Marieze Tarr
School Board Report
It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to Barton Tumlinson, who passed away suddenly on Friday, Jan. 23.
Tumlinson was a valued member of the school district’s administrative team.
He joined our district in August 2009 as vice principal of Similkameen Elementary Secondary School. On Aug. 1, 2013 he was appointed as principal of Oliver Elementary School.
He was a kind and gentle leader and was respected as a great educator by students, staff and parents alike.
He will be sadly missed and our hearts and prayers go out to Tumlinson’s wife, children, family and colleagues.
At our December Board of Education meeting, the board received and approved the Superintendent’s Report on Achievement.
Some of the highlights of the report show that our students are still maintaining strong achievement levels in reading and writing at the elementary level – our students are above the provincial average in both of these areas.
As well, the gap between all students and aboriginal students in reading, writing and numeracy is narrowing.
Our numeracy skills are also continuing to improve with FSA results showing that we are well above the provincial average.
The six-year completion rates for students improved from 76 per cent to 79 per cent for all students and the aboriginal student completion rate went from 67 per cent to 75 per cent.
Wave 5 of the Early Development Instrument (EDI) shows that our district is one of seven that shows a significant improvement in the overall vulnerability of our kindergarten students.
It also seems that our social and emotional Learning programs and strategies are working as we are seeing a reduction in the numbers of students with identified behavior issues, as well as fewer mental health referrals, and fewer students being referred to the District Conduct Review Committee.
The focus of the district on the trades seems to also be paying off as we are seeing an increase in students graduating with SSA credits as well as more students participating in the ACE-IT courses.
The challenging areas for our district were identified as:
1. Student active engagement of their learning (looking for an upward trend in students receiving a C+ or higher on exams or courses);
2. Participation of students in activities outside the classroom; and then of course our graduation rates;
3. Social Emotional Learning – we know that the need for social and emotional development and support continues through the grades and that this has been a barrier from success for many of our students. We are trying to address this through programs such as Roots of Empathy, Friends and MindUp.
The Superintendent’s Report on Student Achievement can be found on our district website at www.sd53.bc.ca.
All of our Trustees spent a day in early January doing an evaluation of the Board of Education.
We looked at what we do well and areas where we still need to focus more of our attention.
It seems that communication continues to be an area where we need growth and we will continue to put our efforts there.
We also worked on a new policy for trustee conduct and we have come up with some ideas of what we want to see in our new policy.
These ideas will now go to the policy committee, which will then recommend a new policy to the Board of Education.
Superintendent Bev Young has held four consultation meetings with interested staff to get feedback and input into areas of curricular leadership that could comprise the District Learning Team, to take effect in fall 2015.
This team will then take a lead role in some of the curricular areas in the district.
This restructuring is to address the retirement of Assistant Superintendent Jim Insley, who left us at the end of January.
Meetings were held in Osoyoos, Keremeos, Oliver and Okanagan Falls.
Final details are expected to be worked out by February in preparation of applications for Network Team Leaders who we hope to have in place by early April.
We are hoping for as smooth a transition as possible with Insley’s retirement and a number of teachers and administrators have stepped up to assist in carry-through on a few things started in the area of curriculum and assessment.
We will continue discussions to be sure all important areas and initiatives are attended to.
We wish Insley the best of health and happiness in his retirement.
Yes-2-It in the Classroom for our Grades 6 and 7 students wrapped up last week in Okanagan Falls. Congratulations to Boyd Turnbull who made the program a great success.
This program gives an opportunity to our elementary students to explore the trades. Thank you to all elementary staff for welcoming the program to the schools and to all the guest trades people for their patience and for sharing their skills and knowledge.
The district Sexual Health Committee had its first meeting on January 12 and they came up with a plan for moving ahead. The sexual health curriculum for both elementary and secondary schools is in the process of being revamped. Their goal is to develop a strong program that teachers are comfortable with.
To do this, they plan to meet with teachers at staff meetings in April to discuss the goals and field feedback from teaching staff. In addition they are evaluating available resources, including resource people, and planning to pilot them in the next year.
Thank you to Osoyoos Secondary School vice-principal Shannon Miller for leading this process.
We invite all of our parents and community members to attend our next learning forum on Response to Intervention (RTI) on Feb. 11 at 6:30 pm in the annex of the school board office.
RTI is one of the main initiatives of the BC Ministry of Education. RTI is a philosophical approach to teaching that emphasizes the inclusion of all students.
RTI promotes “highly effective” education that ensures that the needs of all learners are met. Allowing for and promoting student differences through the classroom delivery of differentiated instruction is critical to an RTI model. We encourage you to attend!
Submitted by Marieze Tarr, Chairperson of School District No. 53 (Okanagan Similkameen)
