Good afternoon Fort McMurray Catholic Schools families,

We are excited to welcome you all back for the 2025- 2026 school year! We pray that you are enjoying a joyful and restful summer, and we know many of you are also beginning to prepare for the return to school routines.

We are thrilled to have our teaching and office administration staff already back with us. Our dedicated Educational Assistants and Out of School Care staff will be joining later this week. A heartfelt thank you goes out to our incredible custodial and maintenance teams who have worked diligently all summer to ensure our schools are clean, welcoming, and ready for a fresh start!

As we prepare for the first day of school, we would like to share some important information and reminders with our families. Please take a moment to review the following updates to help ensure a smooth and successful start to the year.

We understand that many families may have questions regarding current possible labour uncertainty. We will be providing a separate update later this week once we have more information to share.

Important links: 

• 2025/26 Welcome Back message from our Board of Trustees
• 2025/26 FMCSD Back to School Guide: (latest information for school year preparations including high school start up and transportation information. Bus stop location and time emails will be sent as soon as possible.)
• 2025/26 School Supply Lists
• 2025/26 School Calendar: *The first day of school for grades 1-12 is September 2, 2025. For our Early Entry Program (EEP) and Kindergarten programs- Teachers will contact families with exact dates for their first day of school by end of day August 28th, 2025. If your child is in EEP or Kindergarten and you have not heard from your class by that time, please contact your school directly.
• Edsby Student Information System: Want to learn more about how to see grades, report attendance, and communicate with your child(ren)’s teacher? 
• Right to Disconnect: As we begin the new school year, we would like to gently remind our families and staff about our Right to Disconnect guidelines, first introduced last year. We are committed to supporting the well-being of our employees and school communities. In alignment with this commitment, staff are not expected to respond to work-related matters outside of regular working hours (weekdays from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., and throughout weekends). This respectful boundary extends to our entire Fort McMurray Catholic Schools family, and we ask that our school communities support this approach by not expecting replies during these times.

We look forward to a year filled with academic success, spiritual development, and treasured memories. May God bless each of you as we begin this new chapter—students, families, and staff alike. Here's to a joyful, faith-filled, and inspiring 2025–2026 school year!

“This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad” - Psalm 118:24

Natasha MacArthur-Poole

Superintendent of Schools

Fort McMurray Catholic School Division