Submitted by Chair Amanda Amaral
January 11, 2023
Being able to welcome students back into our learning community as schedule may seem like a given; however, thinking back only one year we were still deeply impacted by COVID-19. The return to school was delayed by one week and functional closures were looming. Uncertainty was a constant in our planning. I am pleased that we had a calm and peaceful winter break and we have returned to a place where breaks welcome periods of rest and are predictable for our students, staff and community.
The new year and the month of January brings our focus to our value of Ethics. We understand ethics at SD46 to be “we ensure an environment of mutual trust and respect through integrity and transparent processes.”
It is interesting that as a Board we decided to make ethics a value. Typically, ethics and values are separate and compliment one another. An organization’s ethics are often informed by their values. Another way to think of it is that ethics provide “how” and values provide the “why”. In this term I am interested for the conversation about how we move forward and where ethics finds its place in our work as a Board.
December brought the commencement of our Board orientation and the beginning of our Board evaluation. As we move through both processes we are exploring what ethics means to us and how this definition shows up in the work of our board. What we learn will help inform out next steps in our strategic planning and I have no doubt will influence our new strategic plan and direction. We are excited to share our findings with you in the coming months.
I encourage you all to take some time to reflect with us. What does ethics mean to you? Do you see ethics as more of a value or more of framework that provides justification for decision making and choice? Where do you want ethics to find its place in our Board of Education?