"If we were to look at everything that's happened over the last year, I think we've had a really busy, busy year, which seems to be the new normal for everyone," Tim Bennett, School District 57 board chair, said.
"We have a lot we can be proud of, most recently the result which we've had with our graduation rates."
There was a significant increase in students who graduated from the 2017-18 school year.
"There was an increase of 8.5 per cent in our Aboriginal graduation rate and an overall increase of 6.5 per cent and we saw movement and further growth in our special needs and ELL (English language learning) graduation rates," Bennett said.
"We do like to celebrate the fact that we were able to see these significant jumps, recognizing that we still have a lot of work to do."
Indigenous graduation rates currently sit at 68 per cent. Bennett said there's always room for improvement and SD 57 will continue to improve those number so the increase isn't just a spike in a 10-year projection, he added.
"We'd rather have that be the new baseline from where we start to build," said Bennett, who credits the increase to early interventions that have been available for the last few years. Efforts have also been focused on inclusion, putting emphasis on making sure Indigenous students feel they are part of the school's community.
"We know that once they are engaged in the building, we know students will be coming to school on a regular basis, which will impact their overall academics," Bennett said.
Another issue addressed in 2018 was low early literacy rates. There was a large percentage of Grade 2 students who were not reading at grade level.
"So the district invested time and money into early literacy intervention and within the first year has seen some significant results with early reading and that will remain a focus of the district as we head into 2019," Bennett said.
In 2018, the election of the board of trustees took place in October. Only weeks into it, the board is just getting situated.
"We're getting everyone up to speed and setting the framework for what I think is really going to be an exciting four years for the new board, addressing challenges that I think are facing the public education sector including the new funding formula that will be coming out, the brand new Grade 11/12 graduation program and ensuring that public education and the locally elected board remain relevant and continue to address the needs of our community," Bennett said.
Trent Derrick is a new trustee on the School District 57 board and his platform during his campaign included increasing graduation rates, particularly for Indigenous students.
Derrick said he knows the 8.5 per cent increase in graduation numbers is a step in the right direction but more has to be done.
"I have a lot of ideas on how to improve the numbers but I'm pretty realistic and it's all going to take time," he said.
"I think there are a lot of challenges there and I think it's important to focus on healthy lifestyles."
Derrick said he believes the school board needs to reach out to community partners like Northern Health and the Ministry of Social Development to make significant long-term changes in the health of students.
He also said as the new board gathered after the recent election he saw a lot of respect shown to one another and was quite impressed that even if people didn't see eye to eye they still heard one another.
"I'm really enthused about this board," Derrick said.
"There's a lot of great ideas and I think we all have our strengths and we're all pretty respectful of each other. I think that's one of our greatest strengths. We have a group that's willing to listen to each other, to the community and seek input."
Ron Polillo, who previously sat on the Catholic school board for six years, was also elected in October to the SD 57 board.
"For me there's hardly anything more important than education," Polillo said. "If you look at the provincial government budget the two top-spending items are health and education."
One of the first things Polillo said he learned during his first month as a trustee is that the education system in B.C. is world class.
"It's amongst the best education systems in the world and other areas - countries and provinces - are looking to B.C. to see what we're doing so well."
Capacity and classroom size are two pillars that were part of the foundation on which Polillo ran his campaign.
"Those are still going to be big issues that we're going to deal with probably for the next four years," Polillo said. "Student enrolment is increasing and our schools are getting full and we have to deal with that."
Safe and inclusive schools are important, particularly when looking at the success of Indigenous students in the public school system, he added.
Polillo acknowledged the improvement of the percentages of students graduating and looks at the big picture.
"We've still got a lot of work to do but what I'd like to see is why can't Prince George be a leader in the province?" Polillo challenged.
"With graduation rates and other aspects as well."
Bottom line for Polillo is student success and doing everything possible to make sure that happens.
For students, the age of technology and social media can be hard to navigate, Bennett said.
"I think we live in a very different world now where we're dealing with online threats, our students are dealing with new and different pressures every day," he added.
In late 2018, two College Heights Secondary School students committed suicide in a span of about two weeks, while other students were lost to accidents. It's been a tough year.
"So the question is how we come together to support our students," Bennett said.
"Ensuring the safety of all of our students is our number one priority. We've brought together all our community stakeholders whether it is around violent threat risk assessment or whether it's our critical incident response team, working with our partners, reviewing our current practices, making recommendations. It's about finding ways to continue to improve and adapt to some of these new realities that are being faced by our schools and our students every day."
Looking to 2019, the most exciting and challenging thing, Bennett said, is the continued growth SD 57 is experiencing.
"We're going to be doing a lot of work in terms of looking at how we can best meet the space needs of our district," Bennett said.
"So right now we are sitting just over 13,000 students, which is about 1,200 more than the projections from 2014. We are facing some space needs in many areas in town so it's going to be the work of the board of the district to look at how we can best meet the needs of our current students and future students because projections say our school district numbers will most likely continue to grow."
The progress being made on the construction of the new Kelly Road Secondary School is very exciting, Bennett said.
"We are still set to welcome students into the new school in September of 2020," he said. The mild winter has helped continue construction of the building. Bennett has been on a virtual tour of the school and said there are similarities to the new Duchess Park Secondary School.
The ministry of education will only authorize the size of a new school according to the current numbers of students enrolled but that's not ideal looking at the increase of student enrollment numbers in the future.
The original rebuild was going to be able to accommodate 700 students and the SD 57 board was able to secure the build to accommodate 900 students who live north of the Nechako River, Bennett said.
"So we were able to do that through some negotiations with the ministry and through a commitment from the district," Bennett said.
"It's going to be a beautiful school. It's something the district and that neighbourhood can be very proud of."
