At the Nov. 18 regular school board meeting, trustees heard that School District No. 46 (SD46) is developing an elementary orientation program to help students learn about career and apprenticeship programs available in high school.
There are currently three ACE-IT programs in SD46, including automotive, carpentry and culinary, where students can learn the skills needed to start a career right after high school.
“When you talk about elementary orientation, it seems like a wonderful idea, but you also have to engage some of our parents,” trustee Greg Russell noted. “Often because parents aren’t aware of what can be offered to their students, they are unable to offer some direction.”
New curriculum
Superintendent of schools Patrick Bocking said the Nov. 21 pro-development day would be used to present the new B.C. curriculum to teachers, which is being implemented over the next three years.
“It’s very different from other curriculums that have been put out in the past in that it’s a very organic model where there’s a lot of teacher involvement in the development of the curriculum,” Bocking said. “This more developmental kind of approach is new, and it’s a little bit less predictable as well.”
He said there is still ongoing work on parts of the new curriculum, such as what assessments might look like, and said more would be decided in the coming months.
“The approach is very respectful of teachers’ professional competencies, so it’s going to be very exciting to see how this all rolls out,” Bocking said. “There are some really great opportunities for some great dialogue from all of our professional people.”
Student trustee
Student trustee Kailyn Pritchard gave an update on the two meetings she has had with the district student leadership team so far, saying the common themes that came up in discussion were about leadership, connections and making change in the district, “which is why we’re all there.
“We acknowledged that our main themes include fair representation for all schools and bridging the gaps between them. All of the district student leadership team members agree that there are far too large gaps between high schools and also the elementary schools, and we’re just not hearing enough about what each of us are up to,” Kailyn said. “So we really want to foster those connections and increase communication there.”
Students were also interested in reducing their carbon footprint and sharing information on ways to do that, she added.
Kailyn said the group discussed having a district fundraiser to help bring the schools across the Coast together “so we see ourselves as a whole.”
SD46 chair Betty Baxter thanked Kailyn for her report, saying she thought it was the “beginning of connections and better communication.”
LIF money
Assistant superintendent Greg Kitchen presented the final spending plan for the Learning Improvement Fund designated for SD46 for the 2014/15 school year.
The two largest amounts, $151,027 and $141,000, were spent on literacy and numeracy support and additional counselling support respectively.
A total of $676,596 of LIF money was spent by SD46 for the 2014/2015 school year.
Goodbye, Silas
Baxter took a moment near the end of the meeting to say goodbye to trustee Silas White, who will leave in December to take on a new role as councillor at the Town of Gibsons.
“We want to give a special thank you,” Baxter said. “Certainly your presence at this table will be missed and your contributions will be felt for many, many years. So thank you for all your work, particularly for your years as chair.”
