MOOSE JAW — Public school trustees have updated an important board policy to align it with their new 2024-28 strategic plan, which also aligns with the provincial education plan.
The board of education with Prairie South School Division (PSSD) adopted the updated board policy No. 1 during its November meeting.
The old board policy No. 1 lists the division’s foundational statements, including its mission and vision, core values and commitments.
The mission and vision is “Learning together for our future.”
The core values are development of the whole child, community involvement and engagement, division transparency, and a collective common-sense approach.
The policy says that Prairie South is committed to quality learning through students and families as the building blocks for learning, learning environments as placings of learning, inclusive communities are partners in learning, and “our people” are champions of learning.
Meanwhile, the updated division foundational statements focus on the organization’s “hope and dream,” its mission, its four-year vision and its values.
The “hope and dream” is that “education is valued in society and people are empowered to achieve their goals” and contributes to a thriving Saskatchewan.
The mission is that PSSD “serves students and families by understanding their needs and focusing on operational excellence, benefitting urban and rural communities in southern Saskatchewan.”
Furthermore, the division aims to “provide leadership and empowerment to schools through strategic direction and prioritization, resource allocation, and supports to deliver high-quality education” that is aligned with the provincial mandate.
PSSD’s four-year vision is to equip and inspire students through education “to become happy, thriving, contributing members of their communities,” with learners and team members feeling a sense of belonging in their schools. This should lead to results-based achievements that exceed the provincial average.
“As a top employer in the province, Prairie South Schools empowers leaders in the organization to make decisions in alignment with our strategy and fosters continued growth and evolution to meet the needs of our changing environment,” the vision statement adds.
The five new division values are inclusion, quality, accountability, resilience and positivity.
Meanwhile, trustees developed a three-pronged strategic direction and decision-making model.
The first area focuses on the provincial priorities of early learning, First Nations and Metis outcomes, on-time graduation rates, reading, writing and math literacy, and sector-wide efficiencies.
The second area focuses on the board’s values, including development of the whole child, community involvement and engagement, division transparency and collective common-sense approaches.
The third area is the four division commitments.
To achieve the vision, the board’s objectives in its four-year strategic plan focus on skills and knowledge, mental health and well-being, connections and relationships, and being inclusive, safe and welcoming.
Furthermore, its operational goals include communications and public relations, capacity and catchment planning, infrastructure and buildings, and data collection and analysis.
Also, its organizational goals are building a culture of inclusion, improving recruitment and retention, building skills and capacity, and good governance.
Future board meetings
The first organizational meeting of the new board of education is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 26, which will be followed by a special board meeting to approve the audited financial statements (AFS) and annual report. Trustees must approve those two documents before Friday, Nov. 29, as per provincial regulations.
