Good day everyone,
It has been exactly one month since I began my new role as Superintendent of Schools. I wanted to make sure to take this opportunity to thank all of you for providing your feedback in the ThoughtExchange Survey that we completed this past November 2019; helping me to learn more about what is important to you as I begin my new position.
First, I’m pleased to report that a total of 661 individuals from across the division participated in the ThoughtExchange. Of those, 297 provided 667 thoughts and 343 rated and ranked those thoughts using a total of 30,025 stars.
Though there was a wide variety of topics and thoughts provided through this process, as can be seen in the table below, there was definite concern surrounding budget cuts in education and the importance of ensuring that educational resources remain focused on the classroom and front-line staff members, who are essential to ensuring high quality education for students.
TABLE 1: Top 5 Thoughts
|
Ranking |
Thought (as found in the survey) |
Average Star Rating |
|
1st |
Budget restraints requiring staff reduction should NOT happen at the front line level! Children cannot learn without teachers and inclusive classrooms cannot be managed without EA’s. Children do not benefit from top heavy management. |
4.5 |
|
2nd |
Maintaining educational quality in the face of declining resources. Provincial education cuts are here and they will impact staffing levels, morale, and resources for programming. |
4.2 |
|
3rd |
Helping kids learn how to work hard and push through failure to go on to succeed. Resilience. |
4.1 |
|
4th |
School life is being increasingly controlled by aversion to risk. Physical activities, sports, field trips, and recess fun are being increasingly restricted due to fear of injury. All of these are essential to growth |
4.1 |
|
5th |
Make budget cuts from the top-down. Front line workers are more important to the success of students than they are given credit for. |
4. |
Through further review of the 667 thoughts provided, 15 major categories emerged. The following table identifies these categories and shows how many thoughts were included in each, as well as the average star rating.
TABLE 2: Identified Themes
| Theme |
Number of Thoughts within Theme |
Average Star Rating for Theme |
|---|---|---|
| Resources & Fiscal Stewardship |
97 |
3.3 |
| Processes & Practices |
94 |
3.0 |
| Skills & Programs (Literacy/Numeracy/Life) |
85 |
3.3 |
| Staffing / Human Resources |
62 |
3.3 |
| Faith & Catholic Education |
48 |
3.1 |
| PD & Training |
40 |
3.3 |
| Class Sizes |
37 |
3.6 |
| Leadership |
36 |
3.4 |
| Inclusive Education (Culture & Needs) |
35 |
3.3 |
| Soft Skills for Students (Social / Citizenship) |
34 |
3.5 |
| Support for Staff |
30 |
3.6 |
| Environment & Culture |
26 |
3.3 |
| Parent & Community Engagement |
22 |
3.1 |
| First Nations, Metis & Inuit Education |
13 |
2.9 |
| Miscellaneous |
8 |
2.9 |
Clearly, this is just the tip of the iceberg in reviewing the rich feedback that was provided through this survey. If you are interested in learning more, I certainly invite you to explore the results at: http://bit.ly/hs4incomingresults
Thank you again for taking part in this valuable conversation, which I’ll certainly be coming back to as the year goes on. In the meantime, I look forward to working more closely with all of you as we continue to build a strong Holy Spirit Catholic School Division community.
Kind regards,
Ken Sampson, Superintendent
Holy Spirit Catholic School Division
Greg Kostiuk 