Tuesday night's Portage la Prairie School Division board meeting covered many topics, including:
- The Board approving the reallocation of $250,000.00 from Division Admin Office Capital Reserves and transferred to the Division Accessibility Project.
- The Board approving the reallocation of $250,000.00 from Division Admin Office Capital Reserves and transfer to Power Distribution System Upgrade.
- The Board approving the reallocation of $300,000.00 from Division Admin Office Capital Reserves and transfer to Video Surveillance System Upgrade.
- Student-Led Conferences on April 21 and April 22.
- School Board Trustee Elections in the fall. The Board notes they anticipate spots opening up on the Board.
- The regular COVID-19 update from Superintendent Todd Cuddington.
- And a presentation made by Ecole Crescentview School staff Laura Hordeski and Tracy Vanstone about their French immersion program.
Chair of the Board Rod Brownlee started off the meeting by mentioning that the March break did no favours to the school system regarding COVID-19.
"We've experienced a large number of staff and, to a lesser degree, students who have contracted COVID after the break. This has put an additional strain on our staff. Thank you to those who have been able to help out, and we hope that those who got sick have a speedy recovery."
Superintendent Cuddington also touched on the COVID-19 uptick the division is seeing.
"Like much of the province, we are seeing a rise in COVID cases with the Omicron variant, and prior to spring break, we had reported that our average daily attendance for students had been creeping up to above 80 per cent. Unfortunately, we've seen that drop off again since returning from spring break, and largely the absences are due to illness with students, so we're kind of down to that mid 70 range for student attendance. And, of course, our staffing has been impacted significantly. Which has meant that many teachers have been doing double duty because we have had limited substitute teachers. We've also had to call on our student service staff to provide additional support, so we have seen a significant uptick in COVID cases, and we're hoping that those level off in the coming weeks."
Brownlee and Cuddington both noted that the closure of all schools within the division for Wednesday and Thursday due to blizzard conditions was a choice to protect students and staff.
Upcoming Meetings:
April 26 Board Meeting
May 10 Board Meeting
May 24 Board Meeting