It is hard to believe that another year has just come to an end.

What an exciting year it has been.

Some of the highlights include the new vision and mission for School District 53, which was developed in a very grassroots and inclusive way, our Team Inquiry model and the completion of our new high school in Oliver, just to name a few.

Dr. Linda Kaser and Dr. Judy Halbert, provincial, national and international leaders of inquiry and leadership development, will be working with our district and schools as they enhance their work around inquiry and developing a culture of inquiry. Both women will be visiting our district on January 30, April 15 and again on August 25 for a day on inquiry.

Plans for January 30 include a dinner meeting for teachers, administrators and support staff involved in school inquiry, and to work during the day with staff members from Southern Okanagan Secondary and Tuc-el-Nuit Elementary schools.

Tentative plans for April 15 include a dinner meeting for teachers and administrators as well as working with the staff of another school and meeting with available trustees in the afternoon to review the district work.

We are fortunate to have these women supporting us in this very important process.

The Ministry of Education have developed a draft, redesigned curricula for several areas and this is now available for review at www.curriculum.gov.bc.ca. More curricular areas will be added as they become available.

At this time administrators are sharing changes with their staff and staff is engaged in conversations about the changes.

Maureen Dockendorf from the Ministry of Education and Rod Allen, Superintendent of Achievement and Learning, have agreed to come to our district on January 15 to provide an update for teachers, administrators, trustees and interested parents. Please consider attending if you are interested in learning about the changes. Contact your local school for details. It will be a full day event.

Our new Gateway to the Trades program will be hosted at Southern Okanagan Secondary School in semester 2 this year. This joint program with Okanagan College is designed to give secondary students the opportunity to explore potential careers in the trades.

Successful students will receive credit for four high school graduation courses (16 credits), develop documented skills that will support employment in a trades related occupation and will be eligible to participate in a Trades Apprenticeship Foundation Program, either as a secondary student through the ACE IT initiative or direct entry at Okanagan College. It will be full-time Monday to Friday for a duration of 12 weeks starting February 10 and ending on May 16.

A qualified Okanagan College instructor will teach the program in the wood shop.

This program will be open to all students in the district. We hope to draw in disengaged students (students who have left school) and alternate students. YouLearn.ca will also work closely with career teachers to register students.

The Ministry confirmed that our Learning Improvement Fund was approved as submitted by our district for the amount of $294,183.

These funds are included in the regular disbursement of operating grants to school districts by the Ministry of Education and are used to enhance the learning environment in classrooms.

School District No. 53 (Okanagan Similkameen) Trustee elections were held at the December 11 regular Board of Education meeting and the trustee leadership remains unchanged: Marieze Tarr, Chair, Sam Hancheroff, Vice-Chair, June Harrington, BCSTA Provincial Council representative and Rob Zandee BCPSEA representative.

The Board of Education also approved the Superintendent’s Report on Student Achievement 2013/2014 as presented by superintendent Bev Young. Some highlights include our steady increase in the six-year completion rates for all students as well as for our aboriginal students.

We are also maintaining our strong achievement levels in reading and writing at the elementary level, and we are narrowing the gap between all students and aboriginal students in reading and writing in elementary school.

Numeracy skills for our elementary students continue to improve. Our pass rate for provincial exams in grades 10, 11 and 12 is between 90-100 per cent.

We are addressing the challenging areas such as student engagement of their learning and our EDI results through inquiry questions at the school level.

For the full report please see the district’s website http://www.sd53.bc.ca/district/reports.

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

From the entire board of trustees with School District 53, I hope everyone has a safe and happy 2014

Submitted by Marieze Tarr, Chairperson, School District No. 53 (Okanagan Similkameen)