Estevan residents are either not interested in the public school system in the city, or, they are so confident in its administration and deployment, they are just not concerned.
That could be one message received based on the fact that only six people attended the public consultation session in the Estevan Comprehensive School on Monday night that was designed to gather information regarding the thoughts and concerns the public might have regarding the future of the South East Cornerstone Public School Division. The session was to focus on the division, its students, teachers and infrastructure.
Educational consultants Craig Melvin and Lorraine Thompson led the quiet discussion group as facilitators for the evening as they brought out exchanges on what the division was doing well, what it could do to improve school programming, how the public feels about multi-grade classrooms, graduation rates, achievement levels, school buildings and what they felt should be priority items over the next 10 years.
The Estevan gathering was the first in a series of 14 sessions, five of them being public consultations, while the others will be visits with teachers, school community councils and high school students. Further sessions were held in Weyburn (Jan. 28) followed by Carlyle on Jan. 29; Radville and then Moosomin on Feb. 2 and 3.
Melvin said they entered the consultation process with no preconceived notion as to where the sessions would lead them, but what they do find out from the process will be delivered to the Cornerstone board of trustees in the form of a report and review by the end of March.
Estevan trustee Janet Foord welcomed Melvin and Thompson to the Energy City and introduced them to the small group. Education director Lynn Little then provided the gathering with a quick overview of the division’s four-year plan that included using provincial, school and division data and learning what motivates young students, reading and comprehension skill development plus graduation rates.
“We want to hear what you think about education here and in return, we give you updates on our realities,” said Foord, who then noted that she and Little would be absent from the working session since they did not want to appear to be influencing the discussions that would ensue.
Melvin and Thompson have deep backgrounds in education delivery with Melvin having additional experience on the administrative side.
“We’re in the early stages of looking down the road,” he explained during a brief interview with the Mercury prior to public consultation in Estevan.
He said that realistically, they could only deal with Cornerstone’s future outlook, on a 10-year scale and things beyond that point, would probably be fuzzy at this time.
“We’re here to listen to the community. Are they worried about their students? What are the areas they feel need to be addressed? All topics are on the table,” he added.
Melvin said they had not met with any students yet, but he was anxious to gain their perspective on the public school system, what motivates them and how they stay engaged in their classes, or why they cannot stay engaged or motivated.
The six participants were separated into two working trios who addressed a variety of questions and provided responses and input to the questions asked and adding opinions that were recorded by the facilitators.
