The Good Spirit School Division gave a snapshot of its operations at its Annual Meeting of Electors on January 31.
Superintendent of Business Administration Sherry Todosichuk presented the division's annual financial report. The year was made particularly challenging by the government-mandated transition to Public Sector Accounting Board reporting standards, said Todosichuk, and the annual budget was disrupted by various unplanned events such as $1.1 million in flood damages over the summer.
However, the school division still finished the year with a $1.5 million surplus and a $558,677 (0.84%) difference from its planned budget.
Director of Education Dwayne Reeve covered the division's academic performance in his annual operations report, demonstrating that GSSD students are generally performing slightly above provincial levels and modestly below national levels. An exception is middle years students, who tend to lag behind their provincial counterparts. The cause for this dip between the elementary and high school grades has not yet been identified.
"This is obviously something we're working on," said Reeve.
The division is experimenting with various professional development strategies for its teachers, including CLASS ACT: a program unique to the Good Spirit School Division in which new teachers are brought together several times during their first year of teaching to share experiences and learn from one another.
Val Johnson and Bernice Berscheid presented an update on the progress of the GSSD Distance Learning Centre. Formed in 2008 in response to the Ministry of Education's closure of its provincial correspondence school, the GSSD Distance Learning Centre has since grown to offer 15 courses to more than 300 students from around the province each year. Johnson and Berscheid explained that the division has plans to continue expanding the program into the future.
Reports by students were also part of the evening's agenda. The first of these was by a group of Kamsack Comprehensive Institute students who shared memories of their trip to Italy last year, particularly a tour of the Battle of Monte Cassino site.
Janine Neufeld-Ruetz's Grade 4 Dr. Brass Elementary class then presented their Little Green Thumbs Project, a winter-long experiment in composting and indoor gardening. The students showed off some of what they had learned about food production since the program began in October.
