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.