PRPS Board Meeting Highlights for January 9, 2024
The January 9, 2024, Board Meeting Agenda Package can be found here: January 9, 2024, Board Meeting Agenda
Schuler School Presentation
The principal of Schuler School, Lyle Kennedy, provided an update on the school's learning goals, emphasizing educational programming and promoting a strong sense of community. Feedback from school stakeholders highlighted the importance of parent engagement, diverse student opportunities, student voice, and the staff's dedication to making a difference. One of the school's primary education goals is to enhance literacy skills through methods like the science of reading, UFLI, and a vibrant library run by the school's administrative assistant and librarian, Janice Herman. Efforts to promote a positive culture include regular interactions with stakeholders that focus on being "for our community, with our community, as our community." It was also noted that the small school has expanded its sports offerings to include volleyball, basketball, curling, mini basketball, badminton, archery, and track and field options. Additionally, it was shared that the school was recently successful in securing a wellness grant for $10,000, which could go towards funding a greenhouse, outdoor fitness equipment, guest speakers, or even hosting community wellness events. The full presentation can be found in the January 9th Board Meeting Agenda package.
Story about Schuler School by the Medicine Hat News: https://medicinehatnews.com/news/local-news/2024/01/11/schuler-schools-new-principal-has-been-building-off-past-successes/
Executive Report
In the monthly executive report, Superintendent Reagan Weeks shared that the school division was announcing two exciting new sports programs for both baseball and softball. The new Mavericks School of Baseball will begin this spring and will be offered to students in grades 4-9 who attend Irvine School, Schuler School and Senator Gershaw School. The new South Alberta School of Softball will kick off at Seven Persons School this spring and be offered to female students in grades 4-9. It was also shared that two new drone offerings are being developed for students. One is a semester-long course offered in partnership with the Medicine Hat College. The other is a joint initiative with Cypress County, a two-day drone course centred around agriculture and livestock in Seven Persons on March 12th and 13th.
Mavericks School of Baseball: https://www.myprps.com/news/the-mavericks-and-prairie-rose-partner-to-launch-new-school-of-baseball-this-spring-1704825660121
South Alberta School of Softball: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aWI4f0bnqEM2iOt1-OUx9cnOuKUT9mfN/view?usp=drive_link
Story on Drone Courses by the Medicine Hat News: https://medicinehatnews.com/news/local-news/2024/01/11/prps-revamps-its-drone-program/
Building Operations and Maintenance Report
Director of Building Operations and Maintenance Darrell Drefs provided his annual report to the board for information. One of the biggest challenges continues to be the Operations and Maintenance budget, which ran a deficit for the 2022-2023 year ($150,000). Drefs contributes the deficit to several factors including increased utility costs for power and water, additional mechanical costs added in schools compared to previous years, which cost more to run, reduced federal subsidies for summer students (grounds crews), higher insurance costs, and vehicle and fuel costs. Some of the listed priorities for the current year include updating the mechanical rooms at Oyen Public School, replacing the gym roof at Foremost School, upgrading the Senator Gershaw treatment room, and refinishing the SGS gym floor. The other notable project is the Parkside School Modernization, which is currently in the design stage. The division hopes to complete design plans by the fall of 2024, with construction beginning in the spring of 2025. The complete Building Operations and Maintenance Report can be found in the January 9th Board Meeting Agenda package.
Wellness Report
Tammy Toews and Greg Godard presented the Wellness Report for information. Toews gave an overview of employee wellness strategies for the year, including the development of new policies (disconnecting after work hours, workplace diversity, discrimination and harassment training) and the division-wide PD day held last fall with a primary focus on the dimensions of wellness. The division also has a wellness BINGO in January, February and March to promote self-wellness for employees. On the student side, School Psychologist Greg Godard provided an overview of the Student Support team, which consists of Family School Liaison Workers (7), a mental performance professional, behaviour intervention specialists (2), himself (school psychologist) and three service dogs (Timber, Luka, Iain). It was shared that the four most commonly referred cases to the FSLW team are related to anxiety, emotion regulation, and family and peer relationships, which is similar to what the team saw last year. It was also shared that overwhelming pressure on junior and senior high students, sleep problems, use of inappropriate language, social drama, and cyber and in-person bullying are the most common trends school mental health counsellors are seeing in today's youth. The complete Wellness Report can be found in the January 9th Board Meeting Agenda package.
Other items:
- The board approved proposed updates to policies GP#3 Chairperson's Role, GP#7 Regular Board Meetings, GP#8 Board Organizational Meeting, and GP#9 Executive Sessions (In-Camera) as presented.