Catholic division excited for new school year
Medicine Hat’s Catholic Board of Education is looking forward to a busy and challenging year ahead when classes commence next Tuesday, says superintendent Joe Colistro.
“A new school year brings opportunities,” he says. “We have a lot of opportunities presented to us. We are going to be opening the new school with St. John Paul II. We are completing our modernization at McCoy. We have trustee elections. We are going into a collective bargaining year. These opportunities will keep us busy. Each one will require our time, our energy and our careful thought.”
One of the opportunities Colistro is looking most forward to is rolling out a new nutrition program at St. Louis School and Mother Teresa.
“We are rolling out a new nutrition program,” says Colistro. “That creates the need for a lot of thought as well. Initially Alberta Education wanted us to roll out one school (this year). We are going to try to stretch what we get from Alberta Education, and roll out two schools off the bat.”
Colistro says the main challenge with rolling these programs out is creating the proper kitchen infrastructure which meets food safety guidelines and delivers top quality nutrition.
“We have upgraded St. Louis so they have what they need,” says Colistro. “Mother Teresa already offered up a breakfast program, and they have the infrastructure they need. This has also prompted us to take a look at St. John Paul II, and that kitchen will be ready for a nutrition program should we choose to offer one there in the future.
“It’s been a bit of work,” adds Colistro, “but it is a wonderful opportunity because it will benefit our students. And we are hoping it will eventually extend to our other schools.”
While MHCBE has had its share of budgetary challenges and has had some concerns about enrolment the past few years, Colistro is cautiously optimistic coming into this 2017/18 school year.
“We are seeing some significant growth in some of our schools,” he states. “For example, Notre Dame is over 400 students now. As a result, overall, we are showing some good growth as we enter the new school year. We stay cautiously optimistic because we don’t know for sure what we’re going to have, in terms of student numbers, until we get to school in the beginning of September.”
Colistro feels MCHBE’s course offerings and high marks achievement compared to the provincial average make his district an attractive, public option for local parents.
“Parents want a high quality basic education rooted in a Catholic environment. Our job is to ensure that it happens. Beyond that, we offer a lot of enhanced learning programs as well. We have fine arts academies at elementary and middle school. We have our sports academy. We have AP courses in high school. French immersion ... We really are looking at meeting the needs of all our students.”