School Divisions in Prince Albert are in constant communication with School Community Councils (SCC) in the division. At their regular meeting on Monday, May 25 the board of education received an update on a report to the chairs of each SCC that showed that the division is doing well with matters such as supplemental learning in the division.
The report included items that were important to update the chairpersons on. Director of education Lorel Trumier explained that trustees are attached to each school and generally attend meetings and deliver reports on what is happening at the board level to SCCs.
According to Trumier, one important element was the 90 per cent engagement in Supplemental Learning since the closure of schools.
“We had a high level of engagement on the supplemental learning, which is an optional programs. That’s a very important message for our SCC community leaders to hear so that they know that the student population and the families are engaging and what we are doing whether it is through online and remote learning or remote learning through a paper package so that was positive,” Trumier said.
The report also noted the recent closure of schools until September at the earliest which Trumier explained puts the parents at ease in some cases.
“It gives us the chance to (plan) for what we call COVID preparedness for the fall,” she explained.
Preparing for any eventuality is easier said than done, according to Trumier. The division also recently put out surveys and they are just now getting into the responses. The online responses numbers nearly 350 and they are still waiting for paper package responses.
“Overwhelmingly parents are satisfied or very satisfied with the process we have used for supplemental learning, so that is a good sign,” she said.
“We got some great feedback. The kids really love seeing their teachers in the teacher videos that they create. They love hearing the teacher’s voices. We are pleased about that, that helps us do some more planning,”
The parents and students also appreciate the phone calls from teachers because of the opportunity to speak one-on-one. Other learning methods include YouTube videos and applications like Mathletics.
“There is lots of good feedback that we got, but I think that one of the takeaways is we need to consider all of these pieces as we set up for what the fall may have to look like. Our hope is that we get to be in school and we want to be there for our children in that fashion. We just will have to wait to see what the parameters are for return. So those kinds of things we talked about, registration, our online registration process was talked about with our councils and obviously we highlighted Catholic Education Week and made that known to them too,” she said.
