Trustees of School District 53 took their oath of office last week at the board’s meeting in Oliver. From left in front are Rob Zandee, chair Marieze Tarr and Sam Hancheroff. In back from left are June Harrington, new trustee Rachel Allenbrand, Debbie Marten and Myrna Coates. (Lyonel Doherty photo)
We are excited that a new trustee will be joining our board of trustees.
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, the longtime trustee from Oliver.
We would like to thank Edwards for her hard work and dedication to the students of our district and our board wishes her well in her future endeavours.
The new board travelled to Vancouver on the December 4 to attend the British Columbia School Trustees Association (BCSTA) academy.
The inauguration of the new board took place on Dec. 17 at the school board office in Oliver.
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 about what they do as trustees.
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 Enrolment Report to the Ministry of Education on October 17 and reported 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 of Education 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 -28, 2015.
Students from the SESS Music-Band were also given permission to travel to Seattle, Washington.
A field trip for OSS Grades 9-12 French-language students to visit Montreal and Quebec from May 15-23, 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 recently visiting SESS 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 tradeswomen.
Thank you to Boyd Turnbull for making this happen.
These sessions will continue at Osoyoos Elementary School on Jan. 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.
A Learning Forum was held in Oliver in early November 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 in late November.
They led a session for new teachers (new to teaching and new to our district) and then worked with a leadership team from SESS and the whole staff of SESS after school.
The following day they worked with inquiry teams from Okanagan Falls Elementary, YouLearn.ca and SOSS.
After school, they 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.
James Insley, our assistant superintendent, will be retiring January 31. 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.
(This column was written by Marieze Tarr, the chair of the board of trustees with School District 53).
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