Director of Avon Maitland District School Board Presents Updated Work Plan to Trustees

by Bob Montgomery

Avon Maitland District School Board Director, Dr. Lisa Walsh, recently presented her updated work plan to the board.

Dr. Walsh explains the directors work plan is created by looking at their four-year strategic plan and determining where they are in terms of achieving the goals in the strategic plan and then condensing that into a one year set of goals. Dr. Walsh says the work plan also contains targets for student achievement set by the Ministry of Education. Dr. Walsh says more focused equity work is something they're working on to better meet the needs of racialized and marginalized students. She says they're also focusing on social emotional learning and principals are working on building safer schools plans.

Dr. Walsh says another big issue for the board is recruitment and retention. She says they're also focused on developing an energy conservation plan that reduces energy consumption in their schools and they’re creating a new multi-year accessibility plan throughout the board.

Dr. Walsh says there are definitely some changes in the objectives being set by the Ministry. She says they want parents more engaged in learning, and for schools and teachers to be reaching out more to the parents. She says the Ministry wants students to have a stronger voice in what they offer, and they want teachers to work on more equitable practices to engage more students in the classroom. Dr. Walsh says generally, there's a lot more accountability than there used to be. She says one of the big changes is teachers are encouraged to focus more on students who might be described as typically in the margins, that are under-performing, falling behind and may fly under the radar because they know that if they're engaging every student then they’re also engaging the students who are already doing well too.