Rocky View Schools’ board of trustees approved its 2010-2013 Three Year Plan, June 17.
The plan is centred around community engagement.
“We invited members of our community to help us build a plan that would facilitate students achievement and guarantee our graduates a place in a competitive, global society,” said Superintendent of Schools Greg Bass.
In 2007, 200 stakeholders attended eight RVS three-year planning discussions. Over the past three years, the division has engaged three communities - Beiseker, Chestermere and Crossfield - in reviewing grade configurations. In December 2009, the board invited the public to provide input for the modification of ward boundaries from seven to six. Lastly, the board listened to residents when they spoke out against the loss of community adult learning programs following the closure of Rocky View Adult Education in late 2009. Through Rocky View Schools’ Community Learning, adult courses will be open for registration by September 2010.
“Looking ahead, we hope citizen engagement will continue to flourish in the jurisdiction,” said Bass.
“In fact, we invite you to become engaged by stepping up to run for a position on our school board….”
According to the Three Year Plan, Rocky View Schools is home to more than 16,000 students, 962 teachers, 537 support staff, 40 school councils and 104 Education Centre staff members.
Rocky View Schools’ drop out rate has declined from 3.4 to 2.2 per cent. For the 2009/10 school year, 79.1 per cent of high school students earned their diplomas, as compared to the provincial average 71.5 per cent
Bass said parental satisfaction with the jurisdiction is increasing “by leaps and bounds.”
“Marked improvements have been made in the areas of safe and caring schools, access to programs, citizenship, work preparation and school improvement,” he said.
“The people we are serving are telling us we’ve got it right and we are on the path to preparing students for the future.”
Despite high levels of satisfaction among parents, Bass said RVS needs to work more closely with schools to bring parents of the Generation X era into the jurisdiction’s 21st Century fold.
“We have not dedicated and committed as much time to working with them as we need to,” he said.
“We will work to engage our parent communities. Our motto is Engage, Enrich, Empower and it has to be in that order, with ‘engage’ first.”
He said although technological teaching methods are well understood by students and staff, they are not as accepted by parents whose educational experience was limited to teachers standing in front of a class lecturing, while students took notes.
“We need to prepare students for their future, not our past,” said Bass.
RVS plans to bridge this gap through ongoing communication, live demonstrations and advice on how parents can bring teaching home.
“We should be very proud as a jurisdiction of what we have accomplished,” said Trustee Helen Clease.
“Considering the challenges we’ve faced, we have done very well.”
For more information on Rocky View’s Three Year Plan, visit www.rockyview.ab.ca