Each year, schools have a variety of forms that parents/legal guardians are required to complete or review and update, some of which are paper and others online. For families who have not yet completed these annual forms, please submit the Demographic Verification and Annual Authorization forms in SchoolEngage for your child by Monday, Sept. 15. These forms are required every year for Alberta Education to confirm student funding.
Details of the online forms found in SchoolEngage include:
- Demographic Verification - 2025-26 – This required form is an Alberta Education requirement as proof of Registration for funding purposes and includes your child’s personal information as well as parent / legal guardian contact information.
- Citizenship Information Update - 2025-26 – This form becomes available if you change your child’s citizenship information on the Demographic Verification form.
- Annual Authorization - 2025-26 – Combines the following forms:
- School District Use of Personal Information - explains how CBE uses personal information in providing education services.
- Consent for CBE Use of Student Information – provides an option to grant / not grant consent for additional use of student information by school/district and third parties.
- Consent for Use of Student Information by News Media and Outside Groups (Third Party) - provides an option to grant / not grant consent for additional use of student information by outside groups and third parties. We require consent on this form if you would like your child’s photo to appear in our school yearbook.
SchoolEngage is one of the applications found in your MyCBE account. This is the same account that you use to pay fees, view academic information, book school conferences, register to volunteer etc.
If you do not have a MyCBE account, on the MyCBE page click on Create a MyCBE Account. For online help, refer to MyCBE - Creating an Account (includes instructions and a video).
To complete these forms:
- sign in to your MyCBE account
- click on the SchoolEngage icon
- select the form
- complete or review and update the form
- click on Submit to send the form electronically to the school
- repeat steps 3-5 for each form
Thank you to everyone for taking time to complete and submit annual forms each year.
Transportation Registration Confirmation & Cancellations: Registered families that have decided not to use bus service can cancel their registration in MyCBE with no financial impact by Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. If they do not cancel by this deadline, fees will continue to be charged until a cancellation is received, regardless of actual usage. Retro-active fee refunds will not be provided.
Transportation fees will be loaded into MyCBE later in October.
2025-26 School Year Fees are:
- Mandated Riders $360
- Non-Mandated Riders $360
- Kindergarten (1-way) $180
No action is required for registered families that will use bus service for the school year.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to me at acmcphee@cbe.ab.ca.
Have a wonderful rest of your Sunday.