Ongoing transportation demands have the Flin Flon school board ready to purchase a third minibus.
Trustees unanimously approved a motion this week to spend up to $125,000 on a minibus featuring either 16 or 22 seats, depending on pricing options.
“The demand is there,” said Trustee Murray Skeavington, board chairman, speaking at the Tuesday, Oct. 13 board meeting.
“This weekend [there are] two [sports] teams out. A weekend ago we had two soccer teams out, four volleyball teams out. They’re busy. There’s weekends that, let’s be honest, [the car rental] agency…in town here is making a fortune off our sports teams travelling.”
Skeavington indicated that the minibus would cut costs.
Superintendent of Schools Blaine Veitch said the minibus would hopefully arrive in early spring.
He said it will take three or four months for the manufacturer, Crestline Motors, to build the vehicle once the order is placed.
The school division already owns two minibuses, both of which have 17 seats. The previous board purchased the minibuses in 2010, having budgeted $160,000 for the vehicles.
Northern coordinator
Trustees ratified a change designed to improve career-development opportunities for students in Flin Flon and across the region.
Veitch noted that each region of the province has received funding to hire a career development coordinator. Flin Flon is part of a region that includes the Cranberry Portage, The Pas, Swan River and Dauphin areas.
Last year, a single coordinator working out of the Swan River area covered the entire region.
This year, Veitch said, participating school divisions favoured hiring two coordinators – one for the southern part of the region and one for the northern part.
And so trustees ratified an agreement that will see 60 per cent of regional funds spent on the Flin Flon, Cranberry Portage and The Pas area and the other 40 per cent on the Swan River and Dauphin areas.
Veitch said the northern coordinator, who began work last month, has been tasked with creating “a plan for enhancing career development in our region” that is due to the provincial government by the end of October.
“Our hope is that we will see more students in the trades and vocational-ed areas,” Veitch added. “We want to have a greater exposure in career development into younger grades, once children start thinking about life after school and the connection between what they’re learning in school to the world outside of school.”
Bomber Buddies
Veitch announced the lineup of Flin Flon Bombers who will be working at École McIsaac School and Ruth Betts Community School this year.
The Bomber Buddies program has Jason Cohan, Braden Lacoursiere, Brandon Switzer and Tylan Tkachuk at McIsaac. Ruth Betts welcomes Connor Slipp, Kristian St. Onge, Ben Lanfermann and Zac Robidoux.
The program sees members of the Bombers spend an average of 15 hours a week at the two schools, helping with activities and acting as big-brotherly role models.
Bomber Buddies has earned the endorsement of a number of educators, including McIsaac principal Steve Lytwyn.
Lytwyn previously told the board that the program has good potential to help at-risk students and provides positive role models to male and female students alike.
Report card guidelines
A 20-page letter from the Manitoba government’s Education and Advanced Learning department had trustees discussing the impact of revisions to student report cards.
The letter outlined new and pre-existing requirements for report cards, including layout, frequency of distribution and the need for each report card to be signed personally or electronically by the school principal.
Asked about added time requirements to produce the report cards, Veitch said there were some initial concerns about that, largely among teachers who have higher numbers of students.
“But I don’t hear that now, so they’ve [become] adjusted to it,” he said.
Trustee Amy Sapergia-Green said that from her experience as a parent, the new report cards are an improvement over the previous model for early-years report cards.
For middle-years students, she said, there has been very little change.
Free training
Trustees learned that Manitoba Education and Advanced Training will again offer online training around bullying, abuse, harassment and neglect.
Respect In School (RIS) is a free program for all public schools in the province, with staff, school volunteers and student leaders invited to participate.
“RIS focuses primarily on adults interacting with students in school environments,” Education and Advanced Learning Minister James Allum wrote in a letter to the board.
“It is particularly beneficial for support staff, volunteers and student leaders who may have limited access to this type of learning opportunity.”
RIS “can help students and adults feel safe, respected and valued in school and other places of learning,” he added.
Training can take place at a participant’s convenience, Allum noted, with a total completion time of about 2.5 hours.
