The Sea to Sky School District has a new five-year education plan to guide teachers and administrators into the future of education in the corridor.
The Pathways to Learning Education Plan was approved by the board last Wednesday (April 17) at its regular meeting in Pemberton.
District Supt. Lisa McCullough said the plan sets out a goal statement to guide the educational approach in the district, defines what exactly it is that students are expected to learn and provides the pathways to get there.
"It is a shift in emphasis," McCullough said, "that markedly changes what we do in the classroom."
School board chair Rick Price said the board has known for a long time that it needs to do something different in education simply because results like graduation rates have reached a plateau.
"I think that what we are trying to respond to is what both parents and kids have been telling us that their learning needs to be more reflective of the needs of the 21st century," he said.
That translates to fostering creativity, creative thinking, the technological ability to acquire information and less emphasis on memorization and more on processing and higher-level thinking, for example.
McCullough said while it is a philosophical shift in education, it does not mean that teachers weren't already teaching those things in the classroom.
"The emphasis used to be on content and explicit learning of specific skills and that will remain but the predominate focus on the classroom will be more focused on higher-level thinking, citizenship and having kids contribute to something and creating meaning and relevance," she said.
The plan was developed after parents were engaged through a community survey on education in the district. The team of 35 to 40 parents, Aboriginal partners, administrative staff and teachers spent five days developing the plan used that community feedback along with research on education.
Even though the plan was approved, the work is ongoing. McCullough said two committees are working on how to assess whether students are learning those five competencies and on how to continue to measure performance of explicit learning like reading, writing and arithmetic in the district.
Those interested in learning more can expect a June 3 meeting in Squamish, June 5 in Whistler and June 6 in Pemberton.
Roller derby decision postponed
A request to make Sea to Sky school gyms available for local roller derby teams to practice on has been postponed.
Price said staff were not able to review all the submissions of a delegation requesting that the new use be considered in school gyms.
"Our staff have been unable to do all the due diligence on all the technical information provided so it is impossible to get a recommendation by our staff until they complete that analysis," he said.
District facilities manager Rick Hume said the board will have to determine how to financially address the use of gym floors by roller derby teams.
"Whatever we do, there will be a cost over and above what we do now," he said.
Squamish resident Bryan Raiser applied to the board for permission to have roller derby in school gyms.
A referee for the sport, Raiser would like to start a youth league and see both local teams in Squamish and Whistler have a place to practice.
He said he understands that the district may feel protective of its gym floors, but the increased use would not cause significant cumulative damage on top of the current levels of use and normal wear and tear. Raiser said other school districts allow the sport to be practiced in gyms. That information is part of what he submitted to the board.
"I really hope they are looking into it," he said, adding he made the request after watching roller derby players practice on linoleum floors that are slippery and unsafe. "I just can't watch these women nearly kill themselves on this horribly slippery floor when I hear that in other school gyms it is allowed."
Carbon neutral report accepted
The district board accepted the 2012 carbon neutral action report as part of its continued action toward achieving carbon neutrality.
Hume told the board most of the work so far has involved using technology to increase sustainability and operating efficiencies.
The 2012 total greenhouse gas emissions from all sources is estimated for the district to be 2,392. A total of 1,978 tonnes in offsets are needed to meet the requirements of being carbon neutral.
Efforts in 2012 included investments in energy retrofits, energy benchmarking and performance monitoring, collaboration with utility providers and waste/recycling contractors and awareness activities.
Hume said, though, that he is running out of technological ways to reduce the carbon footprint and the behaviours of students and use of energy in schools will become more critical to meet targets in the future.
"We are running out of money and technology and we are not a big enough school district to be on the (cutting) edge," he said. "We are really going to need to lean on students and schools and have them take the next step."
