Fostering a sense of belonging within the school, as well as the mounting challenges posed by social media, were two of the main topics of a report on R.F. Staples School delivered to the Pembina Hills trustees last Wednesday.
Hosting their bi-monthly meeting in the R.F. Staples School library, the trustees heard a presentation from principal Pierre Ouimet on the school.
Prior to the presentation, Supt. Colleen Symyrozum-Watt noted a total of 37 certified staff work at R.F. Staples along with 25 support staff. Ouimet oversees a budget of more than $5 million.
“This is definitely one of our larger schools (in the division),” she said.
Ouimet said their education plan focuses on a number of main goals, but the goal he puts probably more energy into than anything else is what he’s termed “staff and student wellness and a sense of belonging.”
Ouimet acknowledged the term is somewhat broad in definition, but he likened it to walking into the building for the first time and getting a sense that the school is “warm and welcoming and inclusive.”
He added, “That’s a big part of our education plan and our site-based professional development,” he said.
Ouimet said staff have had a lot of discussions around this topic and are trying to hold more events to foster that sense of student and staff wellness. The recent Rock of Ages air guitar concert on Feb. 22 was one such example.
“I think we’ve got a long way to go. We’ve done some great things, but we’ve got a lot of work to do,” he said.
“Do we get it right every time? No, and I don’t know if we ever will. But I think the better we get at that, the better we will get at the academic side.”
When asked by the board about how he measures the effectiveness of such measures, Ouimet admitted they don’t have a rubric or any other tool to do such an assessment, but there may be one eventually.
“I think that in time we can probably develop some kind of assessment tool to send out to students and staff. I don’t know what it will look like.”
Ouimet acknowledged that one of their ongoing challenges at the school is social media. There seems to be something occurring every day where there is something “inappropriate or bothersome.”
One such example, which was publicized in the Westlock News, was an incident involving an online drinking game dubbed “neknominations.”
Two R.F. Staples students had participated in the online drinking game on school grounds, prompting Ouimet to hold an assembly where he admonished the students, both for risking their safety and for the way they did it.
Symyrozum-Watt said she was quite pleased how the principal brought kids together and told them how “this might look fun, but there’s a serious side to it.”
Trustee Jackie Comeau added that her own daughter was impressed by the assembly and how Ouimet made it very clear he was upset with the students.
Lee Doell, who delivered a report on the R.F. Staples school council, said they have a “different vision” of their role, noting their main mission is support the school administration.
Administration listens to what the council has to say, she noted, and “we’d like to think we give them some good feedback.”
Unlike an elementary school council, involvement is a bit trickier. Doell noted they don’t have to fundraise for playground equipment, and parents can’t just enter a classroom and read a book for story time.
“There are different ways that we’ve all as parents had to adapt to helping the kids here. But we still want to be involved in what happens here,” she said.
Doell said the council is an avenue for parents to learn about what’s going on in the school, as parents don’t get newsletters coming out every month.
There’s a bit more information available online but “it’s also good to have a face-to-face conversation with people and hear right from the head about what is going on in the school,” she said.
She noted they only have four meetings each year and they try to limit them to a maximum of two hours each.
One of their projects is to do an annual Christmas cookie delivery on the last day before Christmas break and an ice cream day in June, typically on the last day of Grade 12 classes.
They also hold teacher appreciation events. She noted that at the high school level, teachers need more shows of appreciation because they don’t get much from the students.
“We want them to know about the positive impact they have on our kids,” she said.
