Our Graduating Class of 2021 experienced one of the most unique years in Morris School history. Since the polio epidemic back in the 1950's, Morris School has not faced a challenge to what "regular" school looked and felt like more than this past school year. Our Class of 2020 had a "taste" of this last year, but our Class of 2021 had the "full meal deal" of COVID-19. We applaud our grads for their resiliency, their adaptability, and their ability to face a challenge as positively as they could. We wish all of our graduates the best as they move on to the next phase of their lives. Consider this an invitation for you to come back and visit, keep in touch, and reach out if you feel we could assist you in any way. You are MAV's forever. Thank you, Class of 2021

Class of 2021 Graduates
Quincy Aloisio
Dante Anderson
Madison Beaulieu
Trey Campbell - Academic First (Family Studies 40S)
Keeghan Chaput
Natasha Claeys
Madison Cote - Academic Firsts (Biology 40S, ELA Comp 40S, Access Credit Union Scholarship, MLA Bursary for Excellence, Queen Elizabeth II Scholarship
Alexandria (Lexi) Dingle - U of M Guertin Scholarship, Portage-Lisgar Conservative Electoral District - Candace Bergen Leadership Award.
Jayda Doell - Governor General Award, Academic Firsts (Applied Math 40S, Chemistry 40S, Geography 40S, Global Issues 40S) Red River Valley Teachers Association Scholarship, Miller Environmental Scholarship, Queen Elizabeth II Academic Entrance Scholarship.
Chloe Edel - Morris School Liberal Arts Award, Providence College Student Leadership Scholarship, Province College Entrance Scholarship
Holly Edel - Morris Legion Ladies Auxiliary Bursary, Red River Valley Teachers Association Scholarship
Hunter Edel - Dual Diploma (Academic/Vocational), Academic First (Art 40S), Morris Technical Training Scholarship. 
Karly Edel - Co-Valedictorian, MHSAAA 'A/AA' Scholar Athlete of the Year, Academic Firsts (ELA Lit Focus 40S, ELA Comp Focus 40S, Global Issues 40S), Morris School Athlete Award, Morris School Co-Curricular Award, MLA Bursary for Excellence in Writing, Morris Chamber of Commerce Scholarship, U of M Chown Centennial Scholarship, Queen Elizabeth II Academic Entrance Scholarship
Angel Elsley
Teagon Fillion
Ethan Flamand
Cassidy Friesen
Zander Herkert - Dual Diploma (Academic/Vocational)
Alexis Hurd
Jordan Huska - Dual Diploma (Academic/Vocational), Dale Rempel Citizenship Scholarship, Walter Anderson Memorial Award
Philip Inducil
Molli Johnston - Academic Firsts (Family Studies 40S, Psychology 40S), Morris School General Proficiency Award, Miller Environmental Scholarship, Guertin Centennial Scholarship.  
Darius Joof - Partners in Education Scholarship
Viktor (Manuel) Kasatkin
Stephan Klapka
Seth Korosil
Chloe Landry - RRTVA Scholarship, Guertin Centennial Scholarship
Noah McKay
Bryce Neustater - Co-Valedictorian, Morris School Athlete Award, Morris School Co-Curricular Award, 'A/AA' MHSAA Scholar Athlete of the Year, Winkler Consumer Co-op Scholarship, CMU Entrance Scholarship
Kody Ocko-Kurarz
Jana Olayan - Academic First (Band 40S), Miller Environmental Scholarship, Morris School Co-Curricular Award, Queen Elizabeth II Academic Entrance Scholarship 
Matthew Phillips
Eric Piette
Jewel Roberts
Robert Schiewe - Academic First (ELA Transactional 40S)
Carl Solnes
Reanna Stack
Sjusen Storck - Academic Firsts (Band 40S, Psychology 40S), Morris School Athlete Award, Miller Environmental Scholarship, Queen Elizabeth II Academic Entrance Scholarship
Roy Tambal Musa - Academic First (Essentials Math 40S)
Chloe Wesley

It's crunch time! In a typical year, our students would be at school to hand in their textbooks, laptops, and outstanding library books. Well, as we all know, it's not a typical year. 

So...in light of that, please do your best to bring back any outstanding school property so we can close out the year properly and have all the things we would need to have a good start to our next school year.

As per last few blog posts, there is a bin outside the front doors of the school for outstanding textbooks and library books. Please "buzz" into the school if you are returning any tech to the school. If you are unable to drop things off at the school between 7:30 am and 4:00 pm (Monday - Friday), please let us know and we will have someone drop by your residence to pick up your outstanding items.

After a "few" years of teaching and coaching at Morris School, Mr/Coach Lewis has hung up his Maverick whistle. Our resident hockey expert and alum has been a big part of our school in the classroom, on the ice, and behind the bench. His contributions to our students lives are and were invaluable. The championships were awesome, but the lessons taught by and experiences with Mr./Coach Lewis were what the students will remember. 

On behalf of Morris School, we thank you, Mr. Lewis for you contributions to our school and greater community. We wish you all the best! We hope your golf game is impacted by the increased amount of time you have to spend on it.

After contributing her time and talents on and off for the past eight (8) years as an Educational Assistant in Early Years portion of our school, Mrs. Giesbrecht has decided to retire. We thank Mrs. Giesbrecht for her friendly and helping nature she showed to our staff and students. We are a better school now because she was part of it. We wish Mrs. Giesbrecht all the best as she fills her time with things non-school related.

Early this past Wednesday, Mr. & Mrs. Berezowski welcomed a new member to the Maverick Community. Only 9 days late than expected, their daughter,  Kallie Lea Lynn Berezowski arrived at 3:15 am (Late and a night owl...not a great combo!?!). Kallie weighed 7 lbs and 12 oz and is 20 1/2 inches tall! ( identical to her brother). Reports are that the family is doing well, "just very tired!" Congratulations to the Berezowski family!

A few weeks ago, prior to Remote Learning, our Grade 5/6 students started a "beautification" project in the outdoor classroom. They didn't quite finish the job, so four of our Grade 5/6 students took upon themselves to finish it off! Thank you to Joel, Hassaan, Gabe, & Shylo for helping out your school become a better place. Way to go, MAV's!

As we firm up our teaching "roster" for the upcoming school year, we would like to announce some adjustments to next year's teaching faculty.

• As per the news above, Mrs. Berezowski will be away next year on maternity leave. Mrs. Leflar will assume the majority of Mrs. Berezowski's role while she is away.
• As per the news above, Mrs. Charron will be away on Maternity Leave. Ms. Hylin Maclaren joins us from Lowe Farm School and will assume Mrs. Charron's role of Kindergarten Teacher/Early Years Guidance Counsellor.
• Mrs. Kurylko returns from Maternity Leave and assumes her Athletic Director and Phys. Ed. teaching role.
• Due to Mr. Lewis' retirement, Mr. Seth Cory will move from his Grade 7/8 role to teaching in our Hockey Academy. He will continue to teach Grade 10 Science.
• Due to Mr. Cory's move, Mrs. Lucier has been hired to assume one of the Grade 7/8 teacher roles.
• Due to the retirement of Mrs. Bially, Mr. Ricard will assume the role of K-4 Physical Education as well as the Grade 1/2 Math teacher in Ms. Yeats' class
• Due to Mr. Ricard's move, Mr. Antoski will assume Mr. Ricard's current teaching load.
• We would like to thank Mrs. Dueck for her time working in the Senior Years' Resource Centre. Mrs. Dueck is a fabulous mentor and generous soul. You will be missed, but we hope to see you working within our walls one day soon.

K-7 students will have their homeroom teacher identified for the upcoming school year in the last line of their June report cards. Report cards will be emailed out on Wednesday, June 30.

The grade 7/8 band students have been making music with their ukuleles from home over the remote learning period. In addition to learning their own favourite songs, they worked together to learn "A Million Dreams" from The Greatest Showman. They recorded their parts individually from home to piece together this video! Thank you for your hard work and musicianship, grade 7/8's! Click on the Google Drive link to view the video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cZrP8enVEUo_AQYSo4OuHmrHmhxmyjKt/view?usp=sharing

2. Mr. Lehmann and the phys-ed team challenged the Morris School music students to an Uptown Funk Percussion/Basketball Challenge! Thank you to the students who participated and sent in their videos. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SwyxpfYPwpByvLeLpC68eTi-Qx_6WXf7/view?usp=sharing

3. The grade 9-12 band students completed a project called "Music Makes Us" over the past couple of months. It was a collaboration project between the Morris School Senior Band and the residents of the Red River Valley Lodge. The students had the opportunity to connect with, learn about, and makic music for someone they were paired up with at the care home. They got to interview their person, get to know them, make musical connections, and share a variety of different projects, creations, and recordings over the past couple of months. The band students each learned the favourite song of their partner, some wrote songs specially for them, and some did research projects on their favourite bands and genres of music. It was inspiring to see the connections and creativity that grew from this project, and the residents at the Lodge were filled with joy to receive these musical gifts each week! Great work, Senior Band!

Here are a just a few video samples of what the students created over the course of this project:

Kate's ukulele/voice performance of "Walking After Midnight" by Patsy Cline: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U0JAAmPJpxDd8Y5h_ifrrYMWqWzRfxYh/view?usp=sharing

Mikayla's trumpet composition of "Springtime": https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KgYKwvS0ti0Zqfqj5sjpJkYgvQpmjKxo/view?usp=sharing

Martine's flute duet performance of "This World Is Not My Home": https://drive.google.com/file/d/107yC7qL570yrbT9qGi_oqIijsQy-YVGS/view?usp=sharing

Sjusen's euphonium performance of "Bluebird on Your Windowsill": https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J_3go0vcDe_AXZfEDzt7Eg03ltgtGSuR/view?usp=sharing

Our Class of 2021 students have been around the building over the last couple of days picking up their "gear" they'll need to convocate next week. It's been great to see everyone! We look forward to seeing you again soon!

Our Access class had some students who had never flown a kite! How does Mrs. Noel react to that...? She finds some kites and they get outside on a perfect flying day! Way to Go, MAV's!

​The grade 3/4 classes studied ancient societies. They showed their knowledge through dioramas. They showed many elements that included people, transportations, clothing, structures, jobs, art and more. 

The Grade 3/4 classes visited a broiler chicken barn for their virtual field trip. The Plett farm is in southern Manitoba and they raise 10 000 free run chicks at a time. Did you know that chickens are the closest relatives to dinosaurs? 

Before leaving to have her baby, Mrs. Berezowski has been busy ordering some new items for the Home Ec Kitchens! Students taking Home Ec next year can look forward to trying out: new kettles, microwaves, aprons, frying pans and air fryers!

Due to generous donations from the community, we are in the position to actually create a "thermometer" to track our progress. We are over the 10% raised mark and we are grateful to those who have considered this project worthy of their donation. We even received some "ink" this week as well! (See https://www.pembinavalleyonline.com/local/morris-outdoor-sports-court-proposal-gaining-momentum) We are in the process of applying for an exciting raffle opportunity. Stay tuned for more news.

As we approach the end of the year, please ensure any textbooks, library books, or tech equipment that you have in your possession that belongs to the school is returned before you consider yourself "done for the year!"

As per last week's blog post, There is a bin outside the front doors of the school for outstanding textbooks and library books. Please "buzz" into the school if you are returning any tech to the school. If you are unable to drop things off at the school between 7:30 am and 4:00 pm (Monday - Friday), please let us know and we will have someone drop by your residence to pick up your outstanding items.

This year the Morris School welding program was the recipient of the SSEEF (Skills Strategy Equipment Enhancement Fund) grant.

The Skills Strategy Equipment Enhancement Fund provides targeted funding to ensure that students have access to state of the art equipment to learn the high-demand skills they need to get good jobs in Manitoba's growing economy. The Skills Strategy Equipment Enhancement Fund provides $1,500,000.00 to improve technical vocational and industrial arts programs in Grades 7–12. This support is intended to ensure that programming is relevant to current and future labour market needs.

This fund will focus on preparing students to take advantage of employment opportunities in Manitoba’s growing economy and to continue the development of Manitoba’s skilled workforce. The fund will further support the need for advanced equipment pertaining to “Green Jobs” in Manitoba. Particular emphasis will be placed on supporting high school level programs to become accredited with Apprenticeship Manitoba.
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With the grant awarded to our school, we were able secure three Power wave S500 welders. The Power Wave S500 is quickly becoming commonplace in many welding businesses, having these machines in our program will give our students an advantage when they enter the workforce. 

We are also excited offer an Introduction to Welding course next year to 28 Grade 9 & 10 Morris School students. Mr. Hiker's creativity and generosity of time made this happen and the school appreciates it immensely.

​The Morris School OUTDOOR ED. PROGRAM is looking for donations of lightly used camping equipment. 

The Outdoor Ed. program will be going on multiple 2-4 day camping trips into backcountry campsites during future school years. We will either be hiking or canoeing into these campsites, and we require dependable equipment that can be relied upon to serve our shelter, transportation, and food/hydration needs during these camping trips 

If you have any of the following camping/outdoor gear that you would be willing to donate to Morris School Outdoor Ed. program, you can drop it off on the front steps at the main doors of the building. 

Your generosity would be much appreciated!

Equipment needed:

• Tents: 3-season, 2-4 person tents (with fly included)
• Sleeping bags (any temperature rating is acceptable!)
• Sleeping pads (lightweight and compact. No blow-up air mattresses please)
• Hiking backpacks (minimum 40 litre capacity)
• Cooking pot / pan sets (compact, lightweight is preferred)

Ms. Mahara's Grade 3/4 class are currently learning about area and perimeter in Math. ​The was tasked with designing a carnival. They had to include 8 rides and buildings with specific areas/perimeters, plus 2 of their own choice! This project was done entirely during remote learning and Ms. Mahara was very excited to share the results of her students' labours! Way to go, MAV's!

On Monday this week, the K-2 students of Critical Service Workers are here at the school remote learning. As a bit of a change up, Mrs. Harrison asked for their help to beautify the school. The students jumped at the chance to help. 

Today, the K-2's were back at with bubble making! For those interested readers, you can get some really good information from the https://happyhooligans.ca/homemade-giant-bubbles/ website.

Our Grade 12 Pre-Cal Math students showed a little appreciation yesterday for their mentor, Mr. Cox by actually unblocking their cameras and displaying literal signs of gratitude. The recognition was super cool and very much deserved! Way to go, MAV’s! ​

Mrs. Leflar tasked her Grade 7/8 Math student and asked them to build it, create it, plant it, construct it, bake it, cook it, design it, and then calculate the cost of it.

They needed to find a recipe, some plans or start from scratch and determine what ingredients, tools, or materials they would need.  They then needed to calculate the materials, supplies, or ingredients costs. It was not required to actually build it or make it and yet some students were able to.

We had grade 7/8 students come up with:
cheerio bars
golden graham bars
cakes
smoothies
ice cream cakes
traditional recipes
a cat tree
dog house
tool box
fire pit
a cat trap
pebble placemat
dirt bike jump
slime
treehouse
cupcakes
grilled cheese

​Way to go, MAV's!

It was a busy week for the Morris School Courts Project. Numerous donations from within our community were received and momentum is starting to build. We would like to thank our recent donors, two of which are featured below. The Access Credit Union has awarded the project $5000 after the committee members submitted a grant application. Big Way Foods in Morris hosted a "top up" fundraiser event and the proceeds, plus a generous top up of the top up was received. Our school and the fundraising committee are humbled by the generosity shown thus far. We hope to take advantage of this momentum to get us closer to the fundraising goal we have set for our project! Thank you, Morris!

In light of yesterday’s announcement by the Province continuing with remote learning in the Red River Valley School Division, we have made some decisions regarding what June will look like for our Grades 9-12 students. More information regarding the plan for K-8 students will be communicated early next week.

​June 11 - last day to learn new material in formal remote classes for Grades 9-12 students. Students who have finished all their assignments and whose grades are determined are finished for the year. Monday, June 7 to Friday, June 11 will follow the schedule created at the beginning of the school year.

June 14-29: Assessment and Recovery. This is for 1) students to finish up outstanding assignments/improve their grades and/or 2) for students who are at risk of losing their credit(s) and need recovery work.

June 23-25: Class of 2021 Graduation Convocation - online sign up details coming soon.

June 29 (9am): Deadline for Recovery Work

Notes:

• Students and parents will be notified about recovery obligations.Students who are not in a position to earn their credit on the 11th of June must do recovery work. Following Public Health protocols, the school will organize a schedule for some students to attend the school in person.
• Please sign on to Maplewood or contact your child(ren)'s teachers for updated grades.

Based on the information above, we would ask all students to consider their plan to bring their textbooks, library books, borrowed tech (laptops, tablets, MiFi devices, chargers, etc.) ​immediately following the completion of their final remote learning session.

There will be a bin outside the front doors of the school for outstanding textbooks and library books. Please "buzz" into the school if you are returning any tech to the school. If you are unable to drop things off at the school between 7:30 am and 4:00 pm (Monday - Friday), please let us know and we will have someone drop by your residence to pick up your outstanding items.

Hi Grads, 
We are hosting a Grad Info Google Meet (virtual meet) on Monday, June 7th at 4pm.  An invitation to join us will be sent from the [email protected] email address. It is important you attend or review the posted recording after which will be posted on the school website.

With the latest Graduation Provincial Info we sent to you last week, we have adjusted our plans.  We know all these changes are very difficult for all of you as a family. As a committee and staff, we will do our very best to make your Enchanted Forest themed Graduation the very best it can be and a memorable one for your child.

Graduation will still be on June 23-25 at the school with individual convocations.  Now it will be a drive up event in the Vocational area with a photo booth station set up outside in a 2nd location. We have to follow all Public Health orders but we will still create special individual convocations for each graduate.   We will share details at the meeting and sign up times for convocations will be opened up Wednesday, June 9th. 
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Hope to see you there!
Corinna Derewianchuk & the Morris School Grad Committee 

​Grads are selling 'Grad Ad's' for the yearbook. Recognize the special graduate in your life with an expression of love, friendship, and congratulations. Choose a quarter, eighth, or sixteenth page grad ad to acknowledge their successes. You can find the order form in your Grad update email or on the Morris School Website.

This past weekend we learned about the remains of 215 children discovered, with help from ground-penetrating radar at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.

Morris School remembers and mourns the children who lost their lives and we send our condolences to their families. Our school's flag will be a half mast for a total of 215 hours to commemorate these children and as a sign of solidarity for former Residential School members.

To our indigenous school community members, we stand with you. If you need support, please call the Indian Residential Schools Survivors Society at 1-800-721-0066.

To the remaining members of our community, it is our job to become more educated on topics that affect our school community members, especially as it pertains to the Calls to Action from the Truth & Reconciliation Commission. We must and will be better.

Although the majority of our student body is working from home, students of our community's Critical Service Workers are attending. Morris School support staff are doing an amazing job assisting our students while our teachers are hosting Google Meets. We appreciate seeing the students and want to thank and acknowledge the dedication of our staff during this time. Before the temperature reached a whopping 39 degrees today, our students spent some time in the shade working on their schoolwork! Way to go, MAV's!

The K-2's have been participating in music in all sorts of ways these past couple of weeks! The students have five options on their music choice boards each week: play, sing, move, explore and listen. Thank you to everyone who has been sharing what they have been working on. Great work, Maverick Musicians! ​