New hockey academy planned for Armstrong school

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“The intended provider, RPM Hockey, has established a number of academy programs across the province and has developed an excellent reputation in regard to both quality and value, as well as for being supportive of the school environment,” an information update from District 83 stated.

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PVSS principal Chelsea Prince said a parent meeting to gauge interest has already resulted with 21 students indicating interest out of a possible 30 seats in the program.

“We’re really excited about it,” Prince said.

The program has a standard user fee of $1,320 per student for a semester, which includes ice time, coaching, field trips, soft goods through RPM, and transportation between PVSS and the local arena.

Click here for more on the program.

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Highlights from Feb. 16, 2021 SD 83 board meeting:

District Achievement Results Up: Graduation rates continue to climb in School District No. 83 (North Okanagan-Shuswap), including a very positive result for SD83’s Indigenous students.
Superintendent Peter Jory reported to the School District No. 83 (North Okanagan-Shuswap) Board of Education at its meeting on Tuesday that there was really good news on the achievement front with the release of the Ministry of Education’s data on six-year graduation rates.
“We made a step forward with our district six-year grad rates. I’m pleased to report we have again closed the gap between ourselves and the rest of province in the all-resident students category.” Jory added the provincial six-year grad rate moved to 90 percent. SD83 once again showed steady improvement and went from 84 percent to 88 percent, just two percent behind the provincial average at this time.
“I’m especially pleased to report that we made another significant gain in our Indigenous student category, as we are now sitting at 14 percent above the rest of the province.” SD83 had a nice gain last year (from 67 to 76 percent) and another nice gain this year (from 76 to 85 percent). The provincial average is at 71.
“This is a major step towards equity of outcome which in my opinion is the core purpose of Truth and Reconciliation. The more students that graduate, the more students that will achieve meaningful grad, and will then be ready for post-secondary and the workforce.” He added the work is not over. “We aren’t done yet, but we are very, very pleased to report on this progress.”
Jory added that in the data for all resident students including those with diverse needs, SD83 had fallen behind the provincial average in previous years, but last year moved slightly above the provincial average and stayed that way again this year. “Full credit to everyone in the system for additional focus and efforts over the past three years as we’ve utilized new strategies to support our most vulnerable learners.”
Jory particularly wanted to recognize the work done by teachers and certified education assistants (CEAs) during the last three months of the 2019-20 school year. “The work (to improve graduation rates) has been going on for some time, of course. For the last three years we’ve been toiling away at this. In the last three months of last year we did especially good work supporting students online and during the hybrid model. Our teachers and CEAs did a great job reaching out to students and making sure they had all the credits they needed moving towards graduation.”

Draft District Calendar 2021-22: The Board of Education approved a draft calendar for the upcoming school year. This draft will now be circulated for public input and the Board will be considering a motion for approval in March. The draft shows the school year beginning on Tuesday, September 7 with the final day of school for students on Thursday, June 23.

2020-21 Amended Annual Budget: After three readings, the Board approved its amended annual 2020-21 budget in the amount of $93,124,598. This was $1,807,121 less in funding than the anticipated budget from budget was built on last Spring. Secretary-Treasurer Alanna Cameron went through the complete amended budget explaining the differences between the projected budget and the amended budget. Cameron showed where there were additional costs and budget shortfalls and she outlined how the budget was balanced by using $609,984 in contingency funds and by making $1,202,137 in reductions

COVID Update: “We essentially had a heck of a January in Salmon Arm. There was a significant amount of COVID in the community and we were one of the provincial hot spots,” reported Jory to trustees. He added the district experienced a COVID cluster at South Canoe and closed the school and went to online learning for two weeks. He reported there were 15 possible exposures at SD83 schools over six weeks with more than a dozen class exclusions. Jory added that things have slowed down and that SD83 went ten straight days before there was a possible exposure at Armstrong Elementary School and then another five more days before the most recent possible exposure and class exclusion at South Broadview.
Jory stated that recent focus has been on implementing the new provincial health and safety guidelines. There have been a lot of changes to consider and implement. “I think it is going as well as we can expect.” He added there are still some tensions to work through but those conversations are taking place. Jory added that all in all he thinks everyone is looking forward to Spring Break and warmer weather so more time can be spent outside. Of course everyone is looking forward to the vaccination cycle working its way through and to when it is safe to return to normal business practice, hopefully by September.

NOSTA Delegation on Long Range Facilities Plan: North Okanagan-Shuswap Teachers’ Association (NOSTA) President Graham Gomme reported to the Board that a NOSTA committee looked at the district’s long-range facilities plan and developed some recommendations for their members’ consideration and these recommendations and the reasons behind them were presented to the Board for its consideration. The committee recommended for the Northwest Zone that North Shuswap and Carlin be expanded to K-9 schools with Sorrento a K-6 school. Or, alternatively, that North Shuswap and Sorrento be K-6 schools with Carlin a K-9 school. In the Salmon Arm Zone they recommended changing Salmon Arm Urban to K-6, two middle schools (7-9) and one secondary (10-12).