Chartwells Cafeteria Service will be unavailable until further notice.

We sincerely apologize as Chartwells is having difficulty hiring staff to fill the position.

We have been informed that effective Monday, May 12, 2025, there will be a lane reduction on Airport Heights Drive that will impact some of our school’s bus routes. We have been notified by the City of St. John’s that Airport Heights Drive will be EXIT ONLY at the Portugal Cove Road intersection during the construction that is commencing on Monday. School bus traffic will instead enter Airport Heights via the Portugal Cove Road – Viscount Street intersection.

This detour will remain in place until further notice.

For Macdonald Drive Junior High, this detour will affect the afternoon run only, unless otherwise noted, on the following routes:

23-273-04A
23-273-07A
23-273-09 – both AM & PM runs affected
23-273-10A
24-052-02A (Alt)
For further details, please see the attached document:

Click to access airport-heights-detour-macdonald-drive-junior-high-2025-05-05.pdf

The May Newsletter is here!

Click here to view it.

Brookside Intermediate is hosting the Brookside Spring Sprint at Voisey’s Brook Park in Portugal Cove – St. Philip’s on Sunday, May 18th, at 1 pm. It is open to kids in Grades 3 to 9; registration is only $10. The proceeds will be split between Brookside Track and Field and the St. Lawrence Church Pop-Up Pantry Food Bank.

There is a 1 km race for students in grades 3 and 4, and a 2 km race for students in grades 5-9. The course is a flat gravel walking trail, suitable for all runners. Registration is capped at 200, so families are encouraged to register their children as soon as possible if they wish to participate.

There will also be an option to walk/run the 1 km race. The walk/run is open to everyone, and pets and strollers are welcome. There is no sign-up or registration cost for the walk/run; however, a donation is requested on the event day.

You can also find more information by following this link:

• https://sites.google.com/nlesd.ca/brooksideathletics/home.

Families can register runners directly at this link:

• https://www.trackie.com/event/brookside-intermediate-spring-sprint-2025/1019776/.

Friendly reminder that today, Thursday, April 17, is the last day of school as the Easter/Spring break starts on Friday, April 18.

School will reopen on Monday, April 28, and it will be Day 1 on the calendar.

The Youth Climate Corps (YCC), youth activists, community members, and supporters are hosting a Town Hall Meeting.

• FORAN GREEN ROOM
• ST. JOHN’S CITY HALL
• Tuesday, April 22, 2025
• 7:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

This event will bring together candidates, city and town councilors, young people and voters,
with the goal of urging political leaders to integrate YCC into their platforms.

If you are interested in attending, please register here: 
https://actionnetwork.org/events/just-transition-nl-all-candidates

If you would like more information, please click here to download a letter from YCC.

The RNC and RCMP are raising concerns about a surge in youth overdoses linked to counterfeit pharmaceuticals. Bromazolam is a potent, unregulated benzodiazepine and is not approved for medical use. Mixing Bromazolam with opioids like fentanyl greatly increases the risk of overdose.

Please review this CCENDU Drug Alert and consider discussing this with your families at home.

Back by popular demand the MDJH Concert Choir will be having their annual Bake Sale tomorrow during lunch!

Please note that this is a cash only event! Bring your loonies and twonies!

Over the past two years, we have done a lot of planning and fundraising to establish a ½ acre school – community garden in the empty field, next to the school. This garden will become an active teaching and learning space where students will combine various curriculum with growing sustainable and healthy food. In addition, the garden will allow for community access where organizations and families will also be able grow with us.

Over the next few weeks, you will see the first of a number of phases of the garden take shape as we have a fence built around the garden space. From there, we will have a large greenhouse and garden beds installed so we can begin growing this season.

To accomplish these garden goals, we are reaching out to you to see if you might have any gardening tools that you are not using, that you would consider donating to our project. If they are not in perfect shape or maybe a little rusty, that’s OK. We can clean and get them ready for use. Anything and everything is very appreciated and will be put to good use by our gardeners.

Drop off will be at the school on Saturday April 12 from 9AM to 12PM.

If you are interested in learning more about the garden or would like to help out, you can visit the site here: Grizzly Gardens or contact me: chesleywest@nlschools.ca.

Thank you for your support.

Today at MDJH we were fortunate to have a visit from Mr. Fred Fox, the brother to national icon Terry Fox. Fred spoke of his family’s history, his relationship with his brother, and of Terry’s drive and determination to never give up. Fred spoke to the whole school in an assembly during last period, and reminded us that 45 years ago today, Terry left Vancouver to fly to St. John’s to prepare for his Marathon of Hope, which began officially on April 12, 1980.

Thank you, Mr. Fox, for your inspiring visit today.