Joan Chambers, the Okanagan-Similkameen Literacy Outreach Coordinator presented the District Literacy Plan to the Board of Education at our regular June meeting. She heads a task group made up of representatives from Interior Health, Okanagan College, SD53, SD67, Ministry of Social Development, Penticton Museum, Penticton Public Library, Child Care Resource and Referral, Okanagan Boys and Girls Club and Communities for Kids to name a few. The Penticton Wine Country Chamber of Commerce is the steward of the group and also a member.
It was encouraging to hear how all of these groups are collaborating to set Literacy Goals for an area that includes the communities of Summerland all the way south to Osoyoos and west to Hedley. If you would like to learn more about this plan visit www.literacynowso-s.ca.
We are very proud to announce that we have 182 students graduating from our schools this year. Forty eight students from Osoyoos Secondary School, 85 from Southern Okanagan Secondary School, 20 students from YouLearn and 29 students from Similkameen Elementary Secondary School. Congratulations to all of our graduates.
District staff and trustees had an opportunity to attend a School Learning Plan Session where administrators from each school shared their goals for the upcoming school year. Administrators presented their student results and shared their strategies and the structures to be put in place to increase student achievement.
Megan Abele, BC Manager for Roots of Empathy, visited our district recently and was very impressed by how embedded Roots of Empathy is in our communities and also by the success of the programs in SD 53. She is planning to host a fall training session for Instructors in Oliver this fall.
If you would like more information about this program please visit www.rootsofempathy.org and if you think you would like to be trained as an instructor please contact Marieze Tarr at mtarr@sd53.bc.ca.
We are very excited to announce that the district’s application for a Request for Proposal to the Industry Training Authority has been accepted. The district will be receiving a grant of $20 000 which will be used to focus on maintaining the work being done in Secondary School Apprenticeship Programs. We will also look at improving the grade 6/7 program to make it more hands on.
We are happy to announce that Ron Rachinski has been re-elected as president for SOSTU for the 2012-2013 school year. We are looking forward to work with him for another year.
This year we have eight teachers and five support staff members retiring and the district would like to thank them for their dedication and commitment to our students.
Our district has received $298 052 in Learning Improvement Funds as part of Bill 22 which was passed in March. Administrators are consulting with staff around the learning needs of students in classes for the 2012-2013 school year and will submit requests around teacher, EA and paraprofessional support. The superintendent is currently in consultations with SOSTU and CUPE with the goal of establishing a tentative spending plan before the end of June. This plan will be revisited in September for further consultations before going to the Board of Education for approval in September and then being submitted to the Ministry of Education.
Oliver Elementary has been selected as the site for the first pilot project for a hub in the district. The purpose of the hub is to centralize services for families in one location. Partners for this project include: Oliver Parks and Recreation, Communities for Kids, Infant Development Program (Okanagan Boys and Girls Club), Success by Six, CAP-C (Desert Sun), Child Development Centre, Public Health and Child Protection. This will be a resource and referral centre for families for drop-ins and appointments.
The Board of Education gave the 2012/2013 annual budget and bylaw three readings and it was approved. We had two budget advisory meetings with our partner groups (PAC, CUPE, SOSTU and administrators) and the board hopes to expand the advisory meeting next year to include our municipal partner groups.
Due to the cut in our funding protection grant (which were in the past paid to districts to offset declining enrollment) we will be faced with a reduction in funding of $337 461 from the ministry.
We will be receiving $298 000 in additional funding through the Learning Improvement Fund but this is targeted funding to help improve classroom learning conditions. It is interesting to note that of our $24 million revenue 81 per cent is spent on Instruction, five per cent on district and administration staff, 11 per cent on operations and maintenance and three per cent on transportation.
Three policies were given Notice of Motion and will be posted on our website. The policies deal with field trips, ordinarily resident and healthy living. We appreciate your input - please visit our website to leave us your suggestions.
Lastly, we would like to invite everyone to a concert fundraiser for SOSS which will be held June 23 at 3 p.m. at Tinhorn Creek Vineyards. The matinee will be performing and tickets are available at Tinhorn Creek. All ticket proceeds will be donated to SOSS to a fund to improve school culture as they face another year of rebuilding.
The Board of Education wishes everyone a safe and relaxing summer. Our next Board of Education regular meeting will be on September 26.