Sharing is Caring, and Sustainable!

Image description: hand-drawn Rubik’s cube for Cube Club, hopefully starting soon

Enterprising Hastings student S.T. is trying to get a Rubik’s cube club going at lunchtime, but he needs your help. If you have any cubes languishing at home without anyone to pay attention to them, please drop them off to the office attention to Hastings PAC. We’ll get these over to S.T. and the staff member sponsoring this club so that kids can start getting their cube on as soon as possible.

Both standard Rubik’s cubes and speed cubes would be welcome. They are hoping to get the club going after Thanksgiving, so please start sorting through your toy boxes now if you get the chance! This will give the kids some lunchtime options for activities when the weather starts getting a little more dreary.

While you’re at it, we’re also passing along a request from teachers and staff for gently used puzzles, toys, and arts and craft supplies that you may no longer need. Donating these items clears out your home, allows these items to be enjoyed by others, and most importantly, sustainably fills up the cupboards at school. Hastings PAC is proud to support our teachers and staff by supplementing their classroom budgets, but getting these donations allows the funds to stretch even farther — while preventing usable items from going into the landfill. We call that a win-win-win for our kids!

Please feel free to also drop these items off to the office c/o Hastings PAC, we will take it from there.

WSB 2024-2025 – Organizing Night

Please join us Tues Oct 8 at 6 pm in the multipurpose room at school to help shape the Walking School Bus groups for this year! This grassroots organizing night is a key component of deciding what routes the groups will take each morning (with some operating after school as well), what the ground rules are, and in fact, which groups run at all.

The Active Travel page on this site gives you a general overview of how Hastings PAC is trying to encourage families to find ways to get to school that don’t involve using a car. That can mean scooting, biking, or using your own two feet!

The Walking School Bus groups are a great way for students to get some fresh air and exercise in the morning, make friends with children from other programs and grades, and to take action on climate change. Participants meet at the starting point and walk together along a designated route to (and/or from school), picking up additional students along the way as needed. It’s also a great opportunity for Gr. 6 and 7 students to demonstrate leadership and caring about their community.

Some groups have decided to compensate leaders, while others have opted not to. It’s a group decision made at, you guessed it, the planning night!

We already have the following groups:

Burrardview (student-led)

Penticton & Georgia (student-led)

Garden (parent-led)

Ferndale & Lakewood (parent-led)

We can add stops and even entire groups based on our planning night, so please be sure to join us! We’ll have pizza and beverages available, so you don’t even have to worry about dinner, and kids are definitely welcome.

Bike to School Week is June 3-7

Hastings Elementary is celebrating Bike to School Week from June 3-7! We’re encouraging students and families to use active transportation for their trips to school all week – walking, biking, scootering, skateboarding, and using mobility aids all help reduce congestion in our school neighborhood and help students arrive at school energized and ready to learn.

Join us before school Friday May 31 at the school front doors to get some bike decor and Bike to School swag. Throughout Bike to School Week June 3-7 find us each morning to get your sticker and track our school community’s biking and scooting! Stay tuned for fun giveaways throughout the week!

Learn more: https://bikehub.ca/bike-to-school/bike-to-school-week

Modernizing the Hastings Elementary PAC Constitution

What is the purpose of Hastings PAC, and how should that change in the year 2024… and beyond?

For months now, the Hastings PAC Executive — led by Member at Large Mat Brechtel – has been working on updating our Constitution (and bylaws). This has never been updated since its creation in 2006.

As you can imagine, things were a little different more than 20 years ago — times and technology have changed a lot. We want to move with the times and have a bold new vision that fits who we are now as a community.

The proposed new constitution allows for virtual meetings (something many of you have been asking for!), creates a more defined sense of what we want to accomplish as a PAC, and provides a little more structure to how we operate.

The following links provide a full sense of the proposed changes:

Hastings PAC’s Current Constitution

Hastings PAC 2024 Constitution Draft – All Proposed Changes Tracked

Hastings PAC 2024 Constitution Draft – All Proposed Changes Incorporated

Please join us at our next general meeting Weds May 15 at 7 pm in the school library to vote on this very important measure. Please note: under the current constitution, you must attend in-person to vote and there is no option to attend this meeting virtually.

Thank You to our 2024 Spring Fair Sponsors

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The Hastings Spring Fair is made possible by the generosity of our community sponsors!

The Spring Fair is the PACs biggest Fundraiser and Community event of the year. All proceeds, after expenses, go to important initiatives that help the children of Hastings Elementary school, including classroom supplies, technology, art projects, field trips and more.

Join us Friday, May 10th from 3-6pm, rain or shine, for the Hastings Community Elementary School Spring Fair. This is a community event and everyone is welcome. This event wouldn’t be possible without the support of local businesses, community sponsors, toy donations and many many volunteers. Thank you to everyone who supports the Spring Fair!