The Near North District School board has kicked off another year, and the board has approved its capital plan for 2016-17. NNDSB Board Chair, David Thompson, says the plan will include a lot of tough decisions to made moving forward. The document looks at enrolment growth and decline and gives information on right-sizing the board. The next steps recommended within the plan include a few accommodation reviews for under-utilized elementary schools in North Bay and another one for secondary schools in the city. Thompson says the decisions will be data driven, and will have a lot of community involvement. The board will listen to the feedback from the community, so they know where the board is coming from when they make decisions.
Two of the focal themes coming out of the board’s first meeting of the year were transportation and communications. Thompson says communication is something the board is working on every day. The board is trying to improve as part of their multi-year plan, transportation is just a part of the operation. But Thompson says it’s all connected. Communication is getting out and talking to the parents and students and communicating how things are moving forward.
A few of the things discussed included new online systems that give parents additional access to their child’s school information. A program called Trillium VIA is already in some secondary schools. The system allows parents to go online and see a student’s attendance, his grades, the school calendar and other tools. Members of the board also want to communicate to parents they will be working diligently on a renewed math strategy across schools in the Near North District. The EQAO results showed an “alarming” number of students struggling to think, and communicate their thought process when it comes to mathematics. So that will be a big focus of the strategy going forward.
