Dale Bass – Kamloops This Week
The Kamloops-Thompson school district (SD73) will make naloxone kits available for schools that feel they have a student population at risk for overdoses.
The move follows a recommendation from the Ministry of Health that kits and training for staff be provided if a high-risk population is identified. The district will be working with schools starting in January to determine which ones should have the kits, which will be kept with other first-aid supplies on site.
Kindergarten registration
Kindergarten registration begins on Jan. 30, an earlier date than in previous years to help with school and budget planning.
First up will be schools of choice, which will accept registrations until Feb. 3. For these schools, it is not first-come, first-served. All applications have to be reviewed and, if necessary, a supervised draw will take place on Feb. 3 to determine who will be accepted. Families accepted will be advised during the week of Feb. 6 to Feb. 10.
Regular kindergarten registration begins on Feb. 14.
Grants decided
The board received $100,000 it can use for grants that encourage creativity, innovation and curriculum enrichment in the district. After reviewing the 27 applications for the money, it decided to distribute it between:
* Four Directions, $13,500 for a critical media-literacy project;
* Henry Grube Education Centre, $14,450 for a presentation of a learning project;
* Brock Middle School, $8,500 for a What Sustains Us? exploration program and $6,745 for a Makerspace program;
* Sa-Hali secondary, $6,300 for an I Am Malala project;
* Chase secondary, $10,000 for an inquiry class project;
* Arthur Stevenson elementary, $6,000 for a young filmmakers’ program;
* Barriere secondary, $3,000 for a Chromebook inquiry-based project;
* Schools using FreshGrade, an assessment tool teachers and students can use to create a portfolio, will receive $25,000 each.
Schedule set
The Kamloops-Thompson Board of education has had to revise its meeting schedule for 2017 due to some conflicts with other school-related events.
Unless otherwise noted, all meetings are at the school board office, 1383 Ninth Ave. in South Kamloops. Meetings begin at 7 p.m.
The board will meet on Jan. 16 (Henry Grube Education Centre), Feb. 6, Feb. 27, March 13, April 3, April 24, May 8 (Sun Peaks elementary), May 29, June 19, June 26, Aug. 28, Sept. 11, Sept. 25, Oct. 2 (Barriere elementary) Oct. 23, Nov. 6 (Logan Lake secondary) Dec. 4 and Dec. 11.
Dress code tweaked
Trustees were to be asked to approve an amended student dress code policy at their meeting on Monday, Dec. 12.
It recommends rewording one of the descriptions of prohibited clothing. Being removed are: “the wearing of clothing which features phrases/pictures of a sexual nature of phrases/pictures that are derogatory regarding a person’s ethnic background, national origin, religious belief, sexual orientation or disability.”
That is being replace with: “the wearing of clothing, insignias, symbols or adornments which denigrate a person’s race, colour, ancestry, place of origin, religion, marital status, family status, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or age.”