School Division Plans to Resume All Extracurricular Programs

In part two of our interview with Superintendent Jason Young, we explore the effect of Covid on the school system over the past few years and what things look like moving forward.

Overall, says Young, the school division fared quite well over the duration of the pandemic. The students showed a lot of flexibility and adaptability and the staff were able to keep the best interests of the kids at the forefront of their activities and decision-making. It was a year of wildly varying conditions, from being in full regular classes to entirely remote classes to a hybrid of the two. Data actually shows that there actually wasn’t a lot of learning loss over the last year, and the losses were more on the social end of the educational experience.

“Difficult situations don’t determine who we are,” says Young. “It’s how we handle those difficult situations.” In that vein, he stresses how critical the parents have been during this time when demands on them were very far outside of the ordinary, up to and including remote learning.

As of the end of the 2021-22 school year, students were back in the classroom and extracurricular activities were running again, but the division had to control the environment more than in past year so things like overnight stays were a challenge. The plan is to start the 2022-23 year as “normal”, with all extracurricular options offered and no restrictions, however they also plan to carry over some best practices learned over the past couple of years such as sanitation stations. Of the students who were homeschooled for various pandemic-related reasons, Young says over half of them had returned to the classroom by the end of the year.

His biggest hope going into the new year is a level of predictability after a couple of years of drastic changes, largely for the sake of the needs of the students but also to reduce some of the additional demands that the pandemic placed on the staff. The division also continues to plan for growth, both in terms of physical space but also in terms of staffing.

Staffing has always been a big challenge, and not just in terms of classroom teachers. Right now one of the biggest gaps is in bus drivers. Drivers in the division are responsible for 22 regular bus routes a day totaling 3400 kilometres, plus 500-600 extracurricular trips a year. On top of the staffing challenge is of course the budget impact of increasing fuel prices.

Young stresses that the division maintains an open door policy and they are always interested in hearing the concerns of the public. While they recognise that no decision is going to please everyone, especially considering budget limitations, their decision-making is always done with the best interest of the students in mind.

As this is a municipal election year, which includes electing a new board of trustees for the Beautiful Plains School Division, we wrap up by taking a look at the role of the school board. The biggest thing, says Young, is that members of the board must put the kids first and take a step back to look at the big picture. While everyone might have their individual interests and concerns, the decisions that the board makes have to serve all of the students.