Members of the Prince Albert Catholic School Division are in the process of finalizing plans for their 135th anniversary celebrations in 2022-23.
Education director Lorel Trumier updated trustees on their progress during the board of education’s regular meeting on Monday. Trumier said a sub-committee of school staff met to generate ideas and now those ideas have been passed onto the board’s own committee for review and approval.
“I think it’s exciting,” Trumier said. “I always say this 135 years is significant in this province because we existed prior to there being a province.”
Trumier said Catholic education is important to families, and the 135 year celebration shows that’s been the case for a long time.
“I really salute our families for knowing what they would like, and what they want for their children,” Trumier said.
She added that the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted just how important Catholic education was to families in Prince Albert.
“During the pandemic every school division saw students come and go depending on the fears of parents and the unknown of COVID, but we had our families stay,” she explained. “They were very committed to staying with our school division.
“The 135th is going to be a beautiful opportunity to celebrate our students and the staff and the families. We are looking forward to doing that, in a modest way,” Trumier added.
The board also worked on plans for meetings with Members of the Legislative Assembly sometime in the fall.
“We always advocate with our MLAs,” Trumier said. “We share our successes, our challenges, and give them some insight into what we do in our schools, what our needs are in our schools, what we are seeing with our students and our families and, again, try to advocate.”
Trumier said that there were a few items on the list they want highlighted
“We do have very high graduation rates, some of the highest in the province especially for our First Nations Metis students,” she explained. “We know how to do this and we need continued support to do what we know works.”
Michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
