About 70 community members came out to let the school board know what they liked and what they wanted to see change in School District No. 46 (SD46) during a strategic plan public consultation meeting held March 9 at Chatelech Secondary School.
The meeting was meant to gather information from the public to help shape a new strategic plan that will guide the school board until 2019.
“The board is accountable to the community, and with our new term we’re accountable to you for four years. So one of the things that we need in those four years is to know what the community wants and to know what the community needs,” said SD46 board chair Betty Baxter at the start of the meeting.
“So this is an incredibly important time for the board, and we are so appreciative of you taking the time to share your ideas with us today.”
Attendees were divided into groups to brainstorm about what SD46 was doing well and what areas they saw for improvement.
While the answers ranged between the groups, most acknowledged SD46 was succeeding in creating partnerships to provide more learning opportunities for students, that it’s on the right track with the nature program at Davis Bay Elementary School and that engaging, enthusiastic teachers are a strength of the school district.
Groups also generally agreed that more should be done to help students in the area of mental health, that hands-on learning outside the classroom is important and that more high school programs leading to employment would be valuable.
Other ideas for change included creating courses that teach students how to better use technology, to increase the financial literacy of students before graduation, to encourage a more holistic teaching of kids and to provide an increased awareness of the programs that are already available in SD46.
By the end of the two-hour consultation, the school district had gathered pages of information from attendees.
“The trustees now have an enormous task,” said SD46 superintendent of schools Patrick Bocking at the end of the meeting, noting the feedback from the community would be sorted and organized along with other feedback received.
In addition to the public consultation meeting, SD46 is also garnering feedback from parent advisory councils, teachers and students, and there is an online survey at www.sd46.bc.ca that will remain open until March 23 to receive further comments from the community.
Baxter said the board will meet for two half-days to take the data gathered and try to develop themes that can be integrated into a plan.
The board’s goal is to have a draft strategic plan out for comment by May 12 and that it be finalized and adopted by June 9.
“That gives our senior staff the summer to look at an implementation plan,” Baxter said, adding she hopes it can be “distributed and celebrated in schools” in September when school starts again.
