Submitted by Norm Park, Contracted Reporter for SECPSD
Michael Graham, the curriculum co-ordinator for the South East Cornerstone Public School Division (SECPSD), gave a presentation to the school division’s board members on Wednesday afternoon as part of their virtual school board meeting.
Graham provided a complete audio/video report noting he had a complete curriculum and career development team to work with heading into the final stages of the current academic year. The team supports professional learning opportunities, provides mentorships, resource management, teacher accreditation, credit recoveries and alternative course offerings.
Graham said a mathematics resource pilot project was rolled out for Kindergarten to Grade 8 students this past year and that involved 15 teachers who used and evaluated the program in SECPSD classrooms. He also discussed learning extension programs such as those offered by Canadian Geographic, Centre for Education in Math and Computing and Canada Wide Science Fairs. He provided sidebar information on how some of the events were handled online since mass gatherings were prohibited earlier this spring following the arrival of the COVID-19 virus.
The outreach of the curriculum in Cornerstone is extensive and includes as examples: holistic math and writing, treaty education, restoration practices for classroom management, French programming, truth and reconciliation and more.
Referring to the mentorship program, Graham said they had 12 applications for learning supports for new teachers and he added that this was, “one area I’m really excited about.” This includes renewal and initial applications for teacher accreditation that provides efficiency as well as a cost saving for the educators and the division to the extent of over $32,000 over the last couple of years.
Students and families engaged in home schooling programs have grown steadily over the years and now number 175, Graham said. Their needs are handled within a $40,000 budget with about $250 being assigned to each family for necessary materials and some educational platforms from outside the division, while the division offers their auxiliary services such as driver training and various physical education programs and opportunities.
Near the end of the meeting, a motion by Weyburn trustee Brandon Tichkowsky to revisit the modest $250 fee paid to families, was voted down by the trustees with chairwoman Audrey Trombley conducting the roll call.
Graham reported that most families are “good with communication,” and that a number of students enter the traditional in school programs once they reach the Grade 8 or 9 levels; or, they get engaged in Cornerstone’s Cyber Stone online programming. He also said their partner, the Holy Family Roman Catholic School Division also have home schooled students budgeted through the public division.
Lynn Little, Cornerstone’s director of education, noted that home school programs “are parent delivered using main criteria” from the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education.
When asked about the 25 per cent increase in home schooling over the past five years, Graham said a lot of it had to do with personal belief structures that might include religious affiliation and/or a desire to have more time with family, while others do it because they are members of itinerant families such as farm workers who spend winters in another country.
The seven career development counsellors, employed by SECPSD have been particularly busy this year and two major career fairs had been planned and completed, one at Weyburn Comprehensive School that involved 900 student visitors and 97 presenters and another at Estevan Comprehensive School with 600 visitors and 52 presenters. Other career driven assemblies were hosted in Moosomin, Rocanville, Redvers, Carlyle, Wawota, Arcola, Carnduff and Oxbow.
“We had a field experience that got in just under the wire, on March 11,” Graham said. That was a 19-student and five staff member outing to an agriculture careers program that also included students from the Prairie Valley School Division.
A special scholarship central page that lists over 121 scholarships available to the division’s students has had over 2,000 page views, Graham said. This helped illustrate the variety of services offered by the curriculum teams.
Alternative Pathways, a program to assist students to achieve success in a variety of educational pursuits also caught the attention of the board members. Graham outlined how new paths were always being sought and as a result, a couple of students are enrolled in power engineering courses, others in emergency service responders classes, while even more (14) are engaged in agriculture equipment technical courses and four more are in mental wellness courses that may assist them if they choose a career in social work, he said, as an example.
Eleven credits are available using Alternative Pathways, and 133 students have completed a course with 257 more projected to complete them. Last year the pathways courses attracted 397 students. Special projects also earn credits and 13 schools were engaged with five students having completed courses and another 38 projected to complete.
Apprenticeship courses are offered, but have seen a recent decline, mostly due to the current stagnant situation in the Western Canadian oil patch.
Career work credits are another avenue that can be explored, he said. Sixteen of the 20 schools in the division that offer high school classes are included in this program, with 124 students having completed a program and a further 192 students expected to complete credit obligations.
“A lot of these lead to summer jobs for students,” Graham noted.
Graham completed his report by saying that a financial literacy program has gained traction and was fully implemented this school year and was offered in four schools in Carnduff, Cyber Stone (online), Stoughton and ECS.
Robotics and automation courses were offered at WCS with an instruction technology team offering lesson plans to middle school year students for more complete implementation in their high school years.
