What should schools focus their attention on?
It is a question that solicits a wide range of responses. Our views vary, depending on our current connection with the K-12 school system. If we are students, we will have one perspective. If we have children or grandchildren in school, our responses will be based on how we think the system is meeting their needs. If we are an employee…you get the point.
Besides our own experience with K-12 education, there are various perspectives on public education in general and how the system is meeting, or should be meeting, the learning needs of students. All of this adds up to a wide spectrum of opinions.
Several years ago, a review of the K-12 school system took place in our province. The Commission conducting the review heard from thousands of Manitobans about their perspective on the education system. This included those within Mountain View who shared their opinions, providing valuable insights through this engagement.
While the release of the report was overshadowed by the introduction of Bill 64, many of the recommendations in the report are starting to resurface in the K-12 Education Action Plan. These will continue to be addressed over the next several years. However, it is time for Mountain View to examine what the future of education within our school division should look like.
This spring the Division will begin its Strategic Planning process. The first step involves hearing from our communities about what they believe is most important or valuable when it comes to educating our students. The engagement will involve meeting with students, parents, and community members from each of our communities. These will be guided by “Keeping Learners at the Centre,” and will focus on hearing the viewpoints our community has on education.
Some areas are a constant. In the public education system, the provincial government, who is ultimately responsible for education, sets some of the directions that school divisions are required to adopt. Literacy and Numeracy are two of these. They are foundational to any educational strategic plan.
However, divisions do have the flexibility to set some local priorities to address the learning needs of their students. It is hard to have a one-size-fits-all model that adequately addresses the unique learning needs of all students in a province as diverse as ours. As a result, hearing the perspectives of our communities is extremely valuable to help the Division set its priorities for the next several years.
To help prepare for these discussions, a report will be released in early April. This report will provide the current state of the Division. It will also give the context the Division is in, as it delivers education to all of our students. It will outline some of the challenges and opportunities to ensure that the needs of all our students will be met.
The report will include an outline of the dates and locations for these meetings. There will also be survey information that can be responded to if in-person attendance is not possible.
In the middle of April, the consultations in our communities will begin. These will start by engaging in focused discussions to gather viewpoints about which priorities the school division should set going forward.
Since education belongs to the community, we need to hear from you. The Board looks forward to engaging with you in these conversations.