This week the Prince George Citizen will be posting a series of questions asked of the 13 candidates running as trustees for School District No. 57 (SD57).
The focus of the series is to allow voters to hear from the candidates running for school trustees on how they would handle real issues facing the school board. The candidate’s answers have only been edited for clarity, and are posted in alphabetical order.
Question: Indigenous students have some of the lowest graduation rates in SD57. What initiatives already underway at SD57 do you think are positively contributing to Indigenous education and how would you like to see those improved?
Cory Antrim
Connections through school and community programs that are created and led by our indigenous youth, community leaders, and elders are how we can make progress and approach the diverse issues that impede the success of our students. Building supportive programs, activities, and authentic relationships together, which are accessible to all students will help create shared connections and bridge gaps at all levels of our community. Also, continuing the journey of restorative justice, the relational path to healing and repair, while balancing the safety needs of students and staff in our schools is vital for a sense of security and belonging, allowing all students to grow and learn.
Betty Bekkering
We initiated a great initiative to increase indigenous graduation rates in the past year! We assigned a “grad coach” to each indigenous student From Gr. 10-12. The student meets with the grad coach to work through any barriers, or difficulties and has proven to be an amazing initiative.
Gillian Burnett
I love this question. Where to start… Grad coaches in secondary schools, connecting with students before they are in grade 12 to ensure they are on a graduation path and getting them support if needed. Including the families in these discussions as well, so everyone has an understanding. The reports indicate that Indigenous students are more likely than non-Indigenous students to choose Workplace Math or Foundations rather than pre-Calc. Really looking at why and how to change that.
Craig Brennan
The SD57 Board and staff must work together as partners with the Lheidli T'enneh First Nations, McLeod Lake Indian Band, the Simpcw First Nation, DPAC and other stakeholders to improve Indigenous Education. We must be better at providing programs and curricula that meet the cultural, historical and social needs of indigenous students and families, recognizing that learning involves more than classrooms.
The recommendations in the Special Advisors’ Report identify our needs. To address them we must consult, collaborate and build consensus. SD57 also has to work with community partners to understand and address social issues, including poverty and trauma.
Cathy Fortin
I think too much emphasis is placed on the ethnicity of Indigenous students, can’t they just be kids like the others? Take the anti-racism policies and programs out of the schools and quit pointing out the differences. Develop an attitude of kindness and inclusion for everyone.
Milton Mahoney
Partnership with stakeholders is a very positive step forward. Lowering the bar by passing sub-par scores will show greater graduation numbers to appease government stats, but it’s a false success. We are still pushing students into their post-secondary endeavours unprepared. There is only one way to go, RAISE THE BAR, give students the tools, resources, and encouragement to succeed. Indigenous initiatives are helping those students, and it has to extend to other barriers that must be removed to properly educate our students. Take the politics out of the classroom, as I have been advocating for the past several months.
Shar McCrory
SD57 is making efforts on increasing Indigenous graduation rates by: supporting and developing Indigenous language and culture curriculum, focusing on Truth and Reconciliation, putting actions in the Strategic Plan, tracking the graduation completion rates and working on strategies for how best to support students for graduation, offering schools of choice, providing staffing, supports and resources to the students that need help, providing digital resources to students and staff, supporting local Indigenous knowledge holders in schools, hiring an Indigenous Assistant Superintendent and providing professional development to educators and staff. Increase aboriginal ways of knowing, and provide a sense of belonging.
Erica McLean
SD 57 has two incredibly powerful initiatives that take place in several schools in this community. One of these is the Community School, zero-barrier sport and art programs that are offered to all students in some of our elementary and high schools. The second is a local high school athletic director who has completed their graduate degree on increasing Indigenous participation in sport. The result as it looks today- school sport fees are eliminated for all grade 8 (and 9, I believe, but am not certain) students. This is when we start to lose our most vulnerable students. These are meaningful ways forward in Indigenous education where we can expand and amplify what is happening to support and celebrate the interests and sense of belonging for some of our most vulnerable students.
Bob Schroeder
To improve Indigenous education outcomes, including graduation rates, we need to first look at literacy and numeracy rates. These are crucial to achieving better outcomes overall. We would need to look at what programs are being used in our schools with readers who are falling behind. They don’t seem to work very well. We need to look at the methods being employed in our schools in regard to literacy. We also need to follow through with researching better ways to increase numeracy outcomes. Without doing better research and without asking teachers what works we are guessing at solutions.
Martin Taylor
Ensure that the grant funding goes directly to the schools based by population. Changes should be done incrementally and measured.
This story will be updated when responses from Damon Robinson, Mike Rositano, and Josh Silva are received.
You can learn evenn more about the trustee candidates through the Prince George Citizen's election page.
