November Board Meeting - Trustees enthusiastically support Hockey Academies

Media Release - November 11, 2015

Trustees met at Dryden High School on Tuesday, November 10, for a regular board meeting.

Sean Monteith, Director of Education, along with KPDSB Hockey Canada Skills Academy staff from Sioux Lookout, Dryden and Kenora, and Dryden area students, presented the Hockey Canada Skills Academy Report.  The KPDSB began offering accredited Hockey Canada Skills Academies in three of our communities this school year following several years of an extremely successful Kenora Hockey Academy program operated out of Beaver Brae Secondary School under the guidance of Dave Tresoor.  With more than 300 students enrolled in hockey academy programs in eight KPDSB schools for the 2015-16 school year, the reach of the programs is vast and early success of the programs has far exceeded expectations.

Trustees heard of inspiring and encouraging individual stories of students in the programs from teachers/coaches in various schools.  Schools are reporting overall improvements in attendance, and engagement in school, for both students and their families, but also impressive personal growth in the students themselves.  Most notably, staff are seeing increases in students’ confidence levels, a renewed sense of belonging at the school, pride in being a part of a team, the development of strong leadership skills, and an overall sense of comradery and supportive relationships being forged between students in the program and also with their teachers/coaches, all of which transfers into individual student success in the classroom.

The Hockey Canada Skills Academies are supported through important partnerships with Hockey Canada, Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities (who have purchased hockey jerseys for all of the students in the programs as well as full equipment for any families who couldn’t afford it, more than 60 students in the Sioux Lookout area alone), local minor hockey associations and hockey clubs, the Ontario Provincial Police, and many First Nation communities and local Native friendship centers. Without these partnerships, these programs would not be possible and the KPDSB wishes to extend our gratitude to our partners on behalf of our students and staff.

For more information about our Hockey Canada Skills Academy programs, including names and contact information for coaches and programs in Sioux Lookout, Dryden and Kenora, please visit our website at www.kpdsb.on.ca.

Joan Kantola, Superintendent of Education, presented the 2015-16 Special Education Plan report.  The Special Education Plan is reviewed and updated annually with support from the Board’s Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC).  The plan guides our schools and special education staff in supporting and enhancing an inclusionary model of education for special education students in all of our schools and classrooms.  With a focus on early identification and intervention, especially in areas of student mental health, providing pathways to support, increasing and supporting school-based supports, and increasing the use of assistive devices and applications, the plan covers a wide-array of supports available to our special education student and their families.  For more information on the plan, please contact Joan Kantola at 468-5571 extension 236.

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Preload Contract Awarded for New Sioux Lookout High School

Media Release - October 26, 2015

The Keewatin-Patricia District School Board is pleased to announce that it has awarded the contract for the preload operation at the new high school site in Sioux Lookout to Finn Way General Contractor Inc.

The preload operation involves bringing approximately 10,000 cubic metres of granular material to the site of the new school (located on the west end of the Sioux Mountain Public School property) to prepare the ground for construction of the school commencing in the summer of 2016. The granular material will be placed and compacted on the ground at the location of the new high school.

Activity will start this week with fencing off the construction area and building a temporary road into the site from Third Avenue, past the ball diamonds and tennis courts. Some removal of trees and brush will be necessary to facilitate this stage of the project.

The Curtis Avenue pedestrian access route to the property will be blocked off beginning Wednesday, October 28, to ensure student safety. Students will be advised to enter at the southwest corner instead of Curtis Avenue, or alternatively to enter from First Avenue.

The operation should be complete by the end of November 2015. Fencing will remain in place until the spring of 2016 to ensure the area is not disturbed by pedestrian or motorized traffic.

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Enrolment Increases: Evidence of innovative programs, results in new hires

Media Release - October 15, 2015

The Keewatin-Patricia District School Board is extremely pleased to see an increase in actual enrolment from last year at many of our schools across the district for the 2015-2016 school year. Most notably are the increases in elementary and secondary enrolment in Kenora at Valleyview Public School, King George VI Public School, Evergreen Public School and Beaver Brae Secondary School. In the Kenora area, our elementary schools are all over our budgeted figures with 64 students more than projected and 106 more students than in 2014.  Similarly, Beaver Brae Secondary School in Kenora was pleased to enroll 72 more students than projected (in grades 9-12); while Valleyview Public School with its popular French Immersion and Full-Day Kindergarten programs welcomed 37 more students than it had in 2014. Valleyview currently has 98 Kindergarten students, the most of any kindergarten cohorts in the entire Keewatin-Patricia District School Board.

The enrolment increases were also experienced this year in Dryden and Sioux Lookout, with Open Roads Public School and New Prospect Public School seeing a combined increase of 20 full time students over projections. In Sioux Lookout, where the site preparations for the new high school replacing Queen Elizabeth are about to begin, more high school students are registering than ever before as anticipation of a new school is attracting many families from remote northern communities to register their children in Queen Elizabeth District High School and Sioux Mountain Public School. Queen Elizabeth District High School in Sioux Lookout saw an increase in enrolment with 42 more students than in 2014 and 58 more than projected.

With the creation and support of numerous new student-centered programs like the Hockey Skills Academy in Kenora, Dryden and Sioux Lookout amounting to over 300 students registered; as well as implementation of high school graduation coaches, mental health nurses and counselors, more speech language pathologists supports, and a full time ECE and kindergarten teacher to every one of our dedicated full-day kindergarten classrooms, the KPDSB is proud of its efforts to double-up its attention to innovation, promotion and profiling of its schools, staff and exemplary programs. The incredible success of its French Immersion programs at Valleyview and New Prospect Public Schools, have encouraged the Board to consider program options in every school.

The KPDSB budgeted enrolment for the 2015-2016 school year was 4,770 students.  At the regular Board meeting on October 9, 2015, Senior Administration was able to share that there is currently 4,962 students who attend our public elementary, secondary and alternative schools across Northwestern Ontario.  That’s 105 students above our 2014-2015 enrolment, and 192 above projections, and has allowed the Board to hire 8.5 more teachers and 3 early childhood educators (ECEs) this September, with most staffing increases coming in the Kenora and Sioux Lookout attendance areas.

Sean Monteith, Director of Education, stated following the Board meeting: “The numbers are reflective of what we in administration have seen going on behind the scenes for several years, and most particularly this past year, that the KPDSB staff want to: produce more innovative programs that put kids first, result in increased enrolment, and establish clearly that this organization will always fiercely advocate for its interests and schools. As Director, I am incredibly proud of my staff and administration, who have realized that every new student will be registered as a result of a most committed organization to kids.”

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Celebrating our students literacy and numeracy achievements

KPDSB looks forward to the year ahead, celebrates student literacy and numeracy achievements

Media Release - October 15, 2015

Trustees met at Red Lake District High School in Red Lake on Tuesday, October 13, for a regular board meeting.

The October “Students Come First” presentation titled ‘Red Lake DHS Rams Fitness’ was received by Trustees.  Red Lake DHS encourages students to be active and healthy and has been offering a unique opportunity to their students.  Teachers at the school have created 20 minute workout sessions that are offered at lunch and after school.  The sessions vary from week to week with staff rotating so that the sessions are always different.  Trustees heard from RLDHS students that the benefits of the sessions are far-reaching, including a fun way get active and meet new people, allowing students from different sports to workout together, increasing school spirit and comradery among the students, teaching and honing important life skills, and building and fostering relationships with staff at the school. 

Caryl Hron and Joan Kantola, Superintendents of Education, as well as Susanne Bastable, School Effectiveness Lead, and Scott Urquhart, Student Success Lead, presented the 2015-16 Board Strategic Improvement Plan for Student Achievement report.  The plan guides the work that we do in our schools and has three overall goals:

• Ensure increased individual student achievement by providing programs and resources to meet the needs of the whole child.
• Close the achievement gap in order to meet the needs of our at-risk students.
• Communicate to students, their families, and community members that 21^st Century learning is relevant.

Bastable highlighted some of the learning that has taken place over the past number of years that have allowed us to increase outcomes for our students, including the importance of precise and timely interventions, the acknowledgement that professional learning for staff is essential to the success of our students, the value of bringing together staff with various skill sets to better serve our students through an integrated approach, that equity of opportunity for our students is crucial, and that student engagement in their learning is a powerful way to increase student achievement, especially for at-risk students.  Examples were given of this learning, including the early success of our Hockey Canada Skills Academies for improving student engagement and the success of our Kindergarten programs which have produced impressive results.  For the 2014-15 school year, 93% of our Kindergarten students were reading by the time they graduated our programs.

Tracy Lindstrom, Curriculum Administrator, presented the Summer Learning 2015 report.  We are proud to offer a variety of summer learning camps to our students during the summer months.  The summer literacy and numeracy camps are offered to students in Kindergarten to Grade 3 who were thought to be at-risk in their literacy or numeracy development.  During the summer of 2015, the summer learning camps were offered in Dryden, Ear Falls and Kenora.  With a focus on explicit literacy/numeracy instruction supported by a strong recreation component and hands-on learning opportunities, the summer learning camps provide students with the opportunity to improve their literacy or numeracy skills before the upcoming school year in a fun and supportive environment.  Once again, we saw impressive achievement results for students who participated in the camps with all students either maintaining or improving their skills.  For more information, please contact Tracy Lindstrom, at 468-5571.

Kathleen O’Flaherty, Assistant Superintendent of Business, presented the 2015 enrolment report.  A separate media release will be issued with further details.

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Letter to Families - Ongoing Job Action in Elementary Schools

Dear Families, Parents and Guardians of KPDSB Elementary Students:

On September 18, 2015, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO), which represents local elementary teachers, announced plans to increase ongoing job action in Ontario public schools.

Part of this action is meant to increase the disruption that school and Board administrators will face, and to pressure the provincial discussions. This increased job action will see teachers still in their classrooms, teaching the curriculum, but will include things like not participating in extracurricular activities on Wednesdays and not updating classroom websites and blogs or creating classroom newsletters.

At this time, ETFO has informed teachers that unless significant progress has been made at the provincial, central bargaining table by the end of September, they MAY begin rotating one-day strikes. If that happens, we will provide you with as much notice as possible about the status of our schools.

Please be aware, the above information is for elementary schools only, our secondary schools are operating as per usual.

Locally we remain committed to problem solving and constructive dialogue to continue to preserve a very strong and functional relationship between our teachers and the Board. We remain optimistic that resolution is not that far away, and parents/guardians can be reassured that the Board will take whatever necessary actions it believes are required to maintain student learning and safety, and staff professionalism.

Sincerely,

Sean Monteith
Director of Education

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