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District has 43 new teachers this year, school board hears

The trustees of the School District of Mystery Lake (SDML) met up Sept. 12 at the district headquarters on Thompson Drive to ring in the 2017–18 school year.
school board meeting sept 12 2017

The trustees of the School District of Mystery Lake (SDML) met up Sept. 12 at the district headquarters on Thompson Drive to ring in the 2017–18 school year.

Committee shuffle

Since the board hadn’t gathered together in an official capacity since June 27, this meeting’s agenda was jam-packed, with over 20 items dedicated to electing trustees to different committees.

The most noteworthy part of this process came at the very beginning, where trustees Don MacDonald and Janet Brady were elected as chairperson and vice-chairperson of the board, respectively.

New teachers

Co-superintendent Angele Bartlett kicked-off her policy report by welcoming 43 new teachers into the SDML fold.

According to Bartlett, the bulk of this new group are relatively young (aged 25–30) and hail from across Canada, including places like Winnipeg, the Sudbury/North Bay area in Ontario and the East Coast.

Bartlett went on to say that that this group represents the biggest influx of new teachers that she’s seen in her eight years working for the School District of Mystery Lake.

Indigenous youth survey

Co-superintendent Lorie Henderson presented a motion to distribute youth surveys to Indigenous students in the school district.

Henderson said this online survey is part of the Indigenous Youth Voices project, which is an organization working under the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

“Their mission is to seek the advice and support from Indigenous youth from across Canada in order to provide a report and recommendation to the minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs,” she said. “They need the information to create a report, so they want to hear from as many views across Canada.”

This survey contains 23 questions in total, which aim to gauge local youths’ perspectives on “What are some challenges faced by your community?”, “What does reconciliation mean to you?”, and “How do you think youth can be supported and empowered?”

After several minutes of discussion, the motion to distribute this survey was approved by the board.

This survey will be distributed online until Sept. 30 and will be made available to Mystery Lake students 18 years of age and older.

The next School District of Mystery Lake board meeting is set to take place Sept. 26.

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