Submitted by Marieze Tarr Chairperson SD53
School District 53 would like to remind everyone that our Pow Wow will be on Friday April 13th and Saturday April 14th at Osoyoos Secondary School. All grade 4 students in the district will be bussed to Osoyoos to participate in the grand entry at 10h30 and other morning activities. Dinner will be served at 5.00 pm each day and breakfast on Saturday will be from 9.00 am to 11.00 am. Everyone is invited to attend and have fun.
The Early Development Instrument process is complete and we would like to thank all of our Kindergarten teachers for their dedication and commitment to our students and communities by completing this assessment. The data from these surveys are critical to community groups and to the school district by allowing us to study the health and well-being of our children as they enter Kindergarten.
The Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) has been completed by all of our Elementary Schools. Thank you to all of our school administrators for their hard work in ensuring that every student had the opportunity to participate in this assessment. The scores will be entered by the district office and parents will receive their children’s results. The primary purpose of the FSA’s is to help schools, school planning councils, school districts and the province to evaluate how foundation skills are being addressed and to make plans for improvement. The secondary purpose is to provide individual student information to parents. FSA measures students’ skills in three areas: reading, writing and numeracy.
We are very proud of our students (seventeen students in total) who participated in the Skills Canada competition in Kelowna on March 2nd. Three students from SOSS medalled: Travis Nowicki (Gold), Trent Phillips (Silver) both these students competed in the Mechanical CAD division. Blake Powesland won Bronze in the Carpentry division. Ishkarn Hundal from SESS won a silver medal in the Gravitiy Car Competition. Gold medalists will continue on to the Provincial competition in Abbotsford on April 18th .
The Board approved Dry Grad trips for both SESS and OSS. OSS with lead teacher Peter Gajda will be going to Vancouver on June 9th after graduation and returning to Osoyoos the next day. SESS with Barton Tunlinson will also be going to Vancouver (June 9th) and returning June 10th. We wish them a safe trip with lots of fun.
Our Enrollment Report to the ministry indicates 2 429.50 FTE which is an overall increase from September 2011 of 36.125 FTE. Elementary Schools have decreased by 12 FTE, secondary schools decreased by 40.125 FTE and YouLearn has increased by 88.5FTE since September 2011.
We would like to invite everyone to our first Community Learning Forum on April 11th, 2012. This Forum will be at the Board Office and will have an Aboriginal focus.
The Board of Education wishes all of our students and staff a well deserved and safe spring break.