A voice at the provincial level

Once or twice a year, school boards across Alberta have a chance to meet together in assembly to discuss and bring forward resolutions to the Alberta government on matters pertaining to the education of our students.

Our local Board of Trustees and administration is heading out to two separate conferences today. The first is the Annual General Meeting of the Alberta Catholic School Trustees Association (ACSTA), followed by the Fall General Meeting of the Alberta School Boards Association (ASBA) on Sunday evening until Tuesday.

St. Paul Education is a member of ACSTA in support of the Catholic students within our division. We also have a director from each member board that meets four times a year at ACSTA directors' meetings. I have been honoured to serve as our Board's director since 2014. The Fall General Meeting gives Trustees a chance to deepen their faith and conduct business pertaining to the Association. You can learn more about ACSTA and this year's AGM at their website, www.acsta.ab.ca.

On Sunday, we start all over again with the ASBA Fall General Meeting. Some committee members may have separate meetings Sunday afternoon, but we all join together in the evening for the opening ceremonies and the celebration of teacher excellence with the Edwin Parr Awards. These awards recognize first year teachers who have made a positive impact on their students. It is truly inspiring to hear from these passionate educators who are dedicated to students.

On Monday, all 400+ trustees from 61 boards from across Alberta join again for a full day of business meetings. The event is webcast through the ASBA website. You can also view the proposed policy positions that we will be voting on at: www.asba.ab.ca.

These associations are the voice of a collective and our voice at the provincial level. It is important that boards meet to discuss the issues they have in common and lobby the government. Each board is unique and advocates for their own students, but as associations, we can accomplish major change across the province. An example is the weighting of provincial diploma exams. Two years ago, at a Fall General Meeting, trustees at the ASBA voted in favour of changing the weighting from 50 per cent to 30 per cent. The government subsequently reduced the weighting to 30 per cent after further consultation with parents, teachers and students.

Change can happen when we join together in support of our students.

Board tours construction projects

One of the best parts of being a School Board Trustee is to tour our schools. While our school tours usually involve meeting with staff and students, our tour on Wednesday, October 26 was strictly bricks and mortar.

We started off the day with a trip to Myrnam where the Village is working towards developing the area as an education hub. St. Paul Education has granted the Village of Myrnam the opportunity to subdivide a portion of land next to Myrnam School to construct the Myrnam Construction Trades Education Centre (CTEC). The Board of Trustees initially approved Phase One which includes building a 36' x 40' temporary structure to the east of the school which includes a paint booth, heating room and a larger room which contains a large table saw and router. Trustees were impressed with the structure and the equipment in place thus far. They hope to be up and running the program within the next couple of months.

Phase Two includes building a much larger structure on the west side of the school, where the subdivision process is currently in place. This larger structure will include a large building facility and classrooms. All of the funds for these projects is being provided by the Village of Myrnam. St. Paul Education has agreed to assist with staff and programming. However, post secondary programming is also being explored with institutions in the area.

Trustees also traveled to Two Hills to tour the new Mennonite School construction. Although the construction has been delayed numerous times due to some unforeseen site conditions, Trustees were pleased the see the progress made within the last few months. The classrooms are large and bright and the main entrance and gymnasium are impressive. The K-12 school will have a capacity of 550 students and will replace the existing school which is on the same site as the new school. It is expected to be completed and ready for occupancy by September, 2017.

School Boards do not build their own schools. In fact, about 80 per cent of our $55 million budget goes towards the salary of our 650+ employees, who are there to serve all of our students. The money to build schools comes directly from the Alberta Government. The government is also the construction manager of most school construction projects. To see the school projects across the province visit their website at: projects.alberta.ca.

Know the Zone - School Bus Safety Week

School bus drivers are an important part of our school system. They are the first staff our students see in the morning and the last staff they see at the end of the school day. They are responsible for transporting our children to and from school each day. St. Paul Education transports over 1,800 students per day across the division, totalling 1.5 million km logged annually. Approximately 60 per cent of our busses are operated by contractors and 40 per cent are division-owned.

My Uncle Norman was my bus driver. We were neighbours, so we were the first ones on the bus and the last ones off. We rode the bus an hour in the morning and an hour at night, so I know first-hand how important our bus drivers are when it comes to ensuring our students are safe on the way to and from school. Since part of our route was on a busy highway, Uncle Norman prevented a number of near-misses by warning kids to stay back when someone went flying through the flashing lights. I also have vivid memories of my uncle plowing through the snow on the back roads, trying to get us home during a surprise snow storm. I had complete faith in him and knew he always had our safety in the forefront of his mind. In fact, he did the same thing, day in and day out for 40 years. Thank you, Uncle Norman!

Driving a school bus is a huge responsibility and I now rely on another uncle to drive my two boys to school each day. As parents, we put our faith in our bus drivers and they rely on us to keep them informed of our busy schedules. There are many rules and regulations our division's drivers must keep in mind and up to date on a regular basis. It is up to us as drivers to pay attention and follow the rules of the road as well. If you are near a school bus, pay extra attention because there could be a child nearby, trying to cross the road.

So, this School Bus Safety Week (October 16 - 22), slow down around school busses and keep our kids safe!

School Councils need your voice

Our division's report card and results of our Grade 6, 9 and 12 provincial exams were released to the public at our monthly board meeting. Although we are generally improving, there were a couple of concerns, including Math. Math has been a concern across the province for the last few years and I know that some of the basics have been re-introduced to our students (ie. flash cards). However, it still needs closer examination at the local and provincial level.

Your child's school results will be revealed at an upcoming School Council meeting and that's why it is essential that parents show up and get involved. We need your voices. Like the saying goes, "It takes a village," and especially when it comes to schools and the success of your child/ren.

According to the albertaschoolcouncils.ca website, "School Councils are structured groups of parents, principals, teachers, students, and community representatives who work together to effectively support and enhance student learning. They provide a method for members of the school community to consult with and offer advice to the principal and the school board."

Because St. Paul Education is a small, rural board, our Board is dedicated to having a Trustee at most School Council meetings. In the month of October, most School Councils will be holding their Annual General Meetings to choose their executive and set their yearly agendas. Even in schools where there is no active executive, most Principals hold informal School Council meetings where parents can attend to find out what's happening at their school and across the division,

If you want to make a real difference in your child's education, it is important to get involved at the School Council level. Contact your Principal, School Council Chair or your Trustee to find out when the next meeting will be held.

Celebrating our teachers

Education is important to me. I would not be a school board trustee if it wasn't. When I think back to the days I attended school, I have some fond memories and not so fond memories, but one constant that remains is that teachers were a large part of my life. From about ages five to 18, students are in front of teachers just shy of 200 days a year. That's about 2,600 days at seven hours per day, which equals roughly 18,000 hours of our lives with a teacher in front of us. I was fortunate to attend university which added many more hours of instruction and dedication to my studies, and although I have more fond memories of post-secondary education, I wouldn't have gotten there without my K-12 teachers.

There are about 276 full-time equivalent teachers hired by St. Paul Education and 381 support staff who are here to ensure your children have the best education possible. Enrolment numbers go up and down, but we usually have around 4,000 students who attend our schools across the division. St. Paul Education is the largest employer in the region and we are very proud of all of our staff. Parents are the primary educators of our children, but these teachers and support staff help shape our future generations.


October 5 is World Teachers' Day across the globe and today we celebrate the important impact teachers make in students' lives everyday across the world. Education has been proclaimed a fundamental human right and this special day acknowledges the essential role of teachers in our society.

In our ever-evolving world, teachers have been tasked with keeping up with technology while continually using new and time-tested techniques to assess our students and prepare them for their future lives. It is up to us as parents, grandparents, and community members to be there to support our children in all other facets of life. As Bob Dylan said, "the times, they are a-changin'" and at a pace that is mind-blowing and sometimes difficult for us to grasp, but it up to us to help our teachers and support staff make the best of our children's education.

As author C.S. Lewis stated, "The task of the modern education is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts."

Why is my child being asked to wear an orange shirt?

Think back to just a month ago when your children were getting dressed for their first day of school. You had, more than likely, purchased them some new clothes, maybe something that they had picked out because they were excited for the first day. Now imagine finding out your children being stripped of these new clothes and never seeing them again.

This is what happened to a young girl at a residential school in the 1970s. Her grandmother had scraped together enough money to buy a shiny, new orange shirt with "string laced up in front, and (it) was so bright and exciting", just how this six-year-old girl felt for her first day of school. She never saw the shirt again.

Orange Shirt Day originated three years ago on September 30 as part of residential school commemoration project in B.C. They used this young girl's story as part of a legacy of the project and now communities across Canada are taking part.

St. Paul Education has joined the Orange Shirt Day tradition this year and is encouraging all of its students and staff to wear an orange shirt on Friday, September 30. Our schools' staff has been participating in the Blue Quills Residential School (now Blue Quills University) tours for a number of years and the Board of Trustees will be participating next week.

It is important for residential school survivors and their families to heal and it is important for all of us to recognize this part of Canada's history and how it has affected generations of First Nation, Metis and Inuit children. We all need to be a part of this healing journey. This is part of reconciliation. You can learn more about how you can get involved at the Truth and Reconciliation website here.

To govern is to decide

We are elected to the Board of Trustees to govern our local education system. The Board is responsible for ensuring that children receive an appropriate education, but it needs goals, plans, and policies in place in order to define our role as governors and our employee's role as educator. The Board of a corporation, whether it be a school board, a municipality, or a large corporation, only has one employee, the CEO, or in our case, the Superintendent. The CEO then oversees the employees and ensures the Board's goals and plans are met. The Board and the Superintendent work together to achieve the goals and plans using respective policies to make decisions. The Board of Trustees has a Board Policy Manual that it uses to make its decisions. There are only a couple of dozen policies within our local St. Paul Education Board Policy Manual. On the other hand, the Superintendent uses hundreds of Administrative Procedures in order to ensure our school system runs effectively. These policies and administrative procedures are constantly reviewed and revised, when necessary, to adjust to our evolving society.

Through its Strategic Planning process, the Board sets its Mission, Vision and Values statements that guide all of its decisions. The St. Paul Education Board of Trustees underwent a community consultation process in order to complete a full review and update of its Mission, Vision and Values statements a couple of years ago. Students, staff, parents, trustees and community members from across the division came together to answer questions and discuss the who we are as a division, as well as the future of St. Paul Education.

Our updated statements are included in Policy 1 of the Board Policy Manual and are as follows:

These are St. Paul Education's Foundation Statements and guide the Board of Trustees in all of its decisions. The remainder of board's policies can be found here.

Budget looks positive for start of new year

St. Paul Education Board of Trustees

Student enrolment numbers are looking stable for the start of a new school year and some unexpected donations, grants and reimbursements were graciously received at our first official Board Meeting of the year.

On Wednesday, September 9, the Board started off the day with its Organizational Meeting where Trustee Starosielski was re-elected as Chair and and Trustee Pederson was elected as Vice-Chair. I was honoured to serve as Vice-Chair the past two years, but I felt it was time to let others serve in this role and I believe Trustee Pederson will do an excellent job. Trustees also selected their respective committees and set their remuneration for the year.

The Regular Board Meeting began with two gracious donations: one, from the St. Paul Legion towards our schools' breakfast programs; and two, from The Spur radio station for our division music programs. The St. Paul and District Co-op has already kicked off its school breakfasts across the division to launch the Bags for Breakfast program; again, with proceeds from re-used grocery bags going towards our division school breakfast program. All of our schools within the division provide free breakfasts for our students so that they are well-fed and ready to learn for the day.

St. Paul and District Co-op staff serving up breakfast at our schools.

The Co-op has been serving pancakes, fruit, milk and juice to students at all of our schools this past week to kick off the Bags for Breakfast program where three cents from each re-usable bag used at their stores will be donated back to St. Paul Education school breakfast programs. The remaining schedule for next week is as follows:

September 19 - Two Hills Schools

September 20 - Racette and St. Paul Elementary Schools

September 21 - Glen Avon, Regional High School and SPAEC

St. Paul Education was also one of 11 districts to be selected for a School Nutrition Pilot Project for K-6 schools announced by the Government of Alberta last month. Ashmont Elementary has been selected to receive $250,000 towards developing a nutrition program. 

Trustees were also pleasantly surprised to learn the division is eligible to receive $341,047 as part of the final distribution of the Alberta Local Authorities Reciprocal Insurance Exchange assets. ALARIE ceased operations in 2002, but final distributions required the settling of all outstanding claims and it has now been completed. This goes to show that our division budget fluctuates throughout the year, and even though we approve at budget in the spring, it is a constant target. 

All of the highlights from our Regular Board Meetings can be found on our division website at: www.stpauleducation.ab.ca/board-meetings.

Getting organized for a new school year

As students and teachers settle into their new routines for the year, the Board of Trustees is also getting back into its regular schedule. Although, a small rural board like ours doesn't go to work in an office everyday, our jobs include a lot of reading and preparation for meetings. The first regular Board Meeting day of the year is also when we hold the Organizational Meeting of the year (on non-election years).

The Organizational Meeting is open to the public and it is where we elect a Chairperson, Vice Chairperson and choose our board committees. This year's meeting takes place on Wednesday, September 14 at 9:30 a.m. in the Board Room at Central Office. The division's Secretary Treasurer chairs the meeting until the Chairperson is elected and then the remaining items on the agenda are overseen by the Chairperson.

Municipal and school board elections will take place in October, 2017, which means next year's Organizational Meeting won't take place until later in October. When I was first elected in 2007, the vote was close and I didn't find out until close to midnight on the Monday that I had won over the incumbent (the previous trustee). With two toddlers at home, I quickly had to find childcare for the Wednesday of that week and prepare myself for the new trustee orientation and Organizational Meeting. It was quite overwhelming at the time, but as I look back, it was also very rewarding. Working with six other board members can be challenging at times, but I can honestly say we have all been there for kids first, no matter how much we agree to disagree.

This is also the time of the month where the Board prepares its agenda for its regular Board Meeting. Trustees are to submit any reports from their committee meetings to be included in the agenda package, and the Chair, Superintendent and Secretary Treasurer meet to create the official agenda. Items may be added, deleted or tabled at the actual meeting and the agenda must be voted on and passed by the majority prior to commencing with the meeting. The meeting day and time of regular Board Meetings is also set during the Organizational Meeting, but this has typically been the second Wednesday of the month starting at 12:30 p.m.

Policy 7 of the Board Policies sets out the rules for meetings and can be found here. This policy has recently gone through a number of revisions and will be reviewed and passed at the Board Meeting on September 14.

The final leg of another journey

It is "back to school" time for our division's students and staff this week, but it is also the final year for me as a school board trustee. In an effort to further educate the public on the role of a locally-elected school board trustee and to possibly garner interest in the October, 2017 elections, I have decided to resurrect this blog and commit to a weekly post.

To start the year off, I need to talk about the importance of the pipe ceremony conducted by one of our division staff, Cliff Cardinal. A respected elder from the Saddle Lake Cree Nation, Mr. Cardinal performed the sacred ceremony with all of our division principals, assistant principals, central office staff and trustees last Monday, August 22. He spoke of how isolated and uncomfortable he felt when he came to work for our division 12 years ago. Leaving the reserve to work in a non-aboriginal environment was so foreign for him and it is also foreign for many of our students who come from our neighbouring First Nation communities.

For many of us taking part in our first pipe ceremony, it also may have also felt foreign. Like any traditional ceremony in any culture, there are certain rules and practices to follow, similar to entering a new school or a new grade. But Mr. Cardinal was an excellent educator and took time to explain the customs and the stories behind the pipe ceremony.

Aside from the pipe ceremony, our division staff are also encouraged to take part in blanket exercises and a residential school tour through the now Blue Quills University. Our division also holds a traditional pow wow for our students every second year. All of these events and activities are meant to help close the gap between our cultures and reach a deeper understanding of our First Nation, Metis and Inuit students and their communities.

I look forward to sharing information about the role of a locally elected trustee over the weeks and months to come. If you have more questions about next year's election or about our school division, please leave a comment below.