Tuesday night's Portage la Prairie School Division board meeting went over a variety of topics, including:
- Murray McLenehan gave a speech about stepping aside from the board after 16 years of service by thanking everyone who has helped him along the way in his journey.
- Registration/School of Choice due for parents by May 12.
- Manitoba's K-12 learning action plan.
- March 2022 Enrollment Report = 3391 (down eight students from last month, but up 44 from last year)
- Extreme weather disrupting attendance.
- And the regular COVID-19 update from Superintendent Todd Cuddington.
Chair of the Board Rod Brownlee spoke about the extreme weather which has caused students to be out of classrooms.
"Once again, we've had all kinds of bus cancellations with the weather. And re-jigging of routes, and we hope that you'll bear with us on that. It's, of course, not something that we want to have to happen, but we're doing the best that we can. The staff is working diligently to try and get all of that in line, and we thank you people for working so hard on that."
Superintendent Cuddington touched on where the division is with COVID-19 at the moment.
"There's no official documentation that specifies if absences are related to COVID-19. But we are continuing to see a downward trend in absences. Unfortunately, with the continued challenges with weather, it's difficult to get a full handle on the exact reasons for students being away from school. Still, we are in that mid 70 per cent range as a weekly average amongst our schools, and we had been trending upward prior to the spring break, but it would seem that you know we've seen a dip since returning to school. As far as staffing absenteeism, it appears that the worst of it is over, and that's levelled off, but we did go through a period where we had considerable COVID-19 related absences among staff teaching and non-teaching."
Cuddington also spoke about the K-12 learning action plan
"it's very aspirational, and we're pleased with the information that's been shared with us thus far. And we look forward to digging deeper into the plan as we get more information from the provincial department. So, looking forward to learning more about that as information is given out in more detail."
Upcoming Board meetings:
- May 10 Board Meeting
- May 24 Board Meeting
- June 14 Board Meeting
- June 28 Board Meeting