Golden Hills schools have been busy this year
Shannon LeClair – Times Reporter
This past year Golden Hills School Division has seen some changes and challenges, and has been working on exciting new initiatives. The year started with a clear message to all staff, that the key priority would be on improving student learning. The division continues to work at providing and using technology effectively and have added a number of active boards in their classrooms.
“Our goal is to have an active board in every classroom. We have been taking a look at programming it for all learners, no matter their talents or abilities because our goal is to graduate all of our students,” said Dianne McBeth, superintendent of the schools.
There has also been a big focus on improving the high school completion rate, and there is a task force this year that’s done a lot of work to identify the practices that are effective and have given different strategies to work on.
The board of trustees offered a student forum called ‘speak out’. Students had a one-day training session and then had the forum.
“We had students who facilitated them, and they did a fantastic job,” said McBeth.
There has been a lot of progress on the modernization project in Drumheller. It was a big project for the division and cost close to $21,000,000.
“It was a 40 year-old school and it hadn’t had anything done to it in all that time. It’s actually going to be completed ahead of schedule and we should be moving the kids in around Christmas,” said McBeth.
The board hosted a stakeholder forum on their foundation statements, vision, mission and values. There was a lot of feedback from the forums, and the missions, visions and values have changed and will be more timely and meaningful to the people who are currently involved with the school division.
The board also reviewed the ward structure and will be reducing the number of wards and trustees for the election in the fall. It will be going from a nine-member board to six.
There has been a significant improvement in student acheivment on the student acheivement test.
“There also has been great improvement in peoples’ perception that we’re preparing students for good citizenship,” said McBeth.
During the yearly employee recognition ceremonies there were a lot of retirees this year.
“We continue to face declining enrollment over time, and we’ve had some very big challenges with our budget this spring. The most significant factor was the provincial government required boards to settle on a collection agreement, and then they only funded one year of the agreement when it was supposed to be for five years,” said McBeth.
Next year will be a big year for Golden Hills School Division, and all schools. The province will be looking at inspiring education and they will begin to think about the implications for education in the jurisdiction.
“We want to be sure we are developing an education system that’s going to serve students well for the Alberta we want in 30 yrs,” said McBeth.