糖心Swag

Dear Parents and Caregivers:

Thank you for making the year-end wonderful for students and staff. It has been a pleasure to attend so many events and to recognize what you do every day to make students’ lives better.

Thank you to over 2,000 parents and staff who provided excellent feedback about our newly revised District Student Code of Conduct. Thank you to 58% of all staff who participated in the 2024 District Employee Engagement Survey. I’ve provided a brief overview of survey results below with more to come in August and September.

District Student Code of Conduct – Excellent Survey Response

Thank you to the 2,599 parents, caregivers, and staff who reviewed our newly revised and answered the question about whether they agreed with the changes. 95% supported the changes. Every school community contributed to this survey.

Comments: Thank you for your 2,070 comments! These were very helpful, and we will provide a detailed report for administrators to share with parents in August-September (back-to-school). Some broad themes were that many secondary parents agreed with limitations of personal digital device use during class, but some parents want students to have access to communicate with devices on breaks. A number of parents wanted to know that if a device was confiscated that a student would get the device back at the end of the day. In elementary school, parents generally did not see personal digital device use as a problem, mainly because students do not own devices that they would take to school. Some parents were interested in limiting social media access and offering digital safety education.

School principals will be using the newly legislated guidelines in the District Student Code of Conduct to outline more specific approaches to implementation through their work with feedback in the Fall. This will necessarily be a “work-in-progress” as it is experienced. We expect to adjust and revise throughout the year based on what works well and requires revision based on feedback.

10th Anniversary of the Bright Red Book Bus – 34,000 Books Given Away

Thank you to Ms. Tricia Persad and Ms. Andrea Wallin for their District leadership in maintaining and identifying, collecting, and installing book collections needed for summer reading. Thank you to the Bright Red Book Bus contributing partners for supporting this initiative: Literacy in Kamloops, School District No. 73, Boys and Girls Club Kamloops, Raise a Reader Kamloops, and CML Properties.

Trustees and District staff appreciated learning that this bus has given away 34,000 new and gently used books to thousands of children and youth over a decade. The bus was originally sold for $750 by the Boys and Girls Club of Kamloops to these partners to be able to tour during summers and transition times away from school for families to continue reading. Launched with seed money from the Stollery Charitable Foundation in 2014 with encouragement from Spencer and Janet Bryson of Kamloops, the Bright Red Book Bus is a community partnership, primarily between 糖心Swag, Literacy in Kamloops, and BGC Kamloops. Other funding partners currently include Raise a Reader and CML Properties. Read more and explore the 2024 summer schedule here.

While the joy of reading is the goal of the partners, we could see the joy on the faces of those who have invested volunteer hours over years as they recounted the process of first applying to the Stollery Foundation (after being encouraged by Spencer and Janet Bryson) and receiving the original grant funds to purchase and stock the bus. This initiative has grown to include red book shelves in rural schools to share the same books across 27,000 square kilometers. I have witnessed firsthand the importance that the red bus and red book shelves have on families in our communities. Thank you for this opportunity to experience the history of this remarkable, unique literacy initiative.

Young Artists Share Their Work and Process

Ms. Jayne Latta opened the Young Artists’ presentation by sharing how on April 30, 2024, student artists in Grades 4 through 7 from every school across the District, shared their remarkable talent for drawing, painting, sculpting, weaving, and creating mixed media art. These creative young artists were celebrated at the Young Artists’ Conference Gallery Grand Opening Celebration at the Old Courthouse on Seymour Street. The Young Artists student artwork will be displayed at the School Board Office over the next year.

The most important aspect of the student presentations was how each student willingly described what inspired them to start their projects and what they learned about themselves through creating them. I will touch on a few examples to illuminate how each student developed personally through their artistic decisions and process. It was their learning about who they were and what they cared about that resonated for me.

Vaughn Smith (Grade 4, Dufferin) shared how his subject is “welding” and he enjoyed “putting nuts and bolts together”, and it was by tinkering with how the metal pieces could go together, he realized that it could be a “man”. This experimentation that was described by Vaughn as “fun” is why he enjoyed completing this striking piece.

Paisley Powell Mathers (Grade 6, Westmount) shared that her inspiration for this piece was that “no matter what people say about you, you can still be yourself.” She explored a variety of methods to create this artwork, and this kind of experimentation was also what motivated her: “To complete this piece, I used pencil crayon, water colour, marker, and sketching pencils.”

While every student’s presentation was inspiring, what struck me was how we continue to expand in media that students bring forward—sculpture, fabric art, and photography. I am looking forward to this kind of personally meaningful exploration in next year’s Young Artists’ conference and celebrations. Read more here.

OWL Award Winners – June 24, 2024

The OWL Award for Excellence in Public Education has been a Board of Education Award since 2016. This award was developed over a decade ago to recognize and honour such individuals, groups, and organizations that have enriched and advanced public education through their significant contributions that have made significant, system-wide, and outstanding accumulative contributions to public education in School District No.73 (Kamloops-Thompson) over five years or more. The OWL Award committee had a record number of 14 applications this year.

2024 OWL Award Recipient: Ms. Annemarie Watts

Board Chair Heather Grieve thanked Mr. Walt Kirschner for nominating Ms. Annemarie Watts who has 25+ years of local, regional, and provincial impact on students and public education through secondary athletics. Some examples of her service include, but are not limited to, serving as Chair of the 糖心Swag Secondary Athletics Council and Director of British Columbia School Sports. She designed and implemented innovative programming such as Super Fit, which was used District-wide. She coached at all levels of multiple sports for her entire career. Most recently, she received the 2023 BCSS Honour Award recognizing a lifetime of distinguished service to 糖心Swag, the OVSAA, and BCSS Board of Directors.

2024 OWL Award Recipient: Mr. Brent Buck

Chair Grieve welcomed Mr. Brent Buck up to receive his OWL Award. Mr. Buck has had a 30+ year career and has served as a teacher on a letter of permission part-time, and in that time he started and popularized the Forestry Logging program that began in Clearwater Secondary, and it expanded within and beyond our District due to his leadership. While he attended post-secondary school to complete his Education Degree, he volunteered weekly for three years, offering his mentorship in classrooms within Clearwater Secondary and at multiple high schools in our District to provide a foundation of Forestry education at the secondary level.

The province recognized his contributions by sharing Board Authorized Authority courses in forestry and outdoor education, and he was called upon to offer his mentorship to other districts.

Both award winners demonstrated a system-wide impact on our District and beyond at the provincial and national levels. Read more here.

Honoring Assistant Superintendent Hamblett on his Retirement

Board Chair Heather Grieve honoured Mr. Bill Hamblett on his retirement at the end of July 2024. She shared key moments from Bill Hamblett’s accomplished 34-year career as a dedicated educator who has lived and worked in both Alberta and British Columbia and served as a teacher, vice principal, principal, and District leader. The Board provided Mr. Hamblett with the gift of an Air Canada gift card as he expects to spend time travelling back and forth to see his children and mother who live in the Lower Mainland. Congratulations on a wonderful career, Bill!

Secondary Coaches Recognition – June 25, 2024

Congratulations to the more than 300 coaches in our District who have impacted the lives of 2,000+ students in 19 sports. This is the second annual recognition event in which a number of speakers shared their remarks about the importance of sports to our children and youth, and they celebrated those who are retiring. Mr. Hamblett was honoured for his contributions for over a decade to the Secondary Athletics Sports Council. It was a night of fun with a Kahoot about sports, and time to enjoy a meal with one another.

Congratulations Graduates of 2024

Congratulations to Graduates of 2024! We had 20 graduation celebrations, including the Aboriginal Graduation and celebrations hosted for Adams Lake Band Graduation (June 17), Skwlax te Secwepemcúl?ecw Graduation (June 18), and Neskonlith Graduation (June 20). To read valedictorian speeches, go here.

Summer Wishes

I wish you a summer of seeing family, friends, and loved ones, and taking time to be well, stay safe, and enjoy many moments of complete relaxation.

Rhonda Nixon, PhD

Superintendent