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South Okanagan Photos

“Get out of the way and let them play”

action22The ParticipACTION Report Card (formerly the Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card) provides a comprehensive assessment of the current state of physical activity for children and youth in Canada. For the first time, the Report Card takes a stand on play in nature and the outdoors—with its risks—and includes a Position Statement on Active Outdoor Play developed by the Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute (HALO-CHEO), ParticipACTION and a group of 12 other organizations. The full report, as well as assorted posters and communications materials, are available on their website. The message is loud and clear and that is that School District No. 53 (Okanagan Similkameen) our kids need to sit less and move more! According to the report we need to “Get out of the way and let them play”. We need to provide our children with opportunities to play outside as they spend twice as much time being active when play is outdoors versus indoors.

June is always a very special time for trustees as we get to celebrate with our students, staff and communities the achievements and milestones of our students at graduation ceremonies, year-end assemblies and years of service and retirement events for district staff. We would like to congratulate all of our grade 12’s and wish them the best of luck for their futures. We also would like to thank all of our teachers, administrators and senior staff for their hard work in ensuring the success of all of our students. A big welcome to Lyle Chapman – he has been hired as vice principal at Osoyoos Secondary School. He will be joining us from Salmon Arm – welcome Lyle.

An update on kindergarten registrations as of June 17th is as follows: CPS – 31, OKF – 10, OES – 35, OSES – 35, TEN – 15 for a total of 126. We are encouraging all parents of kindergarten age students to register at their local school so that schools can plan their class configurations.

We recently received the Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) results for the district and for each school. Some highlights include:

Grade 4 Reading – 75% are meeting or exceeding expectations (down from 2013/14)

Grade 4 Writing – 82% are meeting or exceeding expectations (no significant change)

Grade 4 Numeracy – 72% are meeting or exceeding expectations (down from 2013/14)

Grade 7 Reading – 74% are meeting or exceeding expectations (no significant change)

Grade 7 Writing – 83% are meeting or exceeding expectations (up from 2013/14)

Grade 7 Numeracy – 64% are meeting or exceeding expectations (down from 2013/14)

It is important to remember that the FSA’s provide us with just one snapshot piece of information about how our students are doing; we use this along with all of the other classroom assessments to monitor student success.

The District Professional Development Day Committee has organized a district day on Wednesday, September 2nd with break-out sessions facilitated mostly by internal educators. There is no cost for SD 53 employees and a bag lunch is included if you register. Trustees, teachers and administrators and relevant support staff have received the registration information to complete if they are attending. The two outside presenters include: Colleen DeVeyrac, an international speaker, teacher and educational consultant. Colleen will be discussing the skills and strategies to increase resiliency in students as well as specific strategies for staff to decrease their stress levels and reactions to challenging situations. The second presenter from outside the district is Dr. Peter Liljedahl, an associate professor of Mathematics Education at SFU. Peter will be presenting on the goals of learning in mathematics. Both Colleen and Peter will be doing a keynote address and a break-out session.

The Board of Education reviewed the final 2015/16 budget at the June 24 board meeting. The budget highlights are as follow:

  1. Total student enrolment of 2,290 FTE; decrease of 52.375 FTE from 2014/15 with enrolment expected to continue to decline to at least 2019 with a projection of 2,038 FTE.
  2. Total budget bylaw of $28.5 million; increase from 2014/15 of $580,000.
  3. Total operating revenue of $23.9 million; increase from 2014/15 of $500,000.
  4. Total operating expense of $24.1 million; increase from 2014/15 of $454,000.
  5. A 5% reduction in supplies budgets which results in an expense reduction of $53,000.
  6. Projected deficit from 2015/16 operating revenue vs. expense is $228,000. With additional required capital expenditures, the surplus required to fund 2015/16 expenditures is $565,000 (structural deficit).

The budget was given all three readings and passed at the regular board meeting.

After receiving feedback from various stakeholders regarding the relocation of Osoyoos YouLearn to the Osoyoos Secondary School (OSS), the Board voted to move YouLearn to OSS effective September 1, 2015. The Board feels that with a structural deficit of $565,000, the savings of approximately $26,000 will be fiscally responsible, especially in the light of decreasing enrolment in the high school.

After two years of hard work and lots of collaboration with the Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen, SD53, the Town of Oliver and the Oliver Community Theatre Society, the Board of School District No. 53is happy to announce that we signed a lease and operating agreement for the Frank Venables Theatre at the June 24th Board Meeting. We are excited at all the possibilities that this agreement and the Frank Venables Theatre will bring to our students and communities.

We wish everyone a wonderful and safe summer and we will see you in September!

Should you have any questions, please contact me at 250-498-1333.

Submitted by Marieze Tarr, Chairperson

School District No. 53 (Okanagan Similkameen