School Policies & Guidelines

At Canmore Collegiate High School, all members of our learning community share the responsibility to create and maintain a welcoming, caring, respectful, and safe environment. Our Code of Conduct outlines expectations for students, parents, and staff, ensuring a positive school climate where everyone can thrive. This code is aligned with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Alberta Human Rights Act, and the Education Act. Additionally, the expectations are reflected in Administrative Procedure 393 of the Canadian Rockies School Division.

Student Responsibilities

Students are responsible for:

• Attendance and Punctuality: Attending school and all scheduled classes on time.
• Dress Code Compliance: Wearing appropriate clothing suitable for school activities.
• Technology Use: Following divisional policies regarding appropriate use of technology and digital tools.
• Respect for Others: Showing respect towards adults, peers, and the school environment.
• Conflict Resolution: Addressing conflicts peacefully through discussion or by seeking assistance when needed.
• Academic Honesty: Striving for personal excellence with honesty in academic work.
• Policy Compliance: Adhering to the transportation policies of the Canadian Rockies Public Schools.
• Reporting Issues: Reporting incidents of bullying or cyberbullying to trusted adults.
• Appreciating Diversity: Respecting and celebrating the diversity within the school and broader community, regardless of race, culture, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, or ability.

Intervention Strategies and Consequences

CCHS is committed to addressing inappropriate behaviour to maintain a safe learning environment for everyone. Responses to misconduct take into account a student’s developmental stage and any special needs, ensuring fairness and understanding. Cooperation between families and the school is essential to resolve issues effectively.

Potential interventions include:

• Discussions: Direct conversations with students involved.
• Conferences: Meetings with students, parents, teachers, and/or divisional staff to address concerns.
• Behavioral Plans: Development of personalized plans involving counseling, mediation, or outside agency support (such as Child and Family Services, Mental Health, or RCMP).
• Time Out: A "cooling off" period for reflection.
• Detention: Staying in a designated area before or after school.
• Withdrawal of Privileges: Restricting access to certain areas or participation in activities, including transportation services and school events.
• Restitution: Repairing harm or damage caused.
• Behavioral Contracts: Agreements outlining expected behavior and responsibilities.
• Suspension: Temporary removal from class or school, either in-school or out-of-school.
• Expulsion: In extreme cases, the student may be removed from the school with involvement from the superintendent and school board.

Suspension Guidelines

Under Section 31 of the Education Act, students have the responsibility to contribute to a positive school environment, respect others, and refrain from disruptive behavior. When students do not meet these expectations, administrators may impose a suspension.

Suspension may occur for:

• Persistent Misconduct: Repeated disruption of the learning environment.
• Absenteeism: Excessive unexcused absences or tardiness.
• Substance Use: Possession or use of alcohol or illegal substances on school property or during school events.
• Fighting: Physical altercations or inciting violence.
• Academic Dishonesty: Cheating or plagiarism.
• Insubordination: Refusing to comply with the instructions of staff.
• Vandalism and Theft: Damaging property or stealing items belonging to others.
• Bullying and Harassment: Engaging in or tolerating bullying behavior, including cyberbullying.
• Possession of Weapons: Bringing weapons or dangerous objects to school.

Expulsion Procedures

In severe cases, the principal may recommend expulsion. This process involves a hearing with the superintendent and school board. Expulsion decisions are subject to appeal to the Minister of Education. Students may only be re-enrolled under specific conditions determined by the board.

Commitment to Positive Student Conduct

The CCHS Code of Conduct emphasizes collaboration between home and school to support student success and personal development. Students are encouraged to actively contribute to a positive school environment by participating fully in academic, social, and extracurricular activities. By fostering respect, accountability, and responsibility, we create a community where everyone can succeed.

Regular Attendance 

Regular attendance is extremely important to enable a student to achieve the highest possible standing relative to his/her abilities. Section 12 of the School Act states....

“A student shall attend school regularly and punctually.”, Section 13 of the School Act states, "An individual who is younger than 16 years of age, shall attend school.” Notwithstanding that, a student is excused from attending school on a day on which the school is open if

1. the student is unable to attend by reason of sickness or other unavoidable cause,
2. the day is recognized as a religious holiday by the religious denomination to which the student belongs,
3. the principal of the school has suspended the student from school and the suspension is still in effect,
4. the student is expelled from a school and has not been given permission to enroll in another school 

The responsibility for regular attendance lies with the student and the parent.  Students must also accept the consequences of their actions should they choose not to accept this responsibility. Students have an obligation to contribute to, as well as benefit from, the learning experience. Irregular attendance curtails a student’s ability to contribute, and often hinders the progress of the class.

Monitoring Procedure

Parents must phone the school to report excused absences (678-6192 then press 1 for the absentee line). Parents are required to phone in advance of the absence if possible; on the day of the absence is acceptable: An absence not called in by parents within 24 hours will be considered unexcused.An electronic phone system will call the home of each student inexcusably absent from one or more classes. Calls are made between the hours of six and nine p.m. Students are responsible for all work missed and in the event of an assignment or test being missed due to an unexcused absence, a mark of 0% may be given.  

In order to promote regular attendance, the school takes the following position for all students:

Parents are asked to contact the school to report excused lates.  For inexcusable absences:  after 3 inexcusable absences (i) notification will be emailed home (ii) after 5 inexcusable absences, a notification will be emailed home and the student will speak with administration (iii) after 7 inexcusable absences the student and parent must meet with administration to discuss the creation of a plan for student success.

An electronic phone system will call the home of each student inexcusably absent from one or more classes.  Calls will be made between 6:00 pm and 9:00 pm.  Attendance profiles are available at any time and will be sent home as the situation requires.

Students may be withdrawn from a course for not meeting the requirements for success that may include the lack of attendance.  Administration has the right enroll any student as a fulltime Inreach/Outreach student. If a student is directed to become a fulltime Inreach/Outreach student, they may not return to regular classes at CCHS until they demonstrate a commitment to their education by earning a minimum of 15 Credits in that program.  

Student Lates

Students are expected to be on time for all classes. The school schedule allows students sufficient time to get to class on time. Being late disrupts the class. Students, who are excusably late, i.e. medical appointments, should check in at the office. For other lates, students should report directly to their class. Parents may call the school to report lates. The responsibility for dealing with tardiness rests with the teacher. Students who are chronically late will be referred to an administrator.  Repeated tardiness will be considered an attendance problem and will be dealt with according to the Attendance Policy.

Important: It is the responsibility of the teacher to take attendance and record it on the attendance bubble sheets. It is the responsibility of the student who has arrived late to notify the teachers that they have arrived.

CCHS Academic Integrity Policy

The Center for Academic Integrity (CAI) defines academic integrity as a commitment, even in the face of adversity, to five fundamental values:  honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility – principles of behavior that enable academic communities to thrive and foster a passion for learning.

At Canmore Collegiate High School, we hold students accountable for the principled use of the ideas and words of themselves and others, in respect for students’ development as lifelong learners.  Therefore, we strive to teach students the ethic of responsibly documenting the ideas of others in all formats. 

Plagiarism is defined as stealing and passing off the ideas, images, data or words of another as one’s own, in any academic writing or other project, without crediting the source.

Cheating is defined as using someone else’s words, work, test answers, or ideas, so as to give or gain an unfair advantage

Fraud is defined as deliberate deception practiced to secure unfair or unlawful gain.

The core value of Academic Integrity, is the idea that a student presents ideas that are their own, that are created by them and presented as such (please reference UCalgary for an example). While it is acceptable to build on the work of others and integrate these ideas into your work, you must cite this work to acknowledge who authored these ideas.

In recent years, technology has created useful tools to assist people in writing (Speech-to-Text, Grammarly etc.) and in numeracy (Geogebra, WolfRam Alpha etc.). Working with their teachers, students have been using these tools to successfully help them in their learning.

The rapid development of AI has accelerated the power of these tools so that they not only aid in the creation and communication of ideas, but in some cases create the actual work. While it is acceptable to use AI tools to assist in the creation and communication of ideas, the work must still be your own and the use of AI tools in the process must be acknowledged.

Students who would like to use AI tools in their school work, must discuss with the teacher how and to what extent the AI tool is being used. Failure to have this conversation with your teacher, to agree upon how the AI tool is used, will be considered a breach in our Academic Integrity Policy. In plain English - this will be viewed as cheating and will be dealt with in accordance with our Academic Integrity Policy in our student handbook.

Consequences, and Opportunity for Learning

All instances of plagiarism/cheating/fraud will be handled on an individual basis, to determine what options, if any, will be accorded to the student to learn from his/her first error in judgment.  Upon confirmation of plagiarism, consequences will include one or more of the following:

• classroom teacher will contact both the student and the parent/guardian of the student by phone or in person
• opportunity to redo the project/assignment
• opportunity to redo the project/assignment from an earlier, satisfactorily met checkpoint
• a requirement to add the appropriate documentation that is missing
• no second opportunity

Depending on the severity and/or frequency of plagiarism/cheating/fraud, a student will be required to speak to the Academic Standards Committee (comprised of the principal, Assistant Principal, teacher involved).  In such situations, a student will have only one “second opportunity” offer in his/her high school career.  A second offense will lead to a zero, without opportunity for redress.

Use of AI to prepare for Provincial Testing

Students will use the school provided secure testing environment to complete all Provincial Testing. The use of any type of Artificial Intelligence or similar applications is prohibited during both the testing and the preparation stages (ex. studying using AI resources). 

Students are subject to the Provincial Testing regulations if they violate this policy.  Students are responsible for knowing and being up to date on current directives from Alberta Education.  This may include having an exam discounted which may affect post secondary conditional acceptances among other consequences.  

The intent of this policy is to limit distractions in the classroom and enhance the conditions required for optimal student learning. It is in alignment with Ministerial Order #014/2024 and our Division Administrative Procedures 140, 145, 146.  CRPS has met the requirements in the Order for limiting social media on CRPS wifi and these sites can no longer be accessed while using our network.  

• Students will not be allowed to have any personal cell phones, tablets or bluetooth/internet connected devices (ex. earbuds) out or in use during class (store in lockers or backpacks, not on your person)
• Laptops or Chromebooks must be used only for instructional purposes during classroom instructional hours
• Smartwatches must have notifications turned off during classroom instructional hours and should only be used for telling the time
• Phones, tablets, smartwatches (functions beyond telling the time) or bluetooth connected devices are not allowed to be used in public spaces in the school during classroom instructional hours (including during grade 12 ‘spares’)
• Medical exemptions requiring the use of personal devices (blood sugar monitoring etc.) will be discussed with individual families as needed - please contact administration
• 1st time a device is out or misused during class instructional hours = removed to the office for the rest of the day, student may pick up at the end of the day
• 2nd time a device is out or misused during class instructional hours = removed to the office for the rest of the day, phone call home, student may pick up the phone after a parent/guardian has been successfully contacted
• 3rd time or subsequent times a device is out or misused during class instructional hours - removed to the office for the rest of the day, parent/guardian must pick up the phone in person
• This policy is in effect as of August 26th 2024
• This policy will be posted in all classrooms

To ensure the safety and privacy of all students and staff and to ensure that the educational environment is not disrupted,

• recording devices (which would include cell phone cameras) should not be brought to school (video and audio recording devices are not to be used in the school without the consent of school staff)
• operation of any electronic device (other than approved calculators) is strictly prohibited in testing situations or where testing materials are present

Items in violation of this school policy will be confiscated, given to administration and released to the student at the end of the day.  A second offense will again result in confiscation of the item and it will only be released to a parent.

Students are expected to dress in a manner appropriate for school.  Clothing that displays slogans or graphics that are in poor taste, contain foul language, or are offensive to others is unacceptable.  Clothing that is distracting to others or detracts from the learning environment for example, excessively revealing clothing, should be avoided.  Please respect the modesty of yourself and others.  Through the School Act, school personnel are given the authority to determine the acceptability of student dress.  Students with unacceptable dress will be asked to change or sent home.  Footwear should be of the type that does not cause damage to the facility or create unnecessary cleaning problems.

Certain courses require specific clothing or footwear for safety reasons.  Teachers in these classes will make students aware of these requirements at the beginning of the course each semester.  Examples may include but are not limited to, closed-toed shoes for Foods, no loose or baggy clothing in construction/woodshop, appropriate gym attire and footwear in Physical Education.   

CCHS is a smoke-free campus. Use of tobacco, vape products, or e-cigarettes is strictly prohibited on school grounds. Devices found on students will be confiscated and returned only to a parent or guardian.