The face of education is always evolving, and a challenging 2011 at times proved no different for Horizon School Division as the calendar flips forward to 2012.
Despite the yo-yo nature school boards across the province had to deal with as far as provincial funding went in recent recessionary times, Horizon was able to endure for the most part in delivering quality education to its citizenry in rural schools.
“When you take a look at provincial measures for things like learning, community and parental involvement, safe and caring schools and school improvements, the data suggests our schools are working really hard and doing very well in all of those measures,” said Cheryl Gilmore, superintendent of Horizon School Division, as she referred to accountability pillars. “It’s something certainly our schools can be proud of and it’s really a collective effort of schools, parents and the board in all having a common vision for doing what’s best for kids.”
Gilmore highlighted in 2011 the board’s ability to provide stable, sustainable programming and services to children with strong staffing levels, despite the hardships boards across the province had to endure in juggling shortfalls in education funding.
“They have been very responsible financial planners, and so we haven’t had to ride the wave of economic booms and busts, because the board looks at how we can sustain things by establishing reserve funds that can be drawn upon when needed,” said Gilmore. “That hugely impacts learning when you have a stable, predictable environment. It makes a significant difference to how we can staff our schools for their programming.”
When $200,000 was announced for Horizon in the fall for classroom and community supports, the board was able to move forward with education initiatives with it instead of plugging holes in existing gaps.
“We were able to allocate those funds to school sites to work for projects to be able to build capacity for change,” said Gilmore. “That comes from being a stable division. We didn’t have to put the funds back in for emergency needs. We were able to do some long-term thinking and planning for schools to begin to build capacity for the changes under the transformation agenda, which is a provincial initiative.”
Despite the financial hardships in recent years in molding the education agenda across the province, good news emerged in Horizon was able to maintain mental health initiatives like the Family Connections program.
“That program has an impact on getting kids ready for school by providing student and family support where it is needed. All those basic things are needed to be taken care of before students can learn in school,” said Gilmore. “Whenever we get cross agency initiatives like that, it is very helpful.”
Another feather in the cap for Horizon School Division in 2011 was the success of Taber Mennonite School program located at the Horizon Learning Centre. The start under the leadership of Daryl Moser and George Epp in getting it up and running has harvested some very good initial results.
“We had almost double the student enrollment than we had anticipated at a minimum for start up,” said Gilmore. “It is going very well and has been strongly supported by the parent community.”
As the education landscape is in its infancy for 2012, there will be plenty of growing up it will do for the provincial transformation agenda. A jurisdiction transformation committee comprised of staff, parents, students, board members and administration met this past fall for the purpose of developing an understanding of the transformation agenda.
The transformation committee determined as some of its initiatives in its brainstorming sessions as a foundation for change in Horizon going into 2012 is to develop thinking and learning competencies for success in a global world with literacy, critical thinking and problem solving, creative thinking and innovation, broad liberal arts education, being technologically fluent and instill a desire for life-long learning. Another focus is for schools to prepare students for successful transitions to post-secondary studies and the world of work. Schools will also work with parent and community partners to develop personal attributes of contributing global citizens being caring, empathetic, ethical and respectful, along with being inclusive and collaborative and personally and socially responsible.
“Horizon in putting together a transformation committee is trying to filter those changes so that the transformation agenda is jurisdiction defined rather than a mandated change agenda,” said Gilmore. “We have full subcommittees now that will continue to work on those different areas and of course work with schools to institute that change. It’s an exciting time. We believe it’s challenging, but positive and exciting at the same time when you look at provincial change. We have got one of the best and the brightest in the province in terms of quality staff to take change and makes things work great for kids and we have a board that is strongly connected to its communities.”