After listening to more than two and a half hours of presentations that gave them a perspective of continuing progress on the education delivery-fronts, the trustees of the South East Cornerstone Public School Division still had time on Feb. 25 to look after regular business details.
One of the first orders of business on the agenda, was the approval of the 2016-17 school calendar which is now posted on their website.
Lynn Little, the division’s director of education, presented the board with the results of the voting among staff members in Cornerstone as well as their educational partners, the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division, also in the southeast sector.
Little said all employees were given the opportunity to vote for their favoured option from two final recommendations and the employees selected the second choice which provided a slightly longer break during the Christmas season.
“Really, there wasn’t a big difference between the two this year,” said Little.
Those who worked on developing the calendar were again reminded of the provincial edict that states school schedules are not to start until after Labour Day, unless there are extenuating circumstances. Last year was one of those years, as is this year, since Labour Day falls on Sept. 5. Classes will resume Sept. 1 and continue on Sept. 2 before the long Labour Day weekend.
The December Christmas break will begin Dec. 22 with classes resuming on Jan. 4.
The February break in 2017 will be the week of Feb. 20 to 24 with the Easter break beginning on April 14 and carrying through to April 21.
“We had a conversation with Holy Family administration about the options and they forwarded the results of their vote and it was pretty close this year with 58 per cent choosing Option 2,” she said.
The academic year, will once again, provide 950 hours of face-to-face classroom time for educators and students within a 184 day school year calendar with 10 non-instructional days set aside for professional development or other scheduled events.
A motion to accept the calendar year Option 2, was approved unanimously with trustees Harold Laich and Warren Betker joining the meeting via a computer link-up.
Another motion to dispose unlabelled and expired chemicals found in school division laboratories and science spaces, was also approved. Business and finance manager Shelley Toth assured the trustees that 38 schools in the division have been checked and the disposal would be carried out according to protocol and the expense would be charged to the emergency fund.
Little provided updates on policy tweaks that had been accomplished in the past couple of months including a new four-year plan, early education (intervention) plans for youngsters up to the age of five and literacy and mathematics assessments from Grades 1 through 3. She noted that outcome-based report cards are used for most classes now, but in pre-kindergarten situations, the youngest students are tracked using a portfolio method. She also spoke briefly on English as another language proficiencies for new students where school support teams are used if and when certain students are identified as struggling with English and the information is released only within professional staff circles. She also reported on anti-bullying and harassment items that are now covered by an overarching mandate that includes cyber-bullying and student to student and teacher to student situations.
Earlier in the meeting, approval was given to a regional company for naming rights for two tennis courts that are being rejuvenated at Estevan Comprehensive School to be used for the upcoming Saskatchewan Summer Games in this city this coming July. The company, whose name was to be revealed soon, will have the naming rights for a period of 10 years.
