Board passes amended budget

The School District No. 83 (North Okanagan-Shuswap) Board of Education gave three readings and approval to the Board’s 2021-22 amended annual budget of $97,207,941 at its regular meeting on Tuesday.

Each June the Board approves its preliminary budget for the upcoming school year. This budget is based on preliminary estimates of enrolment, revenue and expenditures. At the end of each September school districts report their enrolment data to the Ministry. In December, the Ministry announces its recalculated funding allocations and then districts’ prepare an amended annual budget.

Because SD83 experienced a higher than projected increase in enrolment (235 full time equivalency students), the amended operating grants summary was approximately $2.06 million more than projected, explained Secretary Treasurer Dale Culler. This amount was primarily allocated to additional staffing and resources that the district required to support the additional students.

READ AMENDED ANNUAL BUDGET HERE

He noted the amended budget included a one per cent (of operating funds) contingency fund ($730,000), in accordance with Board policy.

Culler added the prior year’s financial statement also included an unrestricted operating surplus in the amount of $816,925, which a portion was determined by trustees to be spent on the following projects in preparation of the amended budget:

• Portable at M.V. Beattie for next year (approximately $250,000)
• Principals and vice-principals reallocation between administrative time and teaching ($178,000)
• Flag poles at schools and sites for Secwepemc flags ($150,000)
• Student leadership initiatives ($15,000)
• Indigenous library resources and books ($25,000)

Analysis of Changes to Revenue and Expenditures

Draft District Calendar – 2022-23 School Year
The Board approved the draft District Calendar for 2022-23 School Year for public feedback. The calendar will now be shared with parents and the community for any input or suggestions.

One major change proposed this year is that there will not be a half day of school on Tuesday, September 5. Rather this will be a staff-only day and students will begin the school year with a full day on Wednesday, September 6.

The calendar will come back to the Board at the March meeting for further consideration and approval.
READ MORE ABOUT CALENDAR AND COMPLETE SURVEY HERE

Vending Machine Proposal
Two students passionate about healthy eating and fitness – as well as entrepreneurship – pitched a business proposal to trustees asking to operate a healthy snack vending machine at Salmon Arm Secondary Campus.

Grade 12 students Tianna Shefsky and Austin Beasley, said their vending machine would be a place for students and staff to grab a healthy snack or beverage and be on their way. They will look after the machine daily and have offered the school a ten per cent share of the revenue. They said they the opportunity will change their lives and enhance their educational experience. They feel it will also help inspire other students to be entrepreneurs.

As per Board policy, trustees do not discuss delegation requests at the same meeting. This information will be considered and a decision made at the next Board meeting.
READ PROPOSAL HERE

Secondary School in Sorrento
The Board also had a delegation from Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD) Directors Jay Simpson and Paul Demenok, who presented their thoughts to the Board around a secondary school that in their opinion is needed in Sorrento to serve the North and South Shuswap.

In their presentation they noted that students from that area spend too much time on the school bus, which they felt had negative effects on extra-curricular activities, graduation rates, and school performance. They also noted that their areas pay the most taxes to the system, but feel the area is underrepresented in its number of schools. They were also opposed to the Long Range Facilities Plan options for the Salmon Arm area saying it would set back any serious consideration of a new high school in Sorrento.
READ PRESENTATION HERE

Superintendent’s Report – COVID Update
Over the past weeks there has been an increase across the district in both student and employee illness, commented Superintendent of Schools Donna Kriger in her monthly report to the Board. “Thankfully we aren’t seeing serious illness and hopefully that means we are transitioning toward an endemic state, meaning we learn to live with the virus. We continue to follow the guidelines within the Public Health Order and I continue to be grateful for the families and staff who are complying with the mandates within the order as a means of good faith despite the fatigue we are all feeling.”

Kriger also thanked district staff Reid Findlay, Stephen Ollinger and Bonnie Kelly who are collecting daily absenteeism data to Interior Health and are being the single points of contact for schools, on top of the already busy jobs they have.

Another challenge COVID presented was the high incidence of cases during final exam week for secondary students. She noted schools were extremely responsive and in many cases, students were given alternate ways of demonstrating their learning. Ongoing, timely assessment allowed for some students to be assigned a final grade without an alternate assessment. Other students who had not yet demonstrated the learning necessary were given extensions to complete the course. “Thank you to all the teachers, principals and vice principals who put students first during this challenging time,” she added.

Reporting Order
Kriger also updated trustees on the new Ministry Reporting Order, which will see Kindergarten to Grade 9 students marked on a four point provincial proficiency scale. This scale is optional for Grades 10-12 and grades will continue to be reported as letter and percentages.

She noted that back in October and November the Ministry had a public engagement survey on student reporting. The results of the survey have just been released, and Kriger noted the Reporting Order, which was to have been in effect for September 2022 is now being delayed a year. “This will allow districts including our own to better prepare for the upcoming changes including communicating to parents as well as supporting teachers.”

Local Education Agreement
The first meeting for beginning discussions on the Local Education Agreement was held on February 7. This is a five year agreement signed between SD83 and the four Indigenous bands within the district who have students attending SD83 schools. The current agreement expires on July 2022. Kriger reported that she, District Principal of Indigenous Education Mishel Quaal and Culler attended our first meeting, which focussed on building relationships with one another, understanding what has gone well and what needs to change from the past. “The group spent a significant amount of time discussing the desire and moral imperative of giving Indigenous Students equitable opportunities and working to eliminate the racism of “low expectations” across the district.”

Indigenous Storytelling Month
Kriger thanked Mishel Quaal and Meredith Rusk who worked to ensure that teachers across the district had access to high quality resources and lessons that could be used in celebration of Storytelling Month in SD83. She added this is popular in the prairies and is beginning to catch on in BC with BCIT acknowledging it. “Storytelling Month is a means to teach the importance of storytelling and oral tradition among Indigenous Peoples. Stories about responsibility, respect, relationship, and reciprocity are being shared with students in SD83 schools during Indigenous Storytelling Month.”

Family Fun Literacy Games Night
Kriger shared that SD83, in conjunction with the Literacy Alliance of the Shuswap, is hosting a virtual Family Literacy Games Night on Wednesday, March 9.  Participating families will receive a free Family Literacy Kit (includes letter tiles, word cards, dice, and game boards) to use during the session, as families learn fun ways to support literacy skills at home. 

Late French Immersion
An information and registration session for SD83’s Late French Immersion program is being held on Thursday, March 3 at 6 p.m.  SD83’s Late French Immersion program begins in Grade 6 and is housed at Shuswap Middle School, said Kriger. It is important that families interested in this opportunity for their child attend this online meeting. The link to join the meeting will be posted on Shuswap Middle School’s website.

Thanking Community
Kriger sent a thanks to the cross country ski coaches from the Larch Hills Nordic Society for volunteering their time to help our students learn how to ski!

Filling People’s Buckets with Kindness
Kriger concluded her report telling trustees about Armstrong Elementary School teacher Bev Watson and her Grade 1 class who were filling people’s buckets with kindness recently. The students performed random acts of kindness as well as went and thanked individuals within the school that are rarely acknowledged. The class also compiled a list of important people to thank in the community. They each made a card and the class went on a field trip to surprise and visit the groups and businesses that either directly or indirectly support the school and community. They delivered the cards and thanks to the RCMP, the fire department, the Legion, Askew’s and the Bargain Bin.

Continuity of Learning Plan
With the pandemic, high absenteeism, and some classes/schools going online for periods of time, there has been disruptions to student learning. Director of Instruction Carol-Ann Leidloff presented SD83’s Continuity of Learning Plan to trustees, which was developed in January by the district’s learning team, and proactively planned how to support students between until June.

She said the plan is to help ensure student needs are being met during the interruptions caused by pandemic, follows the guiding principles of ensuring a healthy and safe environment for all students, families, and employees; supports vulnerable learners who may need special assistance; and provides continuity of learning opportunities for all students. The plan also sets out core curriculum priorities, how teacher absences are handled, and a continuity of learning plan for when students are in-person, and for when there is a functional school closure.

Earlier in the meeting Kriger had also thanked the district leadership team, in particular Val Edgell and Jen Findlay, for their leadership in constructing the plan. Several trustees also voiced their appreciation for the in-depth plan and the amount of work which went into it.
READ PLAN HERE

Education Outreach/Distance Learning Changes
District Principal Rob MacAulay updated trustees on the Education Outreach Program (EOP), “The good news is that we are no longer the largest school in the district,” commented MacAulay, as he noted many students had returned to the “brick and mortar” schools. The bad news, he added, was that they were not as far away from being the largest school as they’d like to be.

MacAulay pointed out that EOP serves an important need but there is a certain type of student that does well in that format while others students struggle and are not progressing as well as they would if they attended a brick and mortar school. He said many of these have moved to EOP because of COVID and expects many will return to their home schools. “We are trying to make plans on how to support these students who are moving back and how we help them catch up.”

MacAulay also noted that effective next year the Ministry of Education is making changes to the Distance Learning program and school districts will only be allowed to register students from their own district to register in EOP. Currently there are 177 students from outside the district taking at least one course from SD83’s EOP program.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
The Board of Education passed a motion to add a new standing item to its agenda entitled Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. As this is a change to the Board’s procedural bylaws, staff will now draft up an amendment to the bylaw which will be brought to an upcoming meeting for consideration. Once this has passed it will become a standing item on the Board’s agenda.

Area C & F Long Range Facilities Plan Working Group
Trustee Marty Gibbons proposed a working group for Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD) Areas C & F be formed to look at the long term goal of a high school for that area, additional EOP options for the area, express bussing, access to sports teams and more for the North and South Shuswap areas. The proposal was defeated. Although trustees supported parts of the proposal, they felt other work was more pressing right now. “I don’t think we want to have a working group for 10 years, which would be at least that if we are lucky and it gets fast-tracked. I know staff are so overworked right now with new staff, COVID, and the budgeting process. I just wonder if this is something that we could start a little later. This would be adding more work to people that are already working hard,” commented Board Chair Amanda Krebs.

Graduation Rates
Trustee Marty Gibbons also proposed that graduation rates for students at the various high schools, as well as for on-reserve, urban Indigenous, and self-identified Indigenous students be shared. He said this wouldn’t be to compare the schools and results, but for information purposes.

Kriger explained individual schools receive their results, however being new to the province, she was not sure if it was shared any farther. She did note that with on and off reserve data there is often such a small sample size that the data is masked. “We’re not allowed to share that publicly.”

Education Directions
Committee Chair Trustee Marianne VanBuskirk reported at the meeting presentations were made about the seamless day pilot project at Silver Creek, the upcoming Family Day Event sponsored by the Indigenous Education department, Indigenous Storytelling Month, and the Continuity of Learning Plan.

Finance & Facilities/Audit
Committee Chair Amanda Krebs reported that the committee was updated on the Pleasant Valley Secondary School gym, and that as much as possible is being done until approval is received from the Ministry. “We will be ready to go.” She also noted that at the recent Committee of the Whole meeting on the amended budget one of the suggestions was putting money into Indigenous books and resources for school libraries. She said this was checked into and some other funds are also going into this from school budgets and/or Indigenous Education. She noted a sum of money was still included in the amended budget to add to this.

Quarterly Financials
Krebs also noted that there were no surprises and that spending was on track according to the Quarterly Financials presented to the Board by Culler. “Substitute costs are higher but that is to be expected and we planned for that,” she added. Culler also pointed out that when looking at the financials be aware that some budgets are based over 10 months, some 11 and some 12, so the percentages need to be considered in that light when reading the financial report.
READ FINANCIALS HERE

2022-23 Budget Guiding Principles
The Board adopted the 2022-2023 Budget Guiding Principles, which were developed by the Budget Committee at a meeting in February, as presented. Culler noted one substantial change is that the Ministry requirement is now that districts develop a multi-year financial plan, and that is effective for the upcoming year. “We need to be thinking long term.”
The guiding principles can be read here

Labour Relations
Chair Quentin Bruns reported at the committee meeting they discussed the vaccination order from Interior Health, which has asked the district to collect the vaccination status of its staff and send the numbers to Interior Health by April 1. SD83 is researching a mechanism to do this and staff will be notified when the details are finalized. Names will not be included in the report, only numbers of staff either vaccinated or not. Anyone who doesn’t respond to the request will be entered as non-vaccinated.

Partner Group Liaison
Committee Chair Marty Gibbons reported Partner Group had a productive meeting with a number of topics raised and discussed, including hepa filters and ventilation, hybrid learning, the composition of the transportation and environmental committees and whether there should be more consistent representation on them, the inclusive education survey, and masking.

Committee of the Whole
Chair Krebs reported the previous Committee of the Whole meeting focussed on the amended budget. There is not another one scheduled at the moment however there will sessions on Indigenous Education and Early Learning coming up.

BCSTA Update
Trustee Lachmuth updated trustees on discussions at the recent provincial council meeting and noted that the next Branch meeting will be in March and will be virtual.

Reports
The next regular meeting of the Board is on March 15 at 6 p.m.