At the direction of the Flin Flon school board, École McIsaac School is taking over a parent-organized lunch program.
At their Tuesday, March 22 meeting, trustees voted to have McIsaac run the program for the 2016-17 school year, as is already done at Ruth Betts Community School.
For the first time, the board also mandated fee amounts for programs at both schools. Parents will pay $2 per day per student, to a maximum of $6 per family per day.
No fees will apply to French immersion students at McIsaac who live far from the school and cannot be bused home at noon hour
Skeavington said the school division is required to offer French immersion and in cases where students cannot be bused home, a space for those students to eat lunch.
Some French immersion students are bused in from Saskatchewan, prompting Trustee Trish Sattelberger to ask whether the board would seek lunch program funding from the Creighton School Division.
The six other trustees chose to pass the motion without reference to asking Creighton for funding. Sattelberger was the lone opponent as the motion carried.
The motion comes a year after parent volunteers who currently operate McIsaac’s lunch program asked the board to eventually assume control due to a shortage of volunteers. The program does not provide students with meals, only a supervised place to eat them.
Grateful for support
Skeavington thanked trustees for supporting him in his recent unsuccessful bid to become vice-president of the Manitoba School Boards Association (MSBA).
He also expressed his gratitude for his colleagues’ support during his three-year run as regional director with MSBA. That is the maximum amount of time he was allowed to serve in that position.
The new MSBA vice-president for school divisions with fewer than
6,000 students is Robyn Wiebe of Morden’s Western School Division.
Sattelberger ran to succeed Skeavington as director for the northern region, but she lost to Vaughn Wadelius of Kelsey School Division.
There are now no Flin Flon trustees on the MSBA executive.
MSBA is an umbrella organization that works to promote and support school boards, public education and collaboration between various stakeholders in education.
Hirings
Trustees voted to hire teachers Emily Sparling, Shayna Ritchie, Kristy Cestas, Jihan Idiris and Claudia Mancini (full-time), and Carmen Johnson (half-time and one-quarter time). The hirings take effect Sept. 6.
The most high-profile hiring, as The Reminder reported last Friday, was that of Dr. Constance McLeese as the next superintendent of schools.
“I think she is going to bring a different approach to how the board is going to run,” said Skeavington, adding that trustees look forward to working with her.
McLeese’s hiring takes effect July 18. She will replace the retiring Blaine Veitch.
