The Northern Lights Public Schools (NLPS) board of trustees added two new goals to their list following meetings with the community.
After reviewing the results of their community engagement sessions held throughout the division, the board passed a motion to adopt the targets to their three-year education plan during their regular meeting on Wednesday, April 10.
Associate superintendent Bill Driedger noted the board wanted to focus on two subjects that were a top priority for participants.
”You came to the conclusion that there was a need to improve the mental health and wellness of students in Northern Lights, and you also concluded there was a need to improve the numeracy skills of students,” he said.
As a result of these objectives, NLPS has a number of steps they need to take when it comes to implementing them.
One is to clearly communicate with stakeholders what the new objectives are, and to reach out to those who participated in the sessions to share how their feedback assisted in reaching the conclusions.
”Very often we ask our students to be part of surveys, we get information from them, we walk away, and will even do something with it. We don’t necessarily let them know ‘hey, because of what you said, here’s what we’re doing.’ We clearly want to communicate that back out,” expressed Driedger.
Board chair Arlene Hrynyk was pleased to see this was part of the process.
”When we ask people to come, we want to make sure that they feel valued and they see their voice is reflected in our work. I really appreciate that you’re going through the sites, and we heard them well.”
NLPS will share specific suggestions that were made during the engagement sessions with their schools as Driedger said there was a lot of good information gathered.
Another step in their process is having a collaborative procedure with administrators to get a clear definition of what mental health and wellness is throughout NLPS.
”It’s not that there’s a right or a wrong (definition) across the province, but it’s a lot easier for us to move forward if we have an established understanding of ‘this is the definition that we’re talking about in our jurisdiction,’” detailed Driedger. “If you can’t articulate what it is you’re trying to improve upon, it’s even more difficult to improve upon that, so we want to make sure that we have a common understanding.”
Along with looking at research on making numeracy a preference, the division will also reach out to school administrators to ask them questions about other schools that have numeracy as a priority.
Considering a measurement to see if they’re succeeding with their goals is another step, noted Driedger.
”That’s a little bit of work to either find the right tool or create the right tool, and also what the purpose of the tool is, because this is really our way of saying we’re improving in this area as evidenced by this measuring tool.”
Being able to keep the intentions front and centre was a process for the division, along with ensuring they continue to focus on their students in other categories.
”We still have other responsibilities that our schools have, and our attempts will be to continue to get better at those as well. But, more significantly, these two areas we really want to make sure we’re keeping our eye on to make sure that we can move forward,” Driedger said.
