Eight new school buses for Clearview School Division will be rolling in over the next few months to provide safe transportation for students in modern vehicles.
During its regular board and planning meetings in late February, the board ordered eight new buses to replace those in the fleet that are scheduled for replacement as part of the division’s commitment to continue quality and safe transportation services.
“Clearview public schools works very hard to maintain an efficient and safe school bus fleet,” said Ken Checkel who chairs the board.
“We run 59 bus routes, covering about 9,325 kilometers each day in Clearview so quality equipment is a necessity.”
Bus routes are reviewed each year to help keep average daily ride times as low as possible.
“For our kindergarten-to-Grade-9 riders, our target is under 60 minutes per day (with less than 3 per cent over two hours), and for Grade 10-12 riders, our target is under 75 minutes per day (with less than 15 per cent over two hours).”
Embedded professional development
In its third year of the “embedded professional pevelopment (PD)” pilot model, the Clearview division continues to assess its implementation of the experimental scheme.
An online survey of school communities (parents and school-based staff) was conducted over a two-week period from January 27 to February 10, 2010 with the assistance of the Central Alberta Regional Consortium (CARC).
In total, 227 survey responses were submitted by school based staff and parents across Clearview area and responses from the survey will assist trustees and staff in guiding the direction of PD activities across the division.
“We appreciate and value the opinion of people in our school communities as we work together to offer high quality education that helps create successful learners,” said Checkel.
“Our board is committed to asking for feedback when this pilot program began and we were happy to see the response from school based staff and parents.”
This pilot model includes one hour of staff learning time two Mondays per month (first and third Mondays that are school days). Students are dismissed one hour early on these days.
Instructional time is added to other days in the week to meet requirements of board policy.
The principals’ group supported the implementation of this pilot project, and their support for this model continues as they focus on student learning.
Reports from schools support teacher collaboration.
Research shows that regular, frequent, collaborative and relevant opportunities for professional learning are most effective for staff development and consequently for student learning.
Recognition night on June 17
Clearview set its annual long-service awards night for June 17 to officially recognize the dedication and service of staff in the division.
“The board of trustees really appreciates the dedication and commitment our staff bring as they work with our children,” said Checkel.
“One of the highlights of our year is the opportunity the board has to formally recognize the service of our staff.”
Next board meeting March 17
The next regular meeting of the Clearview school board is scheduled for March 17 at the board office in Stettler at 9 a.m.