The lone representative of a group that gives students a seat at the Saskatchewan Rivers school board table promoted a virtual book club and spoke about the return-to-school protocols last Monday.
The Saskatchewan Rivers Students for Change (SRSC) allows students to have a seat at the board table. Kelly Lam gave a report on the first month of school as a student at Carlton Comprehensive High School.
“All of the schools were in a similar boat getting used to COVID restrictions and new scheduling. Specifically for some of the urban schools like Carlton and PACI were adjusting to the block system, which is a completely different schedule for us,” Lam said.
She explained that it was a large adjustment to go from five classes with a regular amount of homework to two classes with more.
“It is kind of hard to get used to but we have all been pretty successful at Carlton I would say. I think the block system has advantages and disadvantages,” Lam said.
Lam explained that they are starting a Carlton virtual book club that she was excited to be involved with.
“If all goes well we may get approval to add other high schools and could potentially go division-wide so that students will have an opportunity to socialize and have that enjoyable extracurricular activity while still following COVID restrictions. So that is something that I am really excited to be a part of,” Lam said.
The board also considered a constitutional amendment for SRSC to make the program more flexible.
Lam and Superintendent Cory Trann presented the amendment to the board because there is currently no rural representation on the SRSC.
“We have two members of the rural schools that are wishing to run to be a rural trustee but were unable to because they weren’t on the SRSC for one year. So we as a group had proposed a constitutional change,” Trann told the board.
With the amendment, in the event that there is no student trustee candidate with one year’s experience in the SRSC, a new student to the group would be able to be selected for a trustee position. The student body voted in favour of the amendment and Trann recommended the board approve the SRSC constitution as amended. Board chair Barry Hollick explained the change will leave a window for getting a trustee if the situation ever arises again
