Living Sky School Division plans to send supports to La Loche to help people deal with the tragedy there.
Four people were killed and seven injured in shootings that took place in the community Jan. 22. Some of the shootings took place at the La Loche Community School.
Director of Education Randy Fox filled in Living Sky board members on the plans to help at their meeting Wednesday, including sending counsellors to La Loche to deal with the aftermath of the tragedy.
“There’s a real severe need there now for counselling and some other supports,” said Fox.
A number of school divisions have sent counsellors to La Loche, with Sask. Rivers School Division sending eight, Fox reported. The intention is for Living Sky to send counsellors as well.
The idea is to have two counsellors go in and work two-day rotations as a support team.
It’s limited to two days because any more than that and they would burn out, said Fox.
“It’s a pretty intense situation,” he said.
They have talked to their counsellors and the plan would be to have a couple of counsellors go up for a couple of days.
Some names would be submitted to the ministry who could go for a short period of time.
The effort would be a co-ordinated one. Fox noted they wanted to try to avoid a situation of people just showing up wanting to help.
“It’s a question of whether they’re really qualified to help, and then you try and find accommodations for them in a place where there aren’t many accommodations,” said Fox. This way, there would be places to stay and meal plans in place for enough people.
The other need was from Northern Lights School Division, who need support from lead people, as their own officials were “just swamped” with dealing with the aftermath of the tragedy.
“So the business of their school division has really dragged to a halt,” said Fox. This included such basic things as making sure bills were paid.
He said the division’s superintendants and he would be prepared to go to La Loche and help out for a couple of days.
Fox said they would “not let things fall to pieces here” but wanted to be “good citizens” and offer their help.
He called the La Loche tragedy an “unbelievably difficult situation” that took up large amounts of his time over the past week.
Among Fox’s priorities was the need to “be aware of our own students and be connected to our own students,” and if there was any suggestion of a threat to follow up on it. Fox pointed to at least one concerning incident in the division.
“We had one student on the weekend who was seen carrying a gun and heard making some talk about La Loche,” said Fox.
“I don’t want to get into that, but you know, that’s just really concerning. I’m not saying anything would’ve happened but we have to be up front with this … we’d be fooling ourselves to think something like this could never happen to any of our schools.”
In other news from the board meeting:
In his report to the board, Fox said a meeting is scheduled with four of the area’s MLAs on Feb. 29 at 4:30 p.m. The director of education stated that likely topics would include the budget in general, the funding model, supports for infrastructure and supports for learning.
The four area MLAs confirmed for that meeting are Herb Cox, Scott Moe, Larry Doke and Jeremy Harrison. Fox is also hoping to set something up with members of the opposition.
A meeting was held Jan. 18 about the emergency services responder training program. It was noted in Fox’s report that while the program started as an effort to recruit volunteer fire personnel, it has now become an opportunity for students to earn high school credits and begin training for a career in emergency services. The plan is to implement the program in the school division in the fall, offering a classroom component at NBCHS and extend it to other schools through distance learning.
The chief financial report was given by Lonny Darroch, including an update on a bus accident that took place on the afternoon of Jan. 18 in Battleford.
The bus had been travelling northbound from Battleford to pick up more students in North Battleford. But when approaching the Highway 16 overpass, a southbound vehicle lost control, crossed the median and struck the bus, causing it to go into a skid. The bus hit the guardrail underneath the overpass. Four students were on board the bus but neither the students nor the driver sustained any injuries.
Finally, substantial completion inspection took place Jan. 26 at the North Battleford Comprehensive High School expansion.
It was a three-hour inspection and it was reported the architect’s report was to be completed that week as well. The board was informed the new gymnasium would be ready by Monday and the report is the new floor is shiny and the basketball nets are up.
NBCHS has been undergoing the renovation to accommodate the move of Grades 7 and 8 to the high school.
