Home Of The Whalers

Volume 10 Number 1          September, 2009

Check out our website at www.phss.ca

As I write this, we are finalizing classes at PHSS and settling into the new school year. It has been a good startup this year, with students happy to be back and staff glad to see them. We welcome five new teachers this year including Shelley Botterill, our new counselor; Tanya Carlson, teaching English as a Second Dialect; Nicole Lorusso teaching math and science; Marian Minar, also teaching math and science,; and, Terry Nield, teaching English and Social Studies.

Likely the most urgent issue facing us this year as students return to school is the H1N1 pandemic. We are encouraging students to wash hands regularly and to sneeze into the crooks of their arms should sneezing be necessary. To keep infection rates down, we ask that you keep your

Principal’s Message

student home if they are showing signs of illness. By taking care of ourselves we will be taking care of each other as well.

We have broken ground on our new storage building at the back of the school. Blaine Imbeau, our woodwork teacher, will be working with a student crew to put up the building. We hope to have it to lockup by the end of the first semester. Everyone is excited about this project; constructing a building is a new experience for us at PHSS, and we feel it will be an excellent learning opportunity for the student crew.

We have now short-listed for the gardening coordinator position, as well, and hope to soon have a plan in place for creating a garden where our old portable used to stand. If you have any ideas for what our school’s garden should look like, please let the committee know. At

this point, we are planning both an ornamental section for students and staff to relax in, and a small truck garden to enhance learning opportunities in both home economics and science courses.

To give our students the best possible experience at PHSS, we need volunteers in a variety of areas. We need coaches for sports teams and volunteers for the breakfast club. Currently, the Senior Girls Volleyball team is in urgent need of adults able to travel with the team.

On September 30, we will be holding a Welcome Back to School Barbeque. Students invited to stay for a lunch of hotdogs and ice cream that day.

On behalf of all PHSS staff, I thank you for your continuing support, and welcome you to a new school year. Please drop by or phone any time to touch base with our school’s community.

PHSS Drama Department

PHSS Drama Club will be presenting

 “Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation”

 a comedy in 3 acts

in the PHSS Theatre

at 7:00 p.m.

on the following nights:

 

November 20, 21, 22 and

November 27, 28, 29, 2009

 

Tickets are $10.00 for adults and $5.00 for students.  Tickets can be purchased at West Coast Community Craft Store and at Café Guido’s.

Please come out and support our students.