Wednesday, February 10, 2021 Vol. 44, No. 6
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YOUR LOCAL PAPER
Brutally cold winter temperatures cancel bus routes Patricia Harcourt Editor
Having experienced snow that stayed since Nov. 9, the region’s winter temperatures were moderate - until last weekend, that is. The region is in the grip of a cold snap brought on by the Polar Vortex sucking cold air down from the Northern part of the country and taking in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Locally, school buses were cancelled for the early part of the week, and may well be in the near future, due to the extreme and bitter cold temperatures in the region. In Viking, temperatures were recorded by The Weather Network at -40C overnight both Saturday and Sunday. Daytime highs on Monday reached -29C and weren’t expected to climb much higher over the week. The wind chill factor, or “feels like” temperature, at night will be well into the -40s all week as well. Temperatures in other parts of
Beaver County, and the western side of the M.D. of Wainwright where Irma School is located, weren’t any better. Students in both Battle River School District and Buffalo Trail Public Schools had buses cancelled, although the schools remained open. BRSD stated that, as of Monday, buses were cancelled for both Monday and Tuesday this week. That included buses to all schools Beaver County, Flagstaff County, Camrose County and the City of Camrose. Handivan buses would also be included in the cancellations. BTPS posted the following: “Due to the projected temperatures expected to be colder than -40C between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., all rural bus routes are cancelled for Monday, Feb. 8, 2021 for the entire day. “Vermilion and Wainwright intern and camp buses will run. If you drive your children to school it See BUSES P2
Monday, February 15
New Viking Teacher
Patricia Harcourt Editor
Viking School has a brand new teacher joining the staff. Matthew Edey is coming on board to cover for Mrs. Roth’s leave. Edey will be teaching junior high math and science as well as Science 20 and Math 30. “I have been teaching since 2018 and my specialty is mathematics and drama,” he said. “I love teaching science as well because it is fun to do labs and explore the world with my students.” Edey is not unfamiliar with local schools as he hails originally from the Sedgewick area directly to the south in Flagstaff County. And he’s been serving as a substitute teacher in Battle River School Division during this 2020/2021 school year.
He comes to Viking School with two years of experience teaching Math at Fox Creek School in Fox Creek, Alberta. “I believe that education is all about preparing students for real life, so I like to provide students with opportunities to show their learning in a real-world situation,” he said. “My favourite teaching memory is when I challenged my Physics 30 students to design a landing pad for an egg that would be dropped at a height of 10 metres. The students surprised me by bringing in a cup of Greek yogurt, which saved the egg from its demise.” With that example in mind, he concluded: “I look forward to teaching the students of Viking School and expanding their worlds in math and science.”