Archives for January 24, 2020

 

With the recent completion of renovations to South Okanagan General Hospital (SOGH), Interior Health would like to remind patients of access changes to SOGH.

The SOGH Main entrance has returned to its normal operating hours and is open from 7:30 a.m. until 8 p.m. After-hours (8 p.m. to 7:30 a.m) public access to SOGH will be through the new Emergency Department entrance, which will be open 24/7.

Patients are also reminded that during day time hours, the new Emergency Department entrance is for emergencies only while the SOGH Main Entrance should be used for all other hospital services.

Teresa Fortune, SOGH Interim Manager, Clinical Operations

Leadership

Leadership, where is it? I don’t mean there isn’t enough of it, though that is likely true, I mean where, physically, does the leader take up position? Is the leader out front, ahead and all others are behind, following, as they say? What happens to the effectiveness of the leader when they position themselves beside? What comes to mind when you imagine the leader above or behind or, hmmm, in the midst?

I like the wisdom of lead, follow or get out of the way. Has helped me many times. Yet, it seems to say that the leader does not follow nor get out of the way. In my experience a really good leader knows how to be a really good follower, and has been, or is, somewhere in life, maybe in their community work right now. A really good leader knows when to get out of the way, to pick their causes and leave the rest alone

What is the aura and personality of my ideal leader? I want strong, mostly sure, yet humble enough to be honest about what they don’t have covered. I want to feel at least a little bit inspired and more is better. I need to believe that the leader knows where they are leading me to and that they are prepared or honest enough to say they don’t fully know. Honest transparency is more valuable than false bravado

The Leader does best to know something very well, something I can rely on them for. This seems so in academia and business, someone to go to for guidance. This does not seem to always be the case, for instance, in sports teams. The Captain is to be an example of dedication to the team and excellence at their contribution to the team. OK, I now see that it could be the same here too, just some may not have both

Leadership is to give of self, make tough decisions, take the heat when others disagree and remain steadfast in showing the way, inviting us to follow and remain loyal. Leadership is responsibility. One cost can be that, yes, it is lonely at the top. Sometimes that is what the Leader needs, to be left to make those decisions and to learn and grow from the result. Mostly though, they need our support

 

Joseph Seiler

 

On Tuesday January 28th, Canada’s Ballet Jӧrgen is coming to Oliver to perform the spectacular Anne of Green Gables – The Ballet™, and a few lucky local dancers are joining them on stage.

The Local Participant program offers youth the valuable experience of dancing with professional dancers and working with professional artistic staff. The youth cast are assembled from local area students based on either a recommendation by their dance teacher or at an audition.  The youth rehearse with the Company for 2 hours the day before the show, then 3 to 4 hours directly prior to the performance. All participants are invited to watch Company class on stage and if students are advanced enough in their training, they will be encouraged to join the Company class.

For this performance, students have been selected from Okanagan Dance Studio in Penticton, Dance Oasis in Osoyoos and The Dance Studio in Oliver. Four lucky and talented Oliver students have been selected to dance in the program; 9 year old Therese Grice, 10 year old Kadence Newstead, 10 year old Jessa Vernon-Wood and 12 year old Kayla Barisoff.

Kayla, who’s favourite style of dance just happens to be ballet, feels very honored to be dancing with Canada’s Ballet Jӧrgen. “It’s not every day that you get this opportunity”.

Leah Richards, owner of Oliver’s The Dance Studio is thrilled with the opportunity. “When young dancers have the chance to learn from professionals in a comfortable hometown environment, the benefits not only touch the performers but the rest of the studio as well. We all look forward to learning from their experiences.”

The main goal for the Local Participant program is to give the participants up close exposure and access to the workings of professional dance.  This includes all the detailed work that goes on backstage to prepare for the performance, the technical and artistic expertise required by all, and the need for all performers to give 100% at all times throughout the process and the show.

For show information and tickets visit www.venablestheatre.ca

 

Contributed by Aimee Grice

Following are some highlights from the Board of Education meeting held on January 22, 2020.

District staff reported that on November 14, the Minister of Health announced the intention to strengthen regulations to address the rise in youth vaping. The Ministry of Health is proposing new regulations under the Tobacco and Vapour Products Control Act (TVPCA) and the Public Health Act (PHA) to be enacted April 1, 2020 outlined in this Vapour Products Intentions Paper. They are accepting comments on the proposed changes until January 24, 2020 at 4:30 PM PT. This opportunity for input has been shared with schools.

The 2018/2019 Aboriginal How are we Doing (HAWD) report was recently released. This report highlights how Indigenous students throughout our District are performing on the FSA assessments, school completion results, and student learning survey in comparison to the rest of the province. We are seeing encouraging results as our Indigenous students are performing significantly above the provincial average compared to other Indigenous students on Grade 4 and 7 FSA assessments. Another positive indicator was the improvement of nearly 9% for Indigenous 6-year school completion results. We jumped to 65% completion last year compared to 57% the previous year. This matches a 5-year high on this completion rate in our District. These improvements can largely be attributed to the hard work and continued focus in our schools to improve success for Indigenous learners and strides we have been making to ensure local culture and ways of knowing are reflected in our schools and we look forward to continued improving results.

Second Semester will see a number of exciting career education programs beginning including Gateway to Trades, a new Gateway to Technology program, a weeklong RCMP Youth Academy in Vernon and once again our Professional Cook Level 1 course in partnership with Camosun College.

On Tuesday, January 21, 2020, Education Minister Rob Fleming was in the District to tour Southern Okanagan Secondary and Oliver Elementary Schools. The tour focused on speaking with staff and students with a focus on Indigenous programs, inclusion, career education, and other unique programs that we have in the District such as our new pilot of the Seamless Day Kindergarten with before and after school care.

Finally, The last day of classes for students in secondary schools was Tuesday, January 21st. Students and teachers wrapped up semester 1 learning, end of semester assessments, reporting using the new proficiency scale in Grades 8 and 9, and preparing for semester 2 which begins on Monday, January 27th. Many Grade 12 students are also presenting their capstone projects for which completion is mandatory by the end of June under the new graduation requirements.

 

Rob Zandee, Chairperson

School District No. 53 (Okanagan Similkameen)

NUMBER OF NEW UNITS REQUIRED

To meet basic housing demand, an additional 187 units, with at least 500 additional bedrooms could be required by 2025. The number of units required to meet anticipated housing needs was calculated by applying projected growth rates to baseline housing numbers from the 2016 census.

The Town of Oliver is already partway towards achieving these targets. According to building permit data, the net housing gain between 2016 and 2018 was 59 units. An additional 46 affordable units will be constructed as part of the M’akola affordable housing development announced in 2019. This new construction will help make substantial progress towards meeting housing demand.

Broken down into tenure type, an additional 109 rental and 74 owner housing units could be required over the next 5 years.

The number of renter households grew substantially (22%) between 2006 and 2016. This trend is expected to continue and is reflected in the growing demand for rental housing.

Would you like to read the complete report?

 

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Mt. Baldy