Employees and volunteers at all schools in Drayton Valley and Breton will have to provide proof of vaccination or a negative Covid-19 test when school resumes after the Christmas break.
The Wild Rose school board approved the move at its regular meeting on Tuesday morning. The St. Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic School Division made a similar decision earlier this month.
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The move does not include students in either school division and will only apply to parents if they are acting as volunteers.
The Wild Rose motion came after an hour long debate and was not unanimous. Board chair Daryl Scott said he was unhappy that the board had been left to make a decision on an issue that should have been handled by the province.
“We are an education board, not a health board,” he said. “We are not health experts, we are educators.”
Scott said he was personally vaccinated. However he could not support a motion where felt that staff were being placed in a position where they had no choice if they wished to keep their jobs.
Folks, this month I find myself at war with nature. And so far it looks like nature is winning
Last night I was awoken by the sound of crashing from right outside the bedroom window. I looked out to see half of one of my tomato plants lying on the ground, while the other half was steadily being chomped by a full sized whitetail. Unruffled, the deer gave me a not particularly apologetic look before wandering over to poop on the lawn.
I suppose at least the deer are nice to watch, unlike the caterpillars we saw earlier in the season. The lesson we learned then is that while a single caterpillar is interesting to look at and potentially even cute in a creepy crawly kind of way, when that same caterpillar is accompanied by several thousand of his friends and relations it’s really kind of gross.
Meanwhile, as summer has hit its stride over the last couple of weeks it’s become increasingly important to sleep with the window open. At least it is if you’re me. It’s something that was driven into me by my grandmother; a woman who had tremendous belief in the health benefits of fresh air. Mind you, she also believed that if you ate apple seeds a tree would grow inside you, and that you could never have too much slightly used Christmas wrapping paper. But when it comes to fresh air, you know, I think she had a point.
A few lungs full of the evening air, redolent with the scents of roses and honeysuckle and carried through the bedroom window on the gentlest of zephyrs, lulls you to sleep like a half bottle of cheap Scotch on an empty stomach. But staying asleep, well, that’s a different matter, because sometime around 4 a.m., just as the sun is starting to sneak over the horizon, Mother Nature lets go with a positive cacophony of squawks and screeches as the magpies in our backyard prepare to greet the day.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of birds. I especially like them roasted, with gravy and new potatoes. But I speak as someone who finds it increasingly hard to stay asleep over the sound of his own snoring, so I could really do without any outside interference.
My final brush with nature (so far) has come in the form of a merry band of wasps who have set up home underneath our deck in an area that is both annoyingly close to the back door and inaccessible for wasp spray unless I’m prepared to go to the lengths of removing a couple of planks to allow me to get at them. I’ve set up a system where I sit in a lawnchair every afternoon and try to hit the wasps with a fly swatter as they come and go. It’s a simple task, but it involves quite a lot of swearing, because most of the time the wasps refuse to sit still and accept their fate. I suppose, on the plus side, it gives the neighbours something to talk about, but I can’t help but feel that somehow this is going to end badly.
Services
- Companion Animals
- Emergency and After Hours Services
- Ovine and Caprine Health
- Bovine Health
- Equine Health
- Avian Health
780-236-0654
- Investments
- Retirement Planning
- Tax Planning
- Estate Planning
Services Offered
- SEPTIC SYSTEM INSTALLATION
- NEW SERVICES DUGIN
- WATERLINE INSTALLATION AND REPAIR
- GRADE FOR FOUNDATION
- RV/PARKING PAD
- HYDRANTS AND CATTLE WATERERS REPAIRED AND INSTALLED
- COMPACTION AND PLATE TAMPING
- TRENCHING
- CULVERTS CLEANED AND REPAIRED
- FRENCH DRAINS
- DUMP TRAILER SERVICES
- ASPHALT AND CONCRETE CUTTING
- TRACKED SKID STEER WITH 78" BUCKET AND FORKS
- MINI SKIDSTEER
- LANDSCAPING
- INTEGRITY DIGS
- DRAINAGE
First it was caterpillars. Then it was rain. Then it was smoke. Then it was more rain. Then it was mosquitoes. Then it was moths. And then it was tornadoes.
I hope I have those in the right order. It’s been hard to keep track. I should probably fit blue/green algae in there somewhere too.
Either way, it’s fair to say that the summer of 2026 has been exciting, in the same way as getting a registered letter from the CRA or finding a litter of baby skunks under your garden shed is exciting.
But summer is not over yet. It’s still only early August, so there is time left to save the season.
Technically, fall doesn’t start until 6:05 pm on Tuesday September 20. Which is (writer counts on fingers, gets three different answers and gives up) somewhere between 40 and 50 days from now.
My aim is to fill that time with as much madcap fun as possible. There’s lots to pack in.
Golf would be nice. I’ve only managed to play twice so far this year. The first round wasn’t bad. The second round was absolutely dreadful. There’s no knowing what the third round might have in store. Although based on past experience, I’ve got a fairly good idea.
My wife and I will be going on a trip to Toronto to meet our brand new grandson in a couple of weeks. We’re very excited about that obviously. And I hear Canada’s largest city is lovely at this time of year. Plus my son in law knows a place where they sell the best sausage rolls I have ever had. I know a thing or two about sausage rolls, and have the waistline to prove it.
We’ve already had our annual road trip to Westlock for the Elvis festival. My wife is a big fan and I’m just a boy who can’t say no. And incidentally don’t make the same mistake I made; they’re tribute artists, not impersonators.
We’ve also had a very wet visit to Jasper which was nice, although the mountains are more impressive when you can actually see them. But there are other places, some of them quite close by, that might be worth a visit assuming they haven’t been washed away or stripped by caterpillars.
But my wife and I are simple folks. Our favourite summer pastime is to sit on our deck with a cold drink and maybe a few tunes. The deck faces south and if you stretch a bit and stand on your tippy toes you can almost see a park. For a long time the deck was the nicest part of our house. That changed a few months ago when a nice man came and renovated our bathroom. But we still prefer the deck for hanging out on, because there’s a little more elbow room.
And that’s it. That’s my plan to spend the final weeks of the best part of the year. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun and I’m excited to get on with it.
Blimey, I must be getting old.
Local rugby player Lucy Cropley has returned from the Canadian Rugby Championships where she played on Alberta’s U19 travelling team.
Teams from Alberta, Nova Scotia, Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec all attended the event in Toronto that ran from July 20 to 26. Cropley was one of 26 players selected for the Alberta team in June this year.
Though the team didn’t excel at the tournament, Cropley says Albertans don’t have the same amount of time to prepare as some other provinces. This year, the team that headed to the championships was only formed at the end of June. Other provinces, such as Ontario, can have teams that are formed in February.
“It was a really good experience,” says Cropley. “They are definitely a bit harder to compete against because they have been practicing and have known each other for a lot longer.”
She says regardless of how they did at the tournament, she was grateful for the opportunity to play on the team.
Cropley has been playing rugby for five years, starting out with the Frank Maddock Warriors.
She says over the years there have been a lot of highs and lows with the sport. Sometimes she has felt discouraged if she hasn’t made a team, even wondering if it was something she still wanted to pursue.
“It’s definitely a sport where you just have to keep trying, keep showing up, and there will be an outcome [based] on how hard you try,” she says.
Cropley didn’t score a spot on Team Alberta on her first try. She says she’s been trying to get on the team for a couple of years, but with every setback she worked hard to learn the lessons that were there. Then, when she tried out for the U19 team, she got it on her first try, ensuring she can play on the team in 2027 as well.
During her time playing rugby, Cropley has played for several teams. During the spring she plays with the Warriors, but during the fall and winter the sport has to be played indoors. As there isn’t an indoor sports centre in Drayton Valley, Cropley plays on an Edmonton team during that time.
Rugby can be played with different numbers of players on the field. There are the sevens, where each team has seven players on the field, and then there are the fifteens. The type of rugby played follows a pattern, says Cropley. In the fall, there are more sevens tournaments, culminating in the Alberta Rugby Championships in January.
Cropley made it onto the Alberta sevens team last January and ended up playing at a tournament in Vancouver in March.
Heading into the spring, there are more games of fifteens played, which is what they played at the recent championships.
Cropley says one of the aspects of rugby that she really enjoys is the camaraderie between the players. She says that at the level she’s playing at, her teammates have a good understanding of the sport and they can work well together.
“It’s not so much about the sport that you’re involved with; it’s more about the community and the friendships and stuff like that,” she says.
Cropley says it’s great to meet people from different areas who have had different life experiences than she has.
From August 2 to 9, Cropley will be at the U18 Canada West Development Camp in Victoria, where she could be selected to play for the U18 Team Canada.
“It should be a really great experience,” says Cropley. “Even if I don’t end up making it further on from that, it’s still great to have that level of coaching, and hang out with the people that are there.”
Right now Cropley is taking a gap year between high school and college so she can upgrade some of her courses, but she is planning to pursue a rugby scholarship when she does go to post-secondary.
“Get vaccinated or do a rapid test or you don’t have a job. That’s not choice,” he said.
Scott’s view was in the minority. Trustee Charlene Bearhead said that she wished the pandemic wasn’t happening. However, she felt that the board had an obligation to do the best that could with the information available. Rapid testing will be available free of charge to staff, and those that choose unpaid leave would be able to resume employment at a later date.
Superintendent Brad Volkman said that a recent survey of school divisions staff suggested about 78 percent were fully vaccinated, however, he couldn’t be absolutely confident in that figure since not all staff had responded. He said there could be as many as 100 employees who might require rapid testing. That number included substitute teachers and casual staff. The division had obtained 2,400 free rapid tests, which he said should last about three months.
Trustee Mae Tryon, who represents the Breton area, joined Scott in voting against the motion.
Folks, this month I find myself at war with nature. And so far it looks like nature is winning
Last night I was awoken by the sound of crashing from right outside the bedroom window. I looked out to see half of one of my tomato plants lying on the ground, while the other half was steadily being chomped by a full sized whitetail. Unruffled, the deer gave me a not particularly apologetic look before wandering over to poop on the lawn.
I suppose at least the deer are nice to watch, unlike the caterpillars we saw earlier in the season. The lesson we learned then is that while a single caterpillar is interesting to look at and potentially even cute in a creepy crawly kind of way, when that same caterpillar is accompanied by several thousand of his friends and relations it’s really kind of gross.
Meanwhile, as summer has hit its stride over the last couple of weeks it’s become increasingly important to sleep with the window open. At least it is if you’re me. It’s something that was driven into me by my grandmother; a woman who had tremendous belief in the health benefits of fresh air. Mind you, she also believed that if you ate apple seeds a tree would grow inside you, and that you could never have too much slightly used Christmas wrapping paper. But when it comes to fresh air, you know, I think she had a point.
A few lungs full of the evening air, redolent with the scents of roses and honeysuckle and carried through the bedroom window on the gentlest of zephyrs, lulls you to sleep like a half bottle of cheap Scotch on an empty stomach. But staying asleep, well, that’s a different matter, because sometime around 4 a.m., just as the sun is starting to sneak over the horizon, Mother Nature lets go with a positive cacophony of squawks and screeches as the magpies in our backyard prepare to greet the day.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of birds. I especially like them roasted, with gravy and new potatoes. But I speak as someone who finds it increasingly hard to stay asleep over the sound of his own snoring, so I could really do without any outside interference.
My final brush with nature (so far) has come in the form of a merry band of wasps who have set up home underneath our deck in an area that is both annoyingly close to the back door and inaccessible for wasp spray unless I’m prepared to go to the lengths of removing a couple of planks to allow me to get at them. I’ve set up a system where I sit in a lawnchair every afternoon and try to hit the wasps with a fly swatter as they come and go. It’s a simple task, but it involves quite a lot of swearing, because most of the time the wasps refuse to sit still and accept their fate. I suppose, on the plus side, it gives the neighbours something to talk about, but I can’t help but feel that somehow this is going to end badly.
Services
- Companion Animals
- Emergency and After Hours Services
- Ovine and Caprine Health
- Bovine Health
- Equine Health
- Avian Health
780-236-0654
- Investments
- Retirement Planning
- Tax Planning
- Estate Planning
Services Offered
- SEPTIC SYSTEM INSTALLATION
- NEW SERVICES DUGIN
- WATERLINE INSTALLATION AND REPAIR
- GRADE FOR FOUNDATION
- RV/PARKING PAD
- HYDRANTS AND CATTLE WATERERS REPAIRED AND INSTALLED
- COMPACTION AND PLATE TAMPING
- TRENCHING
- CULVERTS CLEANED AND REPAIRED
- FRENCH DRAINS
- DUMP TRAILER SERVICES
- ASPHALT AND CONCRETE CUTTING
- TRACKED SKID STEER WITH 78" BUCKET AND FORKS
- MINI SKIDSTEER
- LANDSCAPING
- INTEGRITY DIGS
- DRAINAGE
First it was caterpillars. Then it was rain. Then it was smoke. Then it was more rain. Then it was mosquitoes. Then it was moths. And then it was tornadoes.
I hope I have those in the right order. It’s been hard to keep track. I should probably fit blue/green algae in there somewhere too.
Either way, it’s fair to say that the summer of 2026 has been exciting, in the same way as getting a registered letter from the CRA or finding a litter of baby skunks under your garden shed is exciting.
But summer is not over yet. It’s still only early August, so there is time left to save the season.
Technically, fall doesn’t start until 6:05 pm on Tuesday September 20. Which is (writer counts on fingers, gets three different answers and gives up) somewhere between 40 and 50 days from now.
My aim is to fill that time with as much madcap fun as possible. There’s lots to pack in.
Golf would be nice. I’ve only managed to play twice so far this year. The first round wasn’t bad. The second round was absolutely dreadful. There’s no knowing what the third round might have in store. Although based on past experience, I’ve got a fairly good idea.
My wife and I will be going on a trip to Toronto to meet our brand new grandson in a couple of weeks. We’re very excited about that obviously. And I hear Canada’s largest city is lovely at this time of year. Plus my son in law knows a place where they sell the best sausage rolls I have ever had. I know a thing or two about sausage rolls, and have the waistline to prove it.
We’ve already had our annual road trip to Westlock for the Elvis festival. My wife is a big fan and I’m just a boy who can’t say no. And incidentally don’t make the same mistake I made; they’re tribute artists, not impersonators.
We’ve also had a very wet visit to Jasper which was nice, although the mountains are more impressive when you can actually see them. But there are other places, some of them quite close by, that might be worth a visit assuming they haven’t been washed away or stripped by caterpillars.
But my wife and I are simple folks. Our favourite summer pastime is to sit on our deck with a cold drink and maybe a few tunes. The deck faces south and if you stretch a bit and stand on your tippy toes you can almost see a park. For a long time the deck was the nicest part of our house. That changed a few months ago when a nice man came and renovated our bathroom. But we still prefer the deck for hanging out on, because there’s a little more elbow room.
And that’s it. That’s my plan to spend the final weeks of the best part of the year. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun and I’m excited to get on with it.
Blimey, I must be getting old.
Local rugby player Lucy Cropley has returned from the Canadian Rugby Championships where she played on Alberta’s U19 travelling team.
Teams from Alberta, Nova Scotia, Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec all attended the event in Toronto that ran from July 20 to 26. Cropley was one of 26 players selected for the Alberta team in June this year.
Though the team didn’t excel at the tournament, Cropley says Albertans don’t have the same amount of time to prepare as some other provinces. This year, the team that headed to the championships was only formed at the end of June. Other provinces, such as Ontario, can have teams that are formed in February.
“It was a really good experience,” says Cropley. “They are definitely a bit harder to compete against because they have been practicing and have known each other for a lot longer.”
She says regardless of how they did at the tournament, she was grateful for the opportunity to play on the team.
Cropley has been playing rugby for five years, starting out with the Frank Maddock Warriors.
She says over the years there have been a lot of highs and lows with the sport. Sometimes she has felt discouraged if she hasn’t made a team, even wondering if it was something she still wanted to pursue.
“It’s definitely a sport where you just have to keep trying, keep showing up, and there will be an outcome [based] on how hard you try,” she says.
Cropley didn’t score a spot on Team Alberta on her first try. She says she’s been trying to get on the team for a couple of years, but with every setback she worked hard to learn the lessons that were there. Then, when she tried out for the U19 team, she got it on her first try, ensuring she can play on the team in 2027 as well.
During her time playing rugby, Cropley has played for several teams. During the spring she plays with the Warriors, but during the fall and winter the sport has to be played indoors. As there isn’t an indoor sports centre in Drayton Valley, Cropley plays on an Edmonton team during that time.
Rugby can be played with different numbers of players on the field. There are the sevens, where each team has seven players on the field, and then there are the fifteens. The type of rugby played follows a pattern, says Cropley. In the fall, there are more sevens tournaments, culminating in the Alberta Rugby Championships in January.
Cropley made it onto the Alberta sevens team last January and ended up playing at a tournament in Vancouver in March.
Heading into the spring, there are more games of fifteens played, which is what they played at the recent championships.
Cropley says one of the aspects of rugby that she really enjoys is the camaraderie between the players. She says that at the level she’s playing at, her teammates have a good understanding of the sport and they can work well together.
“It’s not so much about the sport that you’re involved with; it’s more about the community and the friendships and stuff like that,” she says.
Cropley says it’s great to meet people from different areas who have had different life experiences than she has.
From August 2 to 9, Cropley will be at the U18 Canada West Development Camp in Victoria, where she could be selected to play for the U18 Team Canada.
“It should be a really great experience,” says Cropley. “Even if I don’t end up making it further on from that, it’s still great to have that level of coaching, and hang out with the people that are there.”
Right now Cropley is taking a gap year between high school and college so she can upgrade some of her courses, but she is planning to pursue a rugby scholarship when she does go to post-secondary.
My battle with birds and my war on wasps
Folks, this month I find myself at war with nature. And so far it looks like nature is winning
Last night I was awoken by the sound of crashing from right outside the bedroom window.
Seasons in the sun (and rain, and smoke)
First it was caterpillars. Then it was rain. Then it was smoke. Then it was more rain. Then it was mosquitoes. Then it was moths. And then it was tornadoes.
Perseverance pays off on rugby field
Local rugby player Lucy Cropley has returned from the Canadian Rugby Championships where she played on Alberta’s U19 travelling team.
More than just a bald guy who likes cheeseburgers
So this year on Heritage Day. I’ll be reflecting that being Scottish is great. But being Canadian is pretty cool too.
