Board of Education Report
Following is a brief report of items discussed at the April 18, 2018 Board of Education meeting.
On April 13 and 14, Osoyoos Secondary School hosted our annual Pow Wow for students and the communities in our district. This is structured as a learning Pow Wow to support students and adults in understanding this tradition and to celebrate the culture of the Okanagan People. The Board would like to thank Helen Gallagher and the Indigenous Education Advocates for the organization and planning to make this another success. Thanks also to the staff and administration of OSS for hosting and their flexibility in scheduling the gym.
We are still encouraging parents of kindergarten age students who plan to attend our schools in the fall, to register them as soon as possible in their local schools as this helps with staffing for next year.
 
As of April 12, confirmed kindergarten registrations are as follows:
CPS – 24 (projected 25)
OKF – 10 (projected 10)
OES – 44 (projected 50)
OSES – 30 (projected 40)
TEN – 28 (projected 29)
Administration reported on Network of Innovative Schools Series with Dr. Leyton Schnellert from UBCO. This series is a commitment of 6 after-school sessions that SD #53 and SD #67 collaborated on to engage educators in school teams to build innovative pedagogy and reflect on how and why it is making a positive difference to students. School teams worked together to build on innovative practice through the lens of inquiry. The focus was to discuss why inquiry and innovation are important parts of our practice, to look at how we know if we are making a difference and to discuss how we can support each other to move our schools forward to support all our learners as we explore an innovation unique to each school. There will be a culmination of this series with a celebration of learning on May 8th. All schools will present for approximately 4 to 5 minutes on their inquiry projects.
The Board heard about some great career education initiatives that are occurring in the district including:
Culinary Arts- Chef Training PC1
We are in our second year offering the Professional Cook Level 1 training in partnership with Camosun College. We have 5 students from across the district enrolled in the program with hopes of completing the Professional Cook Level 1 by the end of June. Our lab instructor this year is Chef Courtenay Welter from Miradoro at Tinhorn Creek. She brings a passion for cooking and an attention to detail that is extremely beneficial for our students.
School District No. 53 (Okanagan Similkameen)
Gateway to Trades
We are once again offering a Gateway to Trades Program in our district which is currently housed at Osoyoos Secondary this semester in partnership with Okanagan College. The Okanagan College instructor, Jason Green, inspires the students in a variety of construction trades that will hopefully provide some long-term goals for the students enrolled in the program. This program ends on May 11 with a culminating “graduation” experience where students share what they’ve learned through a demonstration of projects completed, as well as sharing plans for the future. This program has been demonstrating an extremely high level of success.
Health Care Assistant
Finally, we are very pleased to announce that we are entering into a new partnership with Okanagan College to offer the Health Care Assistant Program in our school district commencing February 2019. This will be a 24-week program, housed at SOSS and plans are to have this dual credit program have a capacity of 12 students with 6 of them being high school students. The remainder of the class will be comprised of adults who successfully enter the program. This ratio will maintain a level reflecting a post-secondary program; however, it will be housed in the secondary school. We are very excited about this new opportunity for our students and look forward to putting the planning that has been done into action for this program. We have been working with Okanagan College, Interior Health, and the private providers in this sector to be able to offer this program.
Rob Zandee, Chairperson, Board of Education
School District No. 53 (Okanagan Similkameen)