Advancing the School District’s Strategic Plan
By Corryn Grayston, SD83 School Trustee – Area 3
Corryn Grayston
We have continued to move the 5 Year Strategic Plan process forward through a recent public survey utilizing ThoughtExchange. This program allows for a more robust collection of thoughts/feedback from participants. In addition to providing your feedback, participants rate existing responses to assist in analysing and identifying priorities for our District. The survey was extended to January 23, 2023 and at last count we had over 18,000 ratings from participants.
This survey is just one of the tools to be used to help us build the Strategic Plan. We are also taking the conversation to a variety of in-person sessions throughout the District. These in-person sessions will be held as follows and I encourage you to join the discussion. For transparency I’ve included all the sessions, recognizing that some have taken place at the time of publication:
Feb. 13 Eagle River Secondary, Feb. 27 Falkland Elementary, Feb. 28 Carlin Elementary/Middle School,
Mar. 1 District Education Support Centre, Mar. 2 Pleasant Valley Secondary.
Monday, Mar. 6 - North Shuswap Elementary, Celista 3:30 – 5:00 pm
Tuesday, Mar. 7 - A.L. Fortune Secondary, Enderby, 6:00 – 7:30 pm
Wednesday, Mar. 8 - District Education Support Centre, Salmon Arm 6:00 – 7:30 pm
As for advocacy, the Board unanimously approved a motion in January to send a letter to The Honourable Rachna Singh, Minister of Education and Child Care and The Honourable Katrine Conroy, Minister of Finance, advising them of the immense financial constraints our district is experiencing due to the lack of increase in the Regular Per Student Funding rate, which has remained unchanged since 2020/2021. We are experiencing unprecedented cost increases in school utilities expenses, fuel for bussing, food for student breakfast programs and other essential supplies and services for our students. We have asked the Ministry of Education and Child Care and the Ministry of Finance to make a significant increase to the Per Student Funding rates for the 2023/24 school year.
We continue to hear parent/caregiver concerns on how to protect our children when they are online. To assist in increasing awareness of this issue and identifying ways to safeguard our kids, SD83 is hosting a 3-part online series for parents that focuses on Keeping Our Kids Safe while online, gaming or using social media platforms. Click here for details.
The next Board meeting is March 17 at the DESC in Salmon Arm (also available online via Teams). These are public meetings and open to anyone to join. You can find the meeting package at Board Meetings – School District No. 83.
In closing, I encourage anyone who has questions or feedback on our School District to connect with me at cegraysto@sd83.bc.ca and invite you to visit www.sd83.bc.ca to learn more about events and work being done in our district.
