Sask. Rivers board approves Interim Education Plan

Michael Oleksyn/Daily Herald The Saskatchewan Rivers School Division board of education met at the Education Centre in September

The Saskatchewan Rivers School Division board of education officially approved of the 2022-2023 Interim Provincial Education Plan at their regular meeting on June 6.

The board had endorsed the plan at their meeting on May 30 and this was the next step, according to director of education Robert Bratvold.

“We have been doing some revisions on it provincially for the last while and then it’s at a point where we are seeking the board’s endorsement of that for one more year,” Bratvold explained. “The board had lots of discussion around that at previous meetings and had the final approval.”

The provincial government has directed Saskatchewan school divisions to focus on four pillars identified pre-COVID as the divisions prepares their own education delivery plan. Those pillars are skills, mental health and well-being, relationships, and inclusive and safe schools. Bratvold himself is part of the mental health and well-being group working on the plan.

The Provincial Education Council has provided areas of focus for the upcoming plan. The council is made up of educational partners who are not part of the education sector.

Bratvold said the directions from the Education Council are fairly broad, so work has to be done to narrow the focus.

“It’s a challenge as mentioned last night with the long-term plan,” he said. “Currently, it’s really dense and broad. There is a lot in it. Now we have got seven years … to get through it, but there still is lots in that long-term plan.”

He anticipates the long-term plan will be done around January or February of 2023 and will still run until 2030, making it in effect a seven-year plan.

“That’s still up in the air,” Bratvold said. “It was originally supposed to be a 2020 to 2030 plan. I’m not sure if we are going to extend it into 2032 or not, but it will be ready sort of the middle of the year next year, hopefully January or February.

“The plan is really clear, so the school divisions can take the rest of that year to help align their own plans with the provincial plan.”

The new plan will work from a provincial level and then flow down to school division strategic plans and school level plans.

Operational structure membership includes directors of education from the province, First Nation and Metis education authorities, two members of the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation (STF) and senior officials from the Ministry of Education.

The Interim Provincial Plan was released in August, 2021. The one-year interim plan will be in place until the 10-year plan is completed.

The provincial-level plan was originally expected to be released in June 2021.

michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca

-Advertisement-