Chinook Board of Education approves strategic plan to guide their actions
mliebenberg@prairiepost.com
The Chinook Board of Education developed a strategic plan to guide their activities during the 2023-24 school year.
Trustees approved the plan during a regular Chinook Board of Education meeting in Swift Current, Sept. 11.
“All the things that we have included in the past are still there,” Deputy Director of Education Kathy Robson said. “Our foundational statements, which include the board's mission, vision, values, and guiding principles, which are things that we come back to when we make decisions. We often include our guiding principles in those decisions.”
The plan states that the Chinook School Division's mission is to provide an engaging environment that meets the holistic needs of children while achieving curriculum expectation.
The division's vision is to be a great place to go to school and to go to work. It is a place where students are empowered to become knowledgeable, skilled and responsible citizens who recognize the value of a democratic and prosperous society.
The school division will strive to uphold the following nine values: Integrity, empathy, loyalty, respect, excellence, care, trust, commitment and honesty.
The decision-making within the school division will be directed by five guiding principles. Decisions will be student centred to strengthen student learning and to meet student needs. Decisions will be based on collaborative relationships. Decisions will be visionary to ensure that actions are positive and strategically proactive for a culture of growth. Decisions will be based on accountability and it will be equitable.
The strategic plan incorporates the Chinook School Division Level 2 Plan, which was created to implement the details of the new 2023-30 provincial education plan.
“The province has laid out several action items that they are going to be working on for the next seven years,” she said. “And then in Chinook, we always create our plan based on whatever the provincial priorities are. We did that and the board actually did approve our Level 2 Plan in May.”
There are four division priorities in the Level 2 Plan for 2023-24. The teaching and learning priority will focus on improving student outcomes through effective assessment practices that guide and strengthen responsive instruction. The plan includes mental health and well-being of students as a priority.
Student transitions is another priority, which will support learners on their progress to graduation and determining a life pathway. The fourth priority is to actualize the vision and goals of the Inspiring Success First Nations and Métis PreK-12 education policy framework.
“There are some things in this new plan that haven't been in past educational plans,” she said. “The piece around family engagement is really exciting. It's actually one of the pillars of the plan where schools will get a chance to learn about what are some great ways to engage families in their in their child's learning. They do that really well right now, but this will be a new look at it and a new way to help them get new ideas to engage families.”
She noted that the focus on the Inspiring Success education policy framework is also a new addition to the plan.
“That's exciting, because there's going to be some clear direction there around what we should be doing as a school division to make sure that we're incorporating that into the school day,” she said. “And mental health and well-being would be something that's new that we haven't had in educational plans in the past. I think they're starting to recognize that's a really important part of kids learning to be healthy and to be looking after your mental health and well-being.”
This strategic plan has only been approved for the 2023-24 school year, because there is an expectation that some aspects of the provincial education plan will still be changing.
“Normally it would be three to five years for a strategic plan,” Robson noted. “Parts of that will remain in place for three to five years. The one part that is likely going to change would be the Level 2 Plan.”
The school division's goals with regard to student learning and assessment will have to be updated again and it was therefore more practical to only have a one-year strategic plan.
“This is the first year of the provincial education plan and everything in that plan is right at the beginning,” she said. “So they're working on some provincial assessments that they want all school divisions to do and there's work going on in several of those areas that is going to change. So we didn't want to set a five-year Level 2 Plan and then have to go back in and change it, because we feel like we're going to be getting more direction this year.”
Robson mentioned that the school division will be creating various committees to provide input with regard to the implementation of the four division priorities in the Level 2 Plan.
“We'll be reaching out to administrators and teachers, and asking them to be part of committees within those four areas to help us set the direction for Chinook,” she said.
There will be committees focusing on assessment, family engagement, the Inspiring Success education policy framework, and mental health and well-being.
“We want to create committees within our school division where we can look at some of the information that's coming from the province and help to guide where we go within our division,” she said. “So we're excited, because it's a new seven-year plan and we want to make sure that we have some input from the people that are in our classrooms to help guide that and to help make it a really successful plan for our students within Chinook.”
New bussing agreement with Holy Trinity Catholic School Division:
The Chinook School Division has entered into a new five-year bussing agreement with the Holy Trinity Catholic School Division.
Trustees approved the new agreement at the regular Chinook Board of Education meeting, Sept. 11.
The new agreement will apply until August 2028. It replaces a previous five-year agreement between the two school divisions that was in effect until Aug. 31, 2023.
Sharie Sloman, the chief financial officer for the Chinook School Division, said the new agreement is basically similar to the old one.
“So far everything has been working well,” she mentioned. “That's why we've reviewed it again to see if there were any other areas that come up and both sides seem to be happy with the agreement with maybe a few small tweaks.”
Chinook School Division will continue to transport grades K-8 students within the Swift Current school catchment to All Saints Catholic School. It will also provide courtesy bussing for Holy Trinity students in the Shaunavon catchment.
“It basically just covers cost,” she said. “We figure out what the actual costs are for transporting those kids, and then that's what Holy Trinity reimburses us for. … We just incorporate them right in with our students. So they would just be at the same bus stop as the other students would be, and then we would get them to school via that route.”
Chinook School Division transported approximately 480 Holy Trinity students in the 2022-23 school year.