November 26, 2014
We are excited that a new trustee will be joining our Board. Rachel Allenbrand was elected as trustee in Oliver along with incumbent, Rob Zandee. The Board had its last regular meeting on November 26 where we bid farewell to Tamela Edwards, trustee from Oliver. We would like to thank Tamela for her hard work and dedication to the students of our district; our Board wishes her well in her future endeavors. The new Board will travel to Vancouver on the December 4 to attend the BCSTA academy. The inauguration of the new Board will take place on December 17 at 3:30 PM at the school board office. We are planning an orientation for the new Board and senior staff in January 2015. One item we will be looking at is our policy for trustee conduct and the regulations and procedures of the committees of the Board. We will also revisit our Vision document and set new goals for our Board for the next four years.
Trustees are still asked ‘what is the work of trustees?’, so I would like to explain some of the work that we do apart from attending meetings. We “set the stage for the production” by setting the budget of the school district and hiring senior staff. We are also the champions for programs and we try to engage our communities in public education. We are the creators of the big picture but we do not interfere in the ordinary running of schools. We have to be the leaders of change through our connections with our communities, students and staff. Therefore trustees need an understanding of what is good for students, the latest trends in education and an ability to listen to and engage all of our partners. Your new Board of Education will continue to work hard to meet the needs of our students and to meet the goals that we set for ourselves, and for the district, never forgetting that our communities entrust us with the education of our children.
Our district submitted the final 1701 Enrollment Report to the Ministry of Education on October 17 and we have a decline of 69 students in comparison to September 2013. This will put us back into funding protection and will unfortunately put our district in a vulnerable financial position again since we obtain our funding on a per student ratio. The October 31 financial report shows an operating deficit for the 2014/2015 school year of $361,611. We will fund the deficit with our Fund Reserve from June 2014. It is important to remember that we have not received an increase in per student funding from the Ministry in the last couple of years and therefore our Board is finding it increasingly difficult to balance our budget with increased costs and inflation.
At our regular board meeting the Board approved a field trip for students from OSS and SOSS to travel to the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Moscow, Idaho from February 26 to 28, 2015. Students from the SESS Music-Band were also given permission to travel to Seattle, Washington and lastly a field trip for OSS grades 9-12 French Language students to visit Montreal and Quebec from May15-23, 2015 was also approved. These are wonderful opportunities for our students – safe travels to all of them!
Our Board has been very supportive and has worked hard to promote the trades in our schools. We are of the belief that for all of our students to be successful in school we have to give them options and so we are very excited to once again offer the Yes-2-It program in our elementary schools. The Yes-2-It program introduces students in elementary school to the trades. I had the privilege of visiting SESS 2 weeks ago where grades 5, 6 and 7 students designed, framed, plumbed and wired a wall. It was encouraging to see students engaged and enjoying themselves outside on the soccer field, working like real tradesmen and women. Thank you to Boyd Turnbull for making this happen. The next session is at Tuc-el-Nuit from November 28th to December 5th. The other 3 sessions will be at Oliver Elementary form December 8th-12th,
Osoyoos Elementary January 12-16 and Okanagan Falls Elementary from January 19-23. We encourage parents and the public to take the opportunity to visit the program when it is in their community.
Our school district will launch its new student information system, MyEducationBC on December 23rd, 2014. On this day our tech team and lead secretaries will switch over from BCeSIS to MyEducationBC. This new program will have teacher, administrator, student and parent portals and is supposed to be more user friendly than our previous system. This will make it easier for parents to be informed about their children’s progress.
A Learning Forum was held on November 12th in Oliver with each of our Oliver schools presenting on their work with Social Emotional Learning. It was a very informative evening and our Board is very proud of the array of unique opportunities and programs that each of our schools offer to our students to support them in their emotional health.
Schools are still being supported in their inquiry work under the guidance of Linda Kaser and Judy Halbert, founders of the Network of Inquiry and Innovation. Judy and Linda were in our district on November 24th and 25th. They did a session for new teachers (new to teaching and new to our district) on Monday and then worked with a leadership team from SESS and the whole staff of SESS after school on Monday. On Tuesday, Judy and Linda worked with inquiry teams from Okanagan Falls Elementary, YouLearn.ca and SOSS. After school on Tuesday, Linda and Judy provided an opportunity for any teacher or administrator from across the district to drop in for an informal conversation about inquiry, to hear their insights from an international perspective, and to hear more about joining the Network of Innovation and Inquiry and grants available.
With the late start to this school year, the district office is now receiving school plans for 2014-2015. These plans outline the goals schools are working toward with regard to student achievement and success, the strategies and structures they are utilizing, and the evidence they are monitoring to inform their progress. In most cases, the school goals align with the inquiry work. Schools are focusing on student engagement, social and emotional learning and deep learning. Representatives from each school will be invited to the January Education Committee to briefly share their plans for this year. Trustees and participants will be able to see how the school goals align with the District Achievement Contract and the District Vision.
James Insley, our Assistant Superintendent, will be retiring January 31st, 2015. He will be greatly missed by all of us and by the wide array of people that he has worked with. We wish him good health, many adventures and all the best in his retirement. Go well Jim!
We would like to wish all of our students, staff and community members a wonderful and Merry Christmas. May the season be filled with happiness and joy.
Should you have any questions, please contact me at 250-498-1333.
Submitted by Marieze Tarr, Chairperson