September 28, 2018 ~ WEST SHORE.
by Mary P Brooke
“The trend is growth,” said SD62 Associate Superintendent Paul Block in his report to trustees at the September 25 board meeting.
While an enrollment projection of 10,209 students was determined in June for this 2018-2019 academic year, over the summer more families with young children arrived in the west shore and Sooke. An influx of 509 more students in K-12 saw enrollment reach 10,432 (Sept 22).
Final numbers to be supported with BC Ministry of Education funding will be determined effective September 30 for this academic year.
SD62 has increased their number of counselors to just over 20 FTE’s, which is five more than the required ratio. A counselor’s salary (including benefits) is generally about $100,000 said SD62 Secretary-Treasurer Harold Cull. “We are well beyond our contractual obligation,” said Block.
“Schools are staffed at levels that meet the needs of increased enrollment and legislated class sizes and specialist-teacher ratios now,” it was stated in the board presentation. Enough French Immersion teachers were found for this fall (a shortfall was the concern earlier this year). SD62 Human Resources Executive Director Dan Haley said that the only hiring shortage now is among educational assistants (EAs). That same evening, the CUPE rep reported the shortfall in EA staffing as causing stress in the work environment of current EAs.
The board gave approval to their new Policy D-300 ‘Dissemination of Information Through Schools’ which will curtail most things that are deemed commercial or external from reaching students. Whether that is of benefit to keeping students appropriately informed of the world around them is debatable.
SD62 Chair Ravi Parmar reported that Ministry of Education Foundation Skill Assessment (FSA) tests that are delivered to students in Grades 4 & 7 province-wide see the lowest turnout in SD62. He said that parts of the test have been “revised by the new government”. Vice-Chair Bob Phillips said the FSAs grew “from parents wanting to know how their kids were doing in school” but that one or more third-party organizations have been providing FSA results with an interpretation that (as Parmar put it) “some schools ranking low sends the wrong message”. In Sooke over several years, the teachers’ association has discouraged families and students from participating in FSAs, as a way to protest misuse of the results.
Librarians have been restored to every school in SD62, something that’s been a long-time coming since teacher-librarian cutbacks and library closures under the BC Liberal government in years past.
At the Tuesday night meeting, each of the three associate superintendents reported on their designated family of schools: Stephanie Hedley-Smith for the Belmont family, Dave Strange for the EMCS family, and Paul Block for the Royal Bay family.
::: As first published in the September 28, 2018 print-PDF edition of West Shore Voice News