The Board of Education of School District No. 53 (Okanagan Similkameen) held their last regular Board Meeting for the 2012/2013 school year and what an exciting year it has been.
We, along with our partners, developed a new district mission and vision statement as well as new vision themes and goals that will guide our district for the next few years. Our new mission statement states that: “We provide all learners with relevant learning experiences in a safe, caring, inclusive environment. We promote and inspire personal excellence, lifelong learning and responsive and responsible citizenship.” Our vision statement states we are: “A leading 21st century learning community characterized by strong relationships and partnerships, passion, innovation and excellence in teaching and learning.” We would like to thank all of our partners who worked very hard with us on these statements.
The Board approved in principle the District Achievement Contract 2013/14 as presented by Superintendent Young. This plan included five goals:
Goal 1: To improve the health, social and emotional wellbeing of all students
Goal 2: To create welcoming school environments where students, parents and staff belong and feel connected
Goal 3: To increase transition and completion rates for all students
Goal 4: To maintain the focus and success established for the foundational skills of literacy and numeracy
Goal 5: To increase students’ contributions to the local and global communities
Our district is of the belief that we have to create the right environment for student learning and that students can only learn if they are healthy and emotionally available. If you would like to see the strategies and structures that will be implemented to meet the goals, please see our website after July 15th, 2013, where a copy of the District Achievement Contract will be posted.
SD 53 will be signing a letter of understanding with the Okanagan Similkameen Healthy Living Society. This Society is seeking partnerships with city and town councils, district Indian Bands, RDOS, UBCO and school districts in the Okanagan-Similkameen. The primary purpose is to collaborate to provide services that will attract, engage and support the people of our community in successful and sustained achievement of healthy lifestyles with a focus on children, youth and high risk populations.
Assistant Superintendent Insley presented the 2013 Foundation Skills Assessment District results. We are very pleased with the steady increase in results in Reading, Writing and Numeracy that our district has seen since 2008. This is especially promising if you take into account the fact that according to our kindergarten EDI results, our students are becoming more vulnerable upon entering kindergarten. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our educators for the amazing job that they do with our students.
On June 12th at the Finance and Facilities Committee meeting trustees recommended not to approve the rental of space for a daycare at Osoyoos Elementary School. In February of this year, the Board received an expanded mandate from the Minister of Education to rent space to daycare providers in unused classrooms in our schools. The same month we received a request from PDCRS to rent space from the Board to provide daycare at Osoyoos Elementary School. The Board of Education held a public forum on May 28th in Osoyoos to gather input from the community as to whether we have sufficient daycare spaces in Osoyoos or whether there is a need for more daycare space. We have heard from Osoyoos that some parents would like to have a choice but that there is currently sufficient daycare spaces in the community. The Board will continue to monitor the situation. We will also be consulting with the Cawston/Keremeos community as to whether daycare space is needed in that community in the coming months.
The Board approved our 2013/2014 Annual Budget Bylaw in the amount of $27,210,363. The board faces a $350,000 revenue reduction from the Ministry of Education and increased costs due to items such as the teachers’ pension plan and other employee benefits as well as the return to the GST/PST and increased utility costs. In order to pass a balanced budget the Board will use surpluses from previous years in the amount of $372,329 and implement the following cost saving measures:
- Application of summer school grants for read-and-rec program
- Reduction of staffing at YouLearn.ca
- Reduction in non-essential service contracts
- Reduction of utility costs due to the cancellation of a natural gas contract and other utility cost saving measures
- Elimination of the lease cost for the Oliver YouLearn site due to the opening of the Neighbourhoods of Learning at SOSS
We are very grateful to Buy Low Osoyoos and the Town of Osoyoos for their generous donations to the Osoyoos Elementary School playground. The Board, parents, students and staff are very proud of the community support for this project.
On June 19th the Board honored and recognized 16 retirees at the Fairview Mountain Golf Club. We would like to thank these individuals for their years of service and dedication to our students.
Lastly, we would like to congratulate our 198 graduating students from our secondary schools. We are proud of you and wish you the very best for a successful future. We are looking forward to hearing of your future accomplishments.
Have a wonderful and safe summer everyone! Should you have any questions, please contact me at 250-498-1333.
Marieze Tarr, Chairperson
School District No. 53 (Okanagan Similkameenn)