Ecole Parc School Council

Chair -  Amanda Shand

Vice-Chair - Michelle Poitras

Secretary - Danielle Rusk

Contact us:     epeschoolcouncil@gmail.com

Green Space Coordinator:  

Everyone Welcome!!! 

Annual Reports

2022/2023

The outdoor classroom space is flourishing! The trees, shrubs, and flowers survived the dry summer with help from wonderful watering volunteers who included our principal M. Verhoeff. That is dedication to the cause!

The courtyard mud kitchen is a beehive of activity at recess. Remember the students always need materials to work with. As you clean up your garden at home think of us. Bring any organic material, including the soil from your pots and drop it in the corner storage bins after school hours. Flower heads, leaves, small branches, bean stalks, the students will use it all. No rocks or long branches please.

Our courtyard was renamed in honour of Elder Wilson Bearhead who started us on our land based learning journey. Every addition and decision made to improve our green space for the students is done with the land based learning philosophy and Elder Wilson’s teachings in mind.  The last element to be installed from the SHELL grant for the Indigenous outdoor classroom is a new fence at the east end of the courtyard to support our PALS students. This summer we put down the sidewalk activity stencils with the help of a DOW Canada grant and DOW volunteers.

This coming year, as grants and fundraising permit, we will continue to add trees and naturalize the playground. STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) sidewalk paintings will be applied, more benches for our eager readers to use, and materials for creative play. As well, we will be maintaining the existing infrastructure and plants. If you have questions about the green space or want to support this ongoing initiative contact Jennifer Dechaine at Jennifer.dechaine@hotmail.com.

Ecole Parc Green Space Past, Present, Future

In 2013 École Parc Élémentaire was established in our current space which was an old junior high school. The playground, with the exception of a basketball court, did not exist. The green space was a blank slate. The Ecole Parc Fundraising Society was established as the fundraising arm of school council and with grant money and many parent volunteers the main playground structure on the east side of the school was built. 

Skip ahead to 2016, the weeds were taking over, the shrubs needed pruning, red shale filing the beds at the front of the school was a mess, and the courtyard was a sad unused space. Who was going to fix it? Someone needed to fix it! 

 Did you know that the green space surrounding the school is the responsibility of the parent school council? Elk Island Public School contracts the City of Fort Saskatchewan to cut the grass but we are required to maintain the rest.

Learning that the 'who' was the parents, school council began the Green Space Improvement Project in an effort to better coordinate maintenance and improvements to the aging green space. With a lot of grant writing and fundraising support from our Ecole Parc families over the years we have been able to clean up the landscaping, plant new trees, develop the courtyard into a play space and outdoor classroom, establish a garden program and much more.  

The green space project is an ongoing project as every year there is maintenance to be done and new ideas to be executed. If you are interested in what has been done and where we are going next you can see all the details on the school website under the Parents School Council tab.

Contact Jennifer Dechaine or Amy Archibald through Mme. Sherri in the main office if you want to be a part of supporting this work going forward. We accept all forms of help from weeding to monetary donations! 

Thank you for all your support in our projects to better enhance our students' learning space here at EPE.

Ecole Parc Families 

DOW Canada

City of Fort Saskatchewan

Fortis Alberta

Rotary Club of Fort Saskatchewan

Southfort Dental

Grow Your Own Project (Dennis Stelmack)

The Landscaping Company

The Solamillo Family

Nutrien 

Shell Canada

Tree Canada

Otto Gloeckler