Cyber security a priority for the Chinook School Division administration

This is done with the help of a partner that sends out messages mimicking a phishing attack as a means to evaluate staff responses and to identify the need for additional security training.

Cyber security will remain an ongoing priority in 2024 and Booth identified the increasing cost of security as a challenge. Another challenge for the school division is the demand for technology, which is a balancing act between technology needs and the financial and human resources required to provide and maintain the technology services available to staff and students.

“I think we’re in good shape,” he said about the overall technology situation of the school division. “There are always things that need to be updated or replaced. We sort of chip away at that each year and do what we can. We live within our budgets and do our best to try and support those schools and those students.”

Board approves foundation tenders for Stewart Valley School construction project:

The successful bids for the foundation tenders at the Stewart Valley School construction project were approved during the regular Chinook Board of Education meeting, Jan. 8.

Tenders for various aspects of the work were awarded to six different companies. It involves surveying services, concrete piling and formwork, the supply and installation of concrete reinforcing, earthwork excavation and fill, as well as site services. The value of individual tenders varied from a low of nearly $15,000 to a high of just over $200,000.

A sod turning ceremony for the new school building took place on Nov. 1, 2023 and work is expected to be completed during the fall of 2024. The previous school building was destroyed in a fire in August 2022.

(Above/below): Members wave to motorists and walk with placards in downtown Swift Current. ONE DAY STF STRIKE IN SWIFT CURRENT: Swift Current was a demonstration site during the one-day, province-wide strike by members of the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF), Jan. 16. Teachers gathered at two locations in the city with placards to highlight their concerns and draw attention to their job action. Some stood along Central Avenue North at the Wheatland Mall and others demonstrated downtown at the office of Swift Current MLA Everett Hindley. The STF called the job action as a way to express their demand for the provincial government to return to the bargaining table to discuss working and learning conditions in publicly funded schools. The position of the Minister of Education Jeremy Cockrill is that issues such as class size and complexity are best addressed at the local school division level. The STF agrees with this view, but feels it is not possible for local boards to do this due to budget cuts and underfunding by the provincial government. The STF therefore wants government funding commitments towards education to be part of the bargaining for a collective agreement. The STF has announced additional job action after the one-day strike on Jan. 16.