FALL NEWSLETTER!
NOVEMBER 19, 2014
SATEC @ W.A. PORTER C.I. 40 Fairfax Cres. Scarborough. Ontario. M1L 1Z9. 416 396 3365. www.satec.on.ca
Blue Eagles X-Country Team Finish Strong
The Blue Eagles Cross-Country Team had another successful season. Senior Girls pictured "om le# to right: Anna Prouzou, Danie$a Kvrgic, Emily McCo$ Poon, and Sajeda Mokbel. By Anna Prouzou This year the cross country team, coached by Ms. Duffy & Ms. Yung, had a spectacular season. Training started at the very beginning of the school year, led by Daniella Kvrgic, Francis Zita, and Anna Prouzou. Every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday the runners constantly pushed themselves to improve their running abilities. The team raced successfully at 3 invitational meets: 2 at Stan Wadlow Park and 1 at Centennial Park in Etobicoke which helped the runners prepare for the regional meet. The regional meet, in Sunnybrook Park, was huge a success. Zahhid Dauda placed 8th for the midget boys. The senior girls’ team (Anna Prouzou - 3rd, Daniella Kvrgic - 7th, Eva Avdulaj, Sajeda Mokbel, and Emily McColl Poon) placed 4th, and qualified for the city finals. The City Championships took place at Centennial Park in Etobicoke, where our athletes represented SATEC. All runners improved their personal bests! More photos on page 3
Inside This Issue Principal’s Message.............................page 2 Environmental Club News.................page 3 So You Think You Can Dance?..........page 4 Halloween............................................page 6 VOL 5 ISSUE 1!
SAC Report...................................page 9 Guidance........................................page 13 Learning Commons......................page 14 Important Dates...........................page 14
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FALL NEWSLETTER!
NOVEMBER 19, 2014
Principal’s Message Dear SATEC @ W A Porter C.I. students, parents and guardians, It is a pleasure to communicate with all of you once again. The second half of the first semester is well underway and once again we have had an extremely active fall term. Our student leaders, ambassadors, performers and athletes have distinguished themselves both for their achievements and their sense of pride for the school, their good sportsmanship and sense for fair play. The Technology, Environmental, Computer programs continue to excel under the dedicated leadership of our staff advisors, mentors, and coaches. Our academic and extra-curricular clubs, student leadership committees, teams, performers, artists and writers have demonstrated talent and success this year. Our teaching staff, school council, SAC council, Volunteer Now, Environment club, Volunteer Now have all organized and conducted successful events and assemblies which showcase the many talents and skills of our staff, parents and students. Our grade nine students are off to a great start to their high school career, involved in their courses and participating in co-curricular and leadership activities. All students should take time now, at mid-semester to review their report card along with teacher comments and learning skills assessments. Support is available from subject and special education/student success teachers and through services such as peer tutoring. Students may contact their guidance counsellors for additional information. Since the last newsletter, there have been a number of staff changes. Since the beginning of this school year we are extremely fortunate to have returning back to our school Mary-Louise Noble, Felicia McVannell, Aaron Kardish, and Michael Kellawan. We are also excited to welcome new staff to SATEC/Porter. With us on permanent contract assignments are Donna Sturges (Science), Angelo Triantafillou (Phys Ed/Science), Neil Goodenough (Math/Science), and Spencer Rupke (Business). Finally, we extend congratulations to Paula Pink-Grant, our Assistant Curriculum Leader of Business Studies who was promoted to Vice Principal at Cedarbrae Collegiate effective September 1, 2014. We will miss Ms. Pink-Grant’s service and tremendous work ethic to SATEC @ W A Porter C.I.. However, we know that her enormous skills will be greatly valued by the Cedarbrae community. Because of our additional staffing needs we are also pleased to announce the arrival of four new teachers who arrived in mid-October: Hannah Glow (French/Social Science), Su-Ann Khaw (Math), Jonathan Roberts (Social Science) and Stephen Espie (Science/Phys Ed). All bring considerable skill and experience to our school and we welcome all of them to the SATEC @ W A Porter C.I. community. I trust and hope you all enjoy this issue of our newsletter. I wish all of you and your families Happy Holidays, good health, wisdom and joy in 2015. Sincerely, George Mavraganis
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FALL NEWSLETTER!
NOVEMBER 19, 2014
Environmental Club News School Is Back And So Is EC! Fall has been a busy time for Satec’s Environmental Club and the Eco Schools team. The club has been involved in many initiatives and activities. As usually EC starts off the school year with our annual water bottle campaign. Throughout the years Satec’s water bottle campaign has continued to improve and this year was no different! With the help of Admin, EC was able to distribute BPA free water bottles throughout the school to new grade 9 students. This is one of our more important initiative’s as it helps reduce the amount of disposable water bottles in the school. The program has received so much positive review that many other schools across TDSB are looking to implement a similar water bottle program in their school. Once October rolled around EC biggest initiative of the month involved our distribution of Scare-OGrams. Scare-O-Grams are cookies with environmental cartoons that students are able to send to each other. Students then receive these cookies on Halloween day. Students not only receive a tasty treat, but also learn a little about the environment in a fun and creative way. The Environmental Club would like to thank Ms. Hale and her grade 12 Food and Nutrition class for baking these delicious cookies! Recently our ECO Team went to the Eco-Rally at D o w n s v i e w Pa r k w h i c h w a s a n e n r i c h i n g experience for the entire group. At the rally we received our Platinum Plaque for 2013-2014. This makes it five years in a row that Satec has achieved platinum status! This could not have been possible without the help of the student body, staff, community, admin, and the caretakers! As a whole we learned more about the environment and also came up with new ideas we are hoping to implement throughout the rest of the year. As November comes to an end EC continues to try and leave their mark on Satec. We have just recently started up our annual battery drive where
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EC members se$ing scare-o-grams to help raise awareness of environment issues in a fun and tasty way. each home form classroom will compete with each other in an effort to see who can collect the most batteries. The class that collects the most batteries wil l receive a pizza par ty cour tesy of the environmental club. Next on the agenda is the paper caper. This program looks to get staff involved in trying to reduce the amount of paper printed each day. Last year was the paper caper’s inaugural year in Satec and this year EC hopes to improve on last year’s program. We are also planning ahead to Grade 8 orientation where we are looking to encourage potential Satec students to practice environmentally sustainable habits through a fun and educational hands on experience. Last but certainly not least EC will be looking to hold a waste audit in the near future. For those of you who don’t know what a waste audit is, it is basically a student driven audit where club members will examine all the waste throughout the school. The information collected from the audit will then be used to help the school determine what must be done to reduce waste throughout the school. By Jatharsan Paramthillairajah
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FALL NEWSLETTER!
NOVEMBER 19, 2014
So You Think You Can Dance? The Dance Pak Returns For Another Year By Jocelyn Femia The Porter Dance Pak, coached by Ms. Duffy, started in 2012. This year, there were so many talented dancers that tried out for the team. After three try-outs, the official team was selected. The Competitive Dance Team for 2014-2015 consists of: Jocelyn Femia, Jecee Reid, Taylor Dean, Christina Aivalis, Leah Forbes, Sabrine Ali, Zul Bayar, Jesse Arthur, Tristan Sauer, Sudipra Saha, Maria Rameshwar, Kayley Baker, Tasneem Ahmed, and Leah Robertson. Ms. Duffy Selected Zul Bayar & Leah Forbes as Dance Captains, and Jocelyn Femia as the Assistant Captain. Most recently, we performed in the Remembrance Day assembly with a contemporary dance choreographed by Jocelyn Femia. Throughout the year we learn five to six dances that have been student choreographed. We compete in various competitions throughout the school year. Our next endeavour is the T.D.S.B.’s Dare 2 Dance competition, which is a themed competition. The theme this year is “Toronto, Our City-Our Stories”. Our team will be attending the choreographer’s workshop for Dare 2 Dance coming up on November 27th. Another competition that we look forward to each year is DANCEFEST (Ontario Secondary School Dance Festival Competition). We will be travelling to Niagara Falls in April to compete with all of our dances with schools from all across Ontario. Last year we received awards in Excellence and High Excellence and this year we hope to do even better! So watch out for The Porter Dance Pak!
The Porter Dance Pak stop moving long enough to take a group photo. Front row left to right: Christina, Tristan, Sudipra, Maria, Leah R., and Kayley. Top row left to right: Taylor, Joceyln, Jecee, Zul, Jesse, Sabrine, and Tasneem.
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FALL NEWSLETTER!
NOVEMBER 19, 2014
Ms.Singroy’s AP Psychology class take a break from studies to pose for a group photo. Students who write the AP exam in May and potentially earn a university credit before graduating from SATEC!
Connect, Lead and Inspire Aces for AP Psychology Students By Tracy Hale SATEC offered its first Advanced Placement (AP) courses last year. Currently the school is offering AP Computer Science and AP Psychology. AP courses act as a regular Ontario credit but they are modified to add extra content for specialized AP exams. The AP exams are run by the College Board in the United States, the same company that runs the SATs. Good results on the exams can earn students university credits while still in high school. SATEC's first AP Psychology students wrote their exam last May along with other AP Psychology students from all over the world. To deal with this, Ms. Singroy created an afterschool study group with activities and incentives that were modelled after the popular TV show “Survivor”. Students were put into study groups and were paired off against each other in a variety of competitions. Despite this innovative idea, Ms. Singroy reported that this was moderately successful as her students were more focused on their responsibilities from their semester two courses than studying for the AP Exam. To deal with this reality, she organized a two day cram session just prior to the exam. She arranged for her students to participate in an in-school field trip and booked the seminar room in the library. During these cram sessions she provided practice
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exam questions and guided the students though the chapters that they had reviewed months earlier. She also arranged for pizza delivery to keep the troops fed and happy. The hard work paid off, approximately half of the class wrote the exam and of those, half of the students got marks that allowed them to transfer their credit to an equivalent course at university. The remaining students all did well, receiving an equivalent of a high level 2 and level 3. For those students that did not write the exam or who did not perform well enough to use the exam as a university credit, the benefits of taking the AP course were still numerous. Most importantly, they got the opportunity to experience the content of a university level course with the support of a caring and engaged teacher-an experience that is hard to duplicate with 1000 other students in a typical first year university psychology class. The AP Psychology students this year (pictured here) are eager to replicate the results of their preceding alumni. Ms. Singroy is already busy developing her strategies to help her students through the dark months of February-May so that they will be ready to make SATEC proud.
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FALL NEWSLETTER!
NOVEMBER 19, 2014
Halloween @ SATEC! Creativity, collaboration, fun and scary were all present October 31st came upon SATEC this year. Staff and students joined in the festivities. Thanks to SAC and PAC for organizing events this year.
The Porter Book Club has expanded! Last year we had 15 members and this year there are over 40 members! Here we are celebrating Halloween by dressing up as a favourite character. To find out what we are up to, check out our blog at www.theporterbookclub.tumblr.com
Irony: Mr. Lee, Ms. Brownlee, and Mr. Bulovs dress up as SATEC students on the day students dress-down for Halloween.
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A pair of witches: Ms. Greenfield and Mme. Knight meet to brew up some wicked fun for students
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FALL NEWSLETTER!
NOVEMBER 19, 2014
The Dance Pak performing “Rivers and Roads”
SATEC Reflects on Remembrance Day Photographs by Zachary Vervoort-Airey Students and staff helped the school community honour the men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces on November 11th, the National Day of Remembrance. Thanks to Mr. Bond, student emcees Ruth Ranasinghe and Mishal Nuh, Ms. Duffy and the Porter Dance Pak. Student cadets Benjamin Pelayo (Army) and Anil Menon (Air) shared poignant reflections about the meaning of Remembrance Day to a receptive and respectful audience. A video by Jonathan Wagner (WagnerMedia.ca) featuring actual film footage and photos from Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele, Dieppe, Ortona, Normandy, Korea and Afghanistan. was shown during SATEC’s Remembrance Day assemblies. As well, a very special thank you to grade 11 student Emily Nagahawa who provided a live performance on trumpet of the Last Post and Revielle at 11:00. Army Cadet Benjamin Pelayo (below)
Air Cadet Anil Menon (above)
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FALL NEWSLETTER!
NOVEMBER 19, 2014
Field Hockey Returns to SATEC By Carl Ma The Porter girls field hockey team played against Albert Campbell in the East Region Tier 2 Quarter-final. Porter's girls played very well in the first half and was able to score first, courtesy of a Cassandra Daggett's goal from a short corner. However, Campbell showed us the advantage of having a 22-ladies roster. They constantly had fresh legs and was able to equalize late in the second half. Just when the game was about to go to strokes (the equivalence of penalty kicks in soccer), Campbell scored the golden goal sudden death winner.
It was a great season, ladies. This is the first time we have a field hockey team in 20 years at Porter and a lot of the team members have never played the game before. The fact that these ladies were able to join an established league and compete and made the playoffs speaks for itself. In fact, Porter finished the regular season with a 2-1-1 record and was second place in our group. We will only get better next year’s ladies! Big shout out to our Grade 12 graduating player, Jessica CampbellMaracle. You are a beast! Once again, Congratulations to everybody on the team!
Bump, Set, Spike By Theo Lostoridis SATEC’s junior boys volleyball team is always fun to be a part of. The team has really improved their skill level over the course of the season. Being a part of the team is a good way to meet new people and get to know some of the grade 9s who are just coming into the school.
mistakes that cost us to lose our close games against teams from Dr. Norman Bethune CI and Sir John A MacDonald CI. All in all, it was a good season, we played well, we all had a lot of fun, and we met a lot of new people. I’d also like to give special thanks to Mr. Koch for coaching and the rest of the team for a great season.
T h i s s e a s o n , o v e r a l l , we d i d p r e t t y g o o d considering how much we improved. We won 3 games and lost 3 (by the way, tough losses in the third deciding set) to get into the Quarter-Finals where we lost to RH King Academy, again in the third set. Throughout the season we made small
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FALL NEWSLETTER!
NOVEMBER 19, 2014
THE SAC REPORT By Bhaagya Awasthy
S.A.C. has had a great, strong start to the year. With great Spirit and dedication, we have started an array of new and old things in the school. In October, we held our Grade 9 representative elections. It was the biggest group of student leaders who wanted to be the voice of their student body in our school history. With 17 candidates in total, only 3 could have the chance to be the voice of the grade 9 student body. The new three Grade 9 Representatives are Saad Wazir, Fardeen Zaman and Thomas Samson. All the candidates fought validly throughout campaign week and are encouraged to run again for S.A.C next year. There is always space for great leaders in our school, no matter what club you represent.
Also in October, S.A.C had held Halloween events. Throughout the week of Halloween, students had the chance to guess the amount of candy in 3 different jars. Lots of the guesses were close but only 3 students were correct. Congratulations to all 3 winners. We had also held a scavenger hunt with 10 bats around the school, there is still 1 bat up on the walls. Lastly on Halloween, the traditional haunted house and costume contest was hosted by the S.A.C. The haunted house was said to be the most terrifying haunted house ever by students and that they would go back in. A special thanks to ever yone on S.A.C executive, general and advertising committee for making this Halloween one of the best. During November 9th-11th, six of our student leaders attended the 36th Ontario Student Leadership Conference in Niagara Falls. It was a great experience for all the students. With great speakers at the conference, the students were enriched with new knowledge into being better leaders at their school. Making new friends and memories, the students come back with Great Spirit and a better grasp into being leaders at our great school.
More Cross-Country Team Photos
Blue Eagle Boys Cross-Country Team at rest (above) and crossing the finish line (right)
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FALL NEWSLETTER!
NOVEMBER 19, 2014
VOLUNTEER NOW!
Business Leadership
By Antora Ghosh Photographs by Mishal Nuh
By Aikeda Aikedan
VON is back in action with more exciting events this year. Once again, we are working with Free The Children as part of their Adopt a Village Campaign. This is a campaign that raises money to help build classrooms, provide school supplies and opportunities to child labourers to have access to education. Last year, we raised $6500 and this year we are hoping to reach our goal, which is to raise $10,000. At the end, we want the students of Satec to vote for which country they want their money to go towards.
FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) is a new club at SATEC that aims to help students work through their high school career and achieve their post-secondary goals by bringing business and education together in a positive working relationship. FBLA’s competitive events will allow SATEC students to explore a wide range of business related topics while also giving them the opportunity to compete with other students, promoting a cooperative learning experience. S t u d e n t s f i r s t co m p e te i n t h e Pr o v i n c i a l Leadership Conference, and top winners in each category are then given the honour to compete at the National Leadership Conference taking place in Chicago, Illinois next year. The competitions, award ceremonies, and networking opportunities provide students with a once in a lifetime and unforgettable experience.
To explain more about our initiative and to fundraise, we will be hosting VON week, which will include an informative assembly, bake sale, karaoke and dress down day. Throughout the year we are also holding many other events such as Vow of Silence, 30 Hour Fast and Teachers’ Olympics.
SATEC is excited to provide students with the oppor tunity to expand their horizons by connecting them with like-minded, ambitious people and giving them the skill-sets to help them succeed in the business world. For more information, visit www.)la-pbl.org
Along with Global issues, we are also involved in raising awareness in our community. So far we raised 86 kg of food for the We Scare Hunger campaign. During our VON week, we will be presenting a VON Fair, where students in Satec will have a chance to learn more about the local organizations that they can get involved in. Overall, we are hoping that as a school, we can make a difference in the world.
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FALL NEWSLETTER!
NOVEMBER 19, 2014
SATEC Returns to F1 World Finals in Abu Dhabi Team Phronesis placed 2nd at the Canadian Finals in May which earned them the chance to compete at the World Finals in Abu Dhabi between November 16-19. Congratulations to the team and to their staff advisor, Ms. Connie Yung, who have worked hard for nearly a year to design, manufacture and compete at this elite level. Team Phronesis Members: Menojh Jeyakumar Tevin Devasagayam Debrish Sarma Matthew Wong Tausif Syed Saqeb Chowdhury Support Team Members: Tameen Quader Mobarrat Shahriar Special thanks also to our teachers, Ms. Tang and Mr. Knight, for accompanying the team to Abu Dhabi for the competition.
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FALL NEWSLETTER!
NOVEMBER 19, 2014
Social Studies Students Explore the City By Manjit Singh Students from the grade 12 Challenge & Change class had the opportunity to visit the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health on October 28th. During their visit, students took part in a most valuable workshop that addressed the stigmas, thoughts and challenges associated with mental illness. Interesting ideas were exchanged amongst presenters, some who were former patients, and other participating students from the GTA. Great leadership was demonstrated by all students including Bana Abraha, Yasef Hossain, and Rosemary Webster who assisted in facilitating the sharing of ideas during the workshop. Impressed by their experience, some students suggested interest in pursuing future careers linked with the line of services offered at CAMH. In the photograph, students stand before an image of trees that symbolize the notion of growth and regeneration at CAMH. Also, students from the grade 11 Introduction to Anthropology, Psychology & Sociology classes had a similar great day of learning and exploration while at the Royal Ontario Museum to partake in an Anthropology Lab/Lesson, followed by an insightful tour at the University of Toronto. In the photographs , students are engaged in examining ancient fossils and models linked with human origin at the ROM, and stand in the beautiful courtyard of Trinity College at the University of Toronto. All in all, students were most appreciative of the added opportunity to learn outside the classroom. The benefits of experiential learning are certainly a most valued aspect of the whole learning experience. On November 25th, SATEC students will have a private screening of the a film "Dear White People", at the Scarborough Town Centre. The film is a motion picture drama/comedy. Through this medium, the filmmaker tackles a number of social justice issues, among them: race, racism, sex, sexism, power, privilige, ethnocentrism, and resource distribution is presented with the hope of encouraging and stimulating discussion long after the film is over.
Ms. Singh’s students are all engaged in the skeletal exploration activity at the Royal Ontario Museum this past Fall.
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The editors of this newsletter are excited to see how staff and students respond to the film and hope it will be a call to action.
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FALL NEWSLETTER!
NOVEMBER 19, 2014
Greetings From Guidance November is here and with it the weather has changed and the winter season is moving in. Students, now that you know your mid- term marks, take a moment to reflect: is this the mark I aspired to get? What do I need to improve? Where can I get the help, and thus, attain academic success?
SATEC Academic Support System - Ask Your Teacher - Homework Help Club Room 101 Monday to Thursday from 3:20-4:30 - Math Help - room 216 during lunch from Monday to Friday - On Line Math homework Gr. 9&10 - Youth Link Tutoring - Come to guidance for counseling and information
SATEC/Guidance Communication System Parents and students can log on to the SATEC website (www.satec.on.ca) for the latest information regarding events as well as topics of how to help your child academically, what to do when your child is stressed, how to take a test and more helpful topics for parents and students alike! Twitter Comes to SATEC Student Services In an effort to ensure that our students and their parents/guardians have pertinent information from SATEC’s Student Services Department we recently established a Twitter account. Follow us at www.twitter.com/SatecGuidance (@ SatecGuidance) to get up-to date news bulletins. It is also recommended for parents to become part of the SATEC School Council to hear and have an input in SATEC initiatives.
SATEC Post-Secondary Fair On November 25th from 6:30-8:30 we will have a Post-Secondary Fair at SATEC. Grade 11 and 12 parents and students are invited to SATEC to meet representatives from most of the universities and colleges in Ontario. This is a wonderful opportunity to meet representatives from all the universities and colleges and ask them questions about programs, extra-curricular activities, scholarships, bursaries, cut-offs and other pertinent information to help you choose your post-secondary pathway and destination. We look forward to seeing you there!
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FALL NEWSLETTER!
The Library Learning Commons News from the SATEC’s Library We have been busy this year with many initiatives. With our two coop students, work has begun on the Organic Garden and Beehive & Butterfly Sanctuary. The White Pine Reading Club is about to be rolled out with its ten new fiction titles. Voting on the favourite title will be held in April, 2015 with the winner’s celebration being held downtown in May. Yoga on Thursdays after school is being enjoyed by both staff and students. The semester 1 Grade 9 Geography classes participated in an Orientation to the Library which included a scavenger hunt for the Library Lizard. We continue to be open before and after school as well as at lunch – whenever possible. Our huge team of Library Volunteers this year makes this doable. Many thanks to Ms. Strauss for creating the Library Volunteer ‘blueprint.’ New initiatives to look forward to are the workspace, the new laptops, the new titles in both fiction and non-fiction and the beautiful displays created by our very own artist-in-residence Ms. Massecar – check out the Halloween display!
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Calendar November 19 Grade 8 Information Night (6:00PM) November 20 Midterm Report Cards Distributed November 25 SATEC Post-secondary Fair (6:30PM) November 25 School Council Meeting (7:00PM) November 27 Full Disclosure December 5 PA Day (No classes for students) Specialized Program Entrance Test December 8 Grad Photos (until Dec 17) December 18 Semi-Formal December 22 - January 2 Winter Break (no classes) January 5 Classes resume January 20 Grade 9 EQAO Math Exam January 20 Tutorial Day January 21-27 Semester 1 Exams
SATEC’s Learning Commons extends outdoors. This year. students have taken up the task of creating a garden and bee sanctuary.
Administration Principal George Mavraganis Vice-Principals Kym Stadnyk Daniel Lee Superintendent ER12 Stacey Michener
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