Flin Flon School Division (FFSD) facilities are engaged in a somewhat secret competition, pitting friends and division coworkers against one another for the ultimate prize – a… fire hat?
Not just any fire hat, mind you – the fire hat.
The division awards the first facility to complete 10 fire drills within spring and fall months with a trophy of a fire hat. The race for the hat begins in June, when Flin Flon schools typically begin doing their drills.
At the last FFSD board of trustees meeting, held Sept. 24, the race for the coveted hat was mentioned by board members.
“It’s a competition. There is a hat at stake and they want it,” said school superintendent Tammy Ballantyne.
Due to Flin Flon’s cold winters, schools will occasionally race to complete their mandated 10 drills before snow falls. It’s not an intense competition and safety is never sacrificed in an attempt to win the coveted hat, but the hat can serve as a status symbol to show fire safety savvy for schools.
Drills are supposed to be done on a one-per-month basis, but making students stand outside in a Flin Flon January may count either as child abuse or as cruel and unusual punishment, leading the schools to get their drills in while they can.
Ruth Betts Community School has won the hat for most of the past 20 years and, despite losing it last year, appeared likely to win it again this year. Since École McIsaac and Hapnot Collegiate are undergoing roof construction, fire drills were only started recently at both schools.
“Schools are actively challenging one another, since we have a very competitive administration team, to win the fire hat. That’s well underway,” Ballantyne said.
Travel
A new trip is being scheduled for the Hapnot Collegiate French travel club following the cancellation of the group’s next scheduled excursion.
The group is aiming to go to both Paris and the French Riviera in March 2022 after the next scheduled travel club voyage was cancelled. The trip scheduled by organizers, which would have taken students, teachers and chaperones through Quebec and Ontario, was planned to take place this coming spring.
Trustee Amy Sapergia Green said the change was due in large part to a lack of participants signed up.
“I have kids that were enrolled in that. They didn’t get the enrolment numbers they were hoping for. It just wasn’t cost effective to do the trip, so they decided they weren’t going to be able to do it,” she said.
Trips through the school’s French travel club are separate from the school’s preexisting travel club and emphasize French language and culture. The trips are held every two years and alternate between Europe and Eastern Canada.
“This is just the next trip,” said Sapergia Green.
Regional resolutions
A call for nominations and resolutions was sent out to school boards by the Manitoba School Boards Association (MSBA), asking for input from trustees and regional officials.
Board chair Murray Skeavington said the board did not have any specific resolutions in mind at the time, but said board members would discuss the matter with other northern boards.
“I will get a hold of our regional director and see if there’s something out there that they’re looking at or anything we can send to the northern board,” he said.
Skeavington said there may be areas of concern for FFSD and other northern boards, but did not elaborate.
