Board of Education Report February 26, 2020
Following are some highlights from the Board of Education meeting held on February 26, 2020. District staff reported to the Board that information has been shared with schools to release to
their parent communities regarding kindergarten registration for the fall of 2020.
An advertisement will also be placed in the local on-line and print papers. Registration was opened in all schools Monday, January 13th for parents to register children who will be 5 years old by December 31, 2020. These will be children born in 2015. Parents must bring their child’s birth certificate and medical card.
The district has a variety of career education programs running through second semester on top of the regular career experience and Train in Trades programs. Namely, this year our Gateway to Trades program is being housed at SOSS with 14 students enrolled. This program is offered every other year in the district and moves between communities. Secondly, our new Gateway to Technology program began on February 4 and is housed at the Okanagan College campus in Oliver. The program has 12 students from the district and goes Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 5:00 – 8:30 pm with an Okanagan College instructor leading students through topics such as coding, web development and computer networking.
Finally, we are once again hosting our Professional Cook Level 1 program again this year in partnership with Camosun College. Students are working on the technical training of Professional Cook 1 online and attend 1 lab session in Oliver on Tuesday afternoons from 12:30 pm – 6:30 pm. Our foods lab instructor, Courtenay Welter, is back again from our last offering 2 years ago and is doing a magnificent job. We have 4 students in this program with students from SOSS and OSS as the participants.
Lastly, the Board passed the 2019/2020 Amended Annual Budget in the amount of $34,710,917.00. The Budget is balanced this year, as is required by law, without having to draw from reserves.
Rob Zandee, Chairperson
School District No. 53 (Okanagan Similkameen)