MARCH NEWSLETTER
Judi Hunter – Ward 5 Trustee
February is a short month as it includes a break for Teachers’ Convention, giving students a week-long break. The Board of Trustees is now developing the Budget for the 2022-2023 year. The budget is based on the funds received from the Alberta government. The funding model consists of a variety of components, and there are rules around each of the various components. Funding model for those who are interested can be found at: https://open.alberta.ca/publications/1485-5542
Each new term, the Trustees visit each of the 53 schools in our District. It is a chance for trustees to understand first-hand the needs of each school, where each school is regarding the implementation of the Board’s 4 Year Plan: I CAN – Connect Achieve Navigate. This document sets the framework for how our division meets the goals of the Alberta Curriculum and ensure that students graduate high school with the skills, knowledge, and attributes to live as productive citizens. The four-year plan is developed with input from parents, educators, business persons, and the public. We are currently ending year three of the plan.
February is Black History month; the following is a link to free Eventbrite session: www.eventbrite.com/c/black-history-month-virtual-events-cwyhygw/
This month the Board listened to a presentation of a Grade 7/8 teacher who described teaching during COVID-19. She described how the public debate played out in the classroom, the lack of continuity in moving from in person to online learning, student absenteeism due to COVID-19 isolation rules and gave a general overview of how teachers responded to support learning in this chaotic time in history.
Rocky View School division has adopted an approach to literacy – called Layers of Learning. This approach represents the current research on how best to develop literacy k-12. All staff are being in-serviced in this methodology.
The Provincial government is going to implement 3 curriculums this fall. New feedback sessions regarding the curriculum are planned for the spring.
Rocky View District Website has a new look and feel. Users should find the website more intuitive to use and easier to find what they are looking for.
Below is a link to a session by Dr Jacqueline Leighton, a professor from the University of Alberta: “COVID-19 and Children: The Perfect Storm of Stressors”, who gave permission to share the presentation. It was excellent and offered ways you can help you child through these difficult times. The webinar is posted online here, and we invite you to view it or any of our previous webinars on our On Demand page.
BATTLE of the BOOKS
Battle of the books is well underway at Springbank Middle School. 72 students formed 18 teams and have started to tackle reading the 12 different titles that will be part of the competition in May. On February 3, all teams participated in the first round of competition and 7 of the 18 teams will move on to the finals later this year. It was a hard fought and close competition! Congratulations to the following teams: The Duckies, No Idea’s, The Books, The Wind Readers, Yellow Mustards, Book Worms, and Book Worms 2. The Battle of the Books is a Rocky View Schools district wide initiative to foster the love of reading.
The Springbank Robotics Team has three teams competing in the Provincial Robotics Competition. If successful, a team could be competing in Houston later this year.
The Alberta government indicates that the Spring budget will include funding for capital work, $1.5 billion will be spent over the next three years on 15 projects, which could be new schools or modernizations on existing schools, with more details expected in the coming weeks. Rocky View School Division is desperate for new schools, so hopefully announcements will include Rocky View.
Judi Hunter
