Over 60 pages of comments were collected from parents, staff, students and community partners over the course of two days of consultation hosted by Kenora Catholic. The consultation sessions took place in Red Lake at St. John School and Kenora at Ecole Ste-Marguerite Bourgoeys during May 2 and 3.
"These consultations are important for us in maintaining our relationship with parents, families and community partners," explained Phyllis Eikre, Director of Education. "We are able to have meaningful conversations about our programs and services and hear about priorities that are important for families, parents, students and staff. These personal conversations help us to create partnerships and make short and long term goals for our schools and board."
At the event, visitors were able to talk to Catholic School Trustees, the Director, Principals and System Leaders about a wide range of topics from community partnership opportunities, capacity planning, educational programs, services and capital and budget planning. Over ten different booths of information were available for discussion.
Jack Ammendoila from Watson and Associates provided presentations on the long-term capacity planning at schools across the system.
To facilitate the feedback process, a series of kiosk stations were set up allowing people to provide comments and feedback to the school system through an online database. The data collected will inform trustees and senior leadership in short and long-term decisions regarding the board's strategic planning process that is due for renewal in 2019.
The Kenora Catholic District School Board received funding under the Capital Planning Capacity Program for the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 budget years. The program is part of the Ministry of Education's School Board Efficiencies and Modernization initiative. The purpose of the Capital Planning Capacity Program is to enable Kenora Catholic to undertake capital planning activities by reviewing its facilities condition, capacity and usage.