Commitment and steps to maintain local schools, local decision-making, quality teachers and wide opportunities for students are top priorities for Clearview School Division, as concluded from the community consultations last fall to guide the division to develop a new three-year strategic plan.
“We have all of the comments from our community consultations and these comments and ideas are considered as we develop this plan,” said Ken Checkel, who chairs the board, in reference to the release of the report “What We Heard”, compiled after the consultations.
“Over the course of the late winter and spring, we will be working closely with our administrative team in developing this plan and we look forward to sharing this plan with the community this June.”
“It provides overall direction and ‘gives feet to our ideas’ as in it we set priorities, strategies, goals, targets and measures for the work we do with students, staff and our communities.”
Keeping schools in communities, local autonomy and decision-making and building communication with schools and parents were top issues discussed when about 210 people participated in sessions held in Big Valley, Byemoor, Botha, Stettler, Donalda, Castor, Coronation, Erskine and Brownfield last November.
“We heard of the importance of keeping a school with vibrant programming in the community,” states the document.
Parents and residents strongly support local decisions.
“The message here was very clear – keep locally elected school boards and continue to seek input from the local community,” said Checkel.
“People want decisions that affect the education of students made as close to the student as possible by their trustees.”
“Our communities expressed concerns about funding levels and the impact levels of funding from the province have on their local school.”
“Parents and residents value a strong communication relationships between home and school,” the report states.
The document “What We Heard” at the community consultations and comments and notes from these meetings can be found on the Clearview website at http://www.clearview.ab.ca.