Bob Phillips
The funding for two new high schools in the Belmont Zone will happen. That zone will move to Grade 6/7/8 middle schools freeing elementary spaces for increased enrolment estimated at 200 pupils per year. We must begin planning now with a full “partnership consultation process”: parents, student, staff and communities. We need to figure out course offerings including Journey and EMCS . We need innovative programs to keep senior students in school and preparing for work or higher education. We must continue to discuss and build the Westshore Center for Learning model with a larger presence here for Sooke area teens and young adults. Costs for post-secondary education continue to increase and Sooke families have lower average family incomes, we must offer more Camosun courses at EMCS.
Prioritizing the Classroom Experience. On going research concerning individualized assessment/learning and new findings about social and emotional learning must be built into all educational programs, staff training and expenditures for new technologies. We need partnership discussions to improve “transitions” from school to school, or to work or higher education. We probably will never have enough funding. SD#62 can refocus our priorities on our parents, students, employees and communities. They can inform us about the quality, accessible and responsive public education they expect and deserve. “It takes a community to educate a child.“ We can make that a reality in our classrooms and our communities.