The school district is drafting a final report on inclusivity at New West schools, and the engagement has been extensive, according to Bruce Cunnings, co-chair of the advisory board for the Inclusive Review.
“What’s stood out is the commitment of parents, staff and the community for their willingness to engage and really authentically share their story. Some have been positive and some have highlighted challenges,” he said. “That’s really helped to focus us on areas where we can work to improve.”
The review was requested by the new school board, elected this winter, according to Cunnings.
“The purpose of this review is we want to engage all the stakeholders in a consultative and data collection process to determine where we are,” he said, “ultimately leading to an action plan to see how we can continue to improve the quality of our inclusive practices in New West schools.”
The process has involved a thought exchange, individual interviews and email responses, he said.
The biggest challenge has been the timeline, according to Cunnings, who said they wanted to complete it in one school year.
“The review of inclusive education is significant in its scope, but it’s directly focused on improving our student, family, staff and community experience in New West schools,” he added.
The advisory group is meeting on March 12 to go over the early findings, and they will then provide input, Cunnings said.
“The next step will be to put recommendations into place and those recommendations will be aligned directly with the district’s newly launched strategic plan,” he said.
A number of responses from parents were included in the presentation shown to the school board at its February meeting.
Some of the positives in the district included being able to meet with and email teachers, having teachers that were open-minded and willing to learn about a child’s needs, and the success of children when teachers were knowledgeable about autism spectrum disorder, according to the presentation.
Some of the challenges included poor communication with working parents, not finding out about problems until it feels too late and having to re-establish educational assistant support needs annually.
The presentation included three top thoughts from the thought exchange with parents and staff.
“Ensure you have hired enough teachers, specialist teachers, specialist professionals and educational assistants to support the needs of my child,” was the top thought from parents, the presentation stated.
There were 407 participants in the thought exchange, according to the presentation.
Emerging themes in the review are the staffing of educational assistants and learning support teachers. The transition to the new high school; supports for students in extracurricular activities; resource support to help educational assistant’s build relationships; and a lack of communication, training and experience.
The presentation also included information centred around Indigenous student success, such as having timely support and responses, a learning environment where people are aware of implicit bias and privilege, and a teaching core that includes Indigenous worldviews and perspectives.
