By Times Chronicle Staff

Following are some highlights from the recent SD53 Board of Education meeting held on January 28, 2025.  

Family Literacy Week
District staff reported to the board on a number of different initiatives that will be occurring during  Family Literacy Week January 26-February 2. Osoyoos Elementary hosted community readers on January 30, Cawston Primary had various activities including stop, drop and read and noisy reading, Tuc-el nuit, OK Falls and Oliver Elementary experienced DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) and other activities and SESS hosted the mysterious Masked Reader.  

SOSS celebrates achievement
SOSS hosted a Celebration of Student Achievement on January 15. Along with a variety of student displays, there were participatory math games, musical performances and food creations. The board noted this event is always very well attended by students, parents and many in the community.

Okanagan Similkameen Days
The Board thanked Helen Gallagher and her team for the work put into organizing the recently held Okanagan Similkameen Days at Osoyoos Elementary School on January 24. With  facilitators and presenters from the Osoyoos Indian Band, Lower Similkameen Indian Band, and  Upper Similkameen Indian Band as well as presentations provided by the SD53  Indigenous Education Team and guest presenters, students were able to learn about many aspects of local Indigenous culture and ways.  

Early learning
The Early Learning Team has had a busy January with events throughout the district, including one at the  Sikh Temple on January 13. There was also a large Pop-up Play event in Keremeos in conjunction with  partners from One-Sky, Okanagan Library, Strongstart, LCSS, Interior Health and BC Ambulance. As well,  the Come Count with Me and Come Read with Me sessions for Grade 1 families wrapped up for the year with the board thanking all the families who came out to learn different strategies to help their children with literacy  and numeracy at home.  

Career education
Staff reported that the Dual Credit Expansion grant application  has been released, and the district will be collaborating with the Okanagan Consortium for the  2025/2026 school year. Applications for the 2025/2026 school year are in progress. A new MOU with  Okanagan College expands the district’s dual credit offerings, and a five-year MOU with TRU has been renewed.  

Currently, the district has a total of 39 students registered for the remainder of this year in the Youth  Train in Trades program. A reminder to parents and students that registration is open for the next school  year and there are already 10 students registered.  

The sampler programs that the district has in conjunction with Okanagan College remain popular and will  continue next year. There will be a Trades sampler that will begin in January 2026 and there will be a  Technology and Health sampler that will begin in September 2025.