WESTLOCK - The Evergreen Catholic Separate School Division, which operates St. Mary School in Westlock, has made the decision not to pilot the draft K-6 curriculum in the 2021-2022 school year.
Supt. Mike Paonessa said the Evergreen trustees had discussed the matter at their last two meetings, including the most recent meeting May 12, but the decision not to pilot the draft curriculum was made months ago.
Paonessa said the decision was made as they didn’t know what September would look like in terms of the COVID-19 situation.
As well, he said the division is planning to introduce a new student information system called PowerSchool at that same time.
Of course, since the draft K-6 curriculum became available in late March for review, numerous school jurisdictions have identified issues with material and Evergreen is no exception.
Paonessa said they have several concerns ranging from age-appropriate material to gaps in learning — particularly how students in certain grades would be expected to already know material they would not be introduced to for a couple of years.
Acknowledging that this point has not been discussed much in the media, Paonessa also said that it was “unheard of” to be introducing an entirely new curriculum in all seven subjects, adding that he had never experienced anything like that in his career.
The province currently plans to have all K-6 students following the new curriculum by the 2022-2023 school year.
At roughly the same time, a draft Grade 7-10 curriculum will then be ready for classroom validation and will then be targeted for province-wide implementation in the 2023-2024 school year.
Similarly, a Grade 11-12 draft curriculum will be targeted for classroom validation in September 2023, followed by provincewide implementation during the 2024-2025 school year.
