In April the Board and District focus in on innovation. Innovation is about finding new ways to do things, particularly by looking at current challenges and exploring different ways of tackling them. When I consider this topic, I think it can be easily argued that in the last year we have seen innovation and ingenuity like we haven’t seen in years before! COVID has required us all to work together to quickly find new ways to carry out our job duties and responsibilities while continuing our focus on outputs and outcomes. I am proud when I reflect on the last year as I feel strongly that our students and their families, our staff, our public and our trustees have all demonstrated an ability and willingness to dive into innovation in education. I am grateful for the collective collaboration to keep education and the work of our board going during these challenging times. I am curious about what new solutions we have found in the last year will become part of our new every day lives and ways of doing things.
An innovation in education I am particularly proud of in our district is the NEST education program and the many climate conscious initiatives our district has completed to reduce our environmental impact. April 22 marks 50 years of Earth day and it is wonderful that we have found a way to pair the need to care for our planet with an education program. I look forward to seeing what innovations around caring for our planet come from the students in this program as they graduate and join the work force. I hope we can all take some time this April to pause, think about how we can care for our planet and explore new ways to care for our planet.
At the board table our trustees continue to be busy with a variety of district and provincial work and we have many exciting engagements in the coming month.
At a district level trustees continue virtual school tours. We are excited to find connection with our staff and students this way. We look forward to spending time with all the schools in our district in the coming months. We are moving along in the budget process and continuing our exploration of transportation services for students. A new conversation we have started is around food for our students during the school day; we are looking forward to continuing this discussion and seeing how we can make positive changes to food in our schools. Perhaps looking at food as a challenge where innovation can have a positive impact part of this discussion?
At a provincial level BCSTA AGM is this month and we are pleased to have motions that have been put forward by our district for consideration. Our trustees will vote on a number of issues that have been brought to the provincial level from boards around the provinces. We look forward to sharing the outcome of the AGM with you and the new initiatives that trustees will take on at a provincial level.