News from the Den- May 30, 2025

We had another busy week at HHE! We had a lot of fun with our ABC Countdown, started a couple new clubs (Skipping Club & Ketchup Club), and our Soaring Eagles filled the school with the delicious smell of homemade Bannock. Our Grade 6 students also completed their first PAT exam and will write the rest of their exams in June. 

Next week we will shift our ABC Countdown slightly to coincide with the Oilers game on Wednesday. Instead of having I, J, K.... we will have I, K, J. Not confusing at all, right? Tuesday will be our Kick Back and Relax Day (PJs) and Wednesday will be Jersey Day (any jersey goes, but this way many of us can wear our Oilers wear).

Eighteen more days of school full of learning and fun.

Kyla Harding & Carla Kokotailo

Principal/Directrice & Assistant Principal/Directrice Adjointe

Table of Contents

WEEK AT A GLANCE

ACTION

• Reminder: 2024-25 School Fees

OPPORTUNITY

• Yearbooks
• Volunteers Needed for Sports Day
• School Supplies for 2025-26 School Year
• Pre-kindergarten Programming at EIPS
• Student Transportation: 2025-26 Registration

INFORMATION

• Upcoming Emergency Drills
• Did You Know?
• Pick up a summer reading kit for your child in Grade 1!
• Notification Emails from your PowerSchool Parent Portal

WEEK AT A GLANCE

ACTION

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

Yearbook- Last Chance if You Missed Out
Did you miss the chance to purchase a 2024-2025 HHE yearbook last month? You’re in luck! Yearbook sales have been reopened on PowerSchool.

Sales will close at the end of the school day on Friday, June 6th, 2025. 

This is the last time these will be available for purchase. Don’t miss the opportunity to secure yours! 

STILL IN NEED OF Volunteers for Sports Day – Friday, June 6, 2025

We are still in need of volunteers to help run for three different stations for our division 2 sports day from 8:45 - 12:00 pm. Please sign up on the link provided. If you have already signed up to volunteer, an email will be sent out to all volunteers on Tuesday, June 3. If you have questions, please email our assistant principal (carla.kokotailo@eips.ca). 

We are excited to announce that our annual HHE Sports Day will take place on Friday, June 6, 2025, right here at the school! Our sports day committee has been working hard to make this day a great event for all. We need your help to make the day a success! The rainout date is scheduled for Monday, June 9, 2025.

There are 9 activity stations, and we are looking for volunteers to help run them. Each station requires at least 1 parent volunteer as there will also be grade 6 students helping out at the stations. You can sign up for one of two time slots (morning for Grades 3-5 sports day or afternoon for the K-2 sports day) or stay for the whole day if you’re able!

Event Times & Volunteer Shifts:

• Grades 3-5 Sports Day (Morning Session):
• Volunteers arrive at 8:25 AM
• Event runs from 8:45 AM – 12:00 PM
• Grades K-2 Sports Day (Afternoon Session):
• Volunteers arrive by 12:50 PM
• Event runs from 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Sign-Up Details - Closes end of day on Monday, June 2:

• Click the SignUpGenius link to choose your time slot and station.
• You can sign up for the morning, afternoon, or both sessions.
• If you sign up but later become unavailable, please go back into the SignUpGenius and remove yourself from your time slot so someone else can volunteer.
• There is a question on the sign up form asking if you are available for the rainout date on Monday, June 9, 2025. Please answer yes or no.
• If you signed up to volunteer you will receive an email on Tuesday, June 3 with some extra information. 

Extra Information:

• If all slots are full, please still feel free to come and help out! Send an email to let us know and we can assign you to a particular area.
• You’re also welcome to simply join in with your child’s class for the morning or afternoon.
• All parents are welcome to attend and cheer on the kids!
• Students need to pack a lunch for this day unless they will be ordering hot lunch. 

Thank you in advance for helping us make HHE Sports Day a fun and memorable event for our students! If you have further questions please reach out to our assistant principal (carla.kokotailo@eips.ca). 

School Supplies for 2025-26 School Year
Heritage Hills Families you can now order your child’s school supplies right through our official school supply company School Start  (they are delivered right to your house) or purchase them on your own using the lists provided. Click here for more information and to see the specific lists for your child(ren)'s grade.

Pre-kindergarten Programming at EIPS
Is there a preschooler in your life experiencing identified developmental delays or challenges with speech-language—big or small? If so, Elk Island Public School’s Play And Learn at School (PALS) program could help.

Early learning lays the foundation for success in primary grades and beyond. As such, EIPS offers the pre-kindergarten PALS program in five of its elementary school locations. Applications are now open for free speech-language assessments for those interested in registering in the PALS program this fall. The assessment helps determine if PALS is appropriate for your child.

If you know a preschooler, born in 2021 or 2022, who could benefit from pre-kindergarten programming or want to book an assessment, fill out the PALS Program Request Form or call 780-417-8219. For more information, visit eips.ca.

Student Transportation: 2025-26 registration
Planning to use Student Transportation in the 2025-26 school year? If so, make sure your child is registered so Elk Island Public Schools (EIPS) can plan routes and send your child a bus pass before the first day of school.

All students who indicated needing transportation services through the returning student or new student registration processes are now registered. Those families have also received tentative route schedules and invoices—fees are due June 30, 2025.

For those students who did not indicate needing transportation services during the registration process and want to now register, complete a Busing Setup form through the Transportation Service Desk.

NOTE: Families can pay fees online using the PowerSchool Parent Portal. To pay in-person, visit the EIPS Student Transportation building during its office hours—Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on school days and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on school closure days.

INFORMATION

Upcoming Emergency Drills

In our ongoing efforts to keep families informed, you will receive regular communication from the school regarding all emergency preparedness drills the school conducts.

Schools are required to have evacuation drills in the spring (fire drills) & a shelter in place (severe weather) drill. The dates are as follows:

• Wednesday, June 11

As this is a drill, there is no action parents/guardians need to take. In the event of an evacuation in response to an actual incident, we would provide information on any actions parents/guardians need to take to co-operatively support our emergency response procedures.

An evacuation is used when it is unsafe to remain inside the building. In an evacuation, students and staff exit the building and gather at a designated location outside the school. In the event students and staff must remain outside for an extended period of time, they may move to our alternate indoor evacuation centre. For more information about Elk Island Public Schools’ emergency preparedness planning, visit www.eips.ca/parents/emergency-preparedness.

Thank you for your co-operation in keeping students and staff safe. If you have any questions about our evacuation drills, please contact us at the school.

Did you know?
When schools are closed during the summer, many EIPS staff are still hard at work. School staff create lesson plans, engage in professional development and take part in other activities to help enhance student success. Several staff will also support EIPS Summer School. Additionally, Central Services staff work through the break to prepare for the upcoming school year, from staff recruitment to school repairs and more. In mid-August, school staff return to their schools to get ready to welcome students back to class.

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

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.