Attending an Education Committee meeting can be exciting with everyone in the room from a union leader to media reporters, senior staff and trustees getting in on the discussion of everything from the food prepared/allowed in schools, current morays on how to raise children, how to get the attention of distracted students, the purpose of 12 years of education, innovative programming and methods of improving skills and moving to a more collobrative approach involving parents and the public.
Salad Bar – Marji Basso and Claire Schwartzenberger – presentation on educating students on nutrition and good eating habits in an experiential programme of visiting local farms and eating nutritious salads in elementary schools. Basso says the 5 year old program has spread to many schools and the students and parents love it.
Basso teaches at OES and mentioned that the programme needs serious funding presently supplied by Hester Creek and Valley First Credit Union. She asked the board to review policy on what food is allowed or promoted in schools.
Inquiry Time (Collaboration TIM Time)
Anxiety in school
School District #53 South Okanagan Similkameen – Chair of Board of Trustees says “I think that as parents we have been too scared to see our children fail and failing is actually part of learning. We have as you know a high percentage of our students struggling with anxiety. I think that all these problems are interrelated and that we should address these challenges together as a community and try to make our students more resilient.
Education of our communities through workshops will help because parents are overprotected because they love and care for their children and want what is best for them, so if we all learn how we can help our children and try a different approach maybe we can make our children more resilient and less anxious. As trustees I believe we have already identified our students ‘s socio-emotional challenges and that is why we have made this one of our focus areas in our vision that we developed in collaboration with our partner groups.”
Aboriginal Education
Jim Insley , Deputy Superintendent – SD #53. “The best way is to look at the EA and pull things out around the ‘feeling of belonging’, pride, seeing their culture in the school.”
Insley filed a report with the board Wednesday that states graduation rates are much better and the sense of pride is increasing in aboriginal students. Based on a question – Insley says curriculum development is in progress to bring more Canadian Native history into the classroom. “Often I think that the biggest accomplishment of all is that I am being pushed by others to make changes, to add programs, to try new things!”