Focus on wellness at SD 67

Photo: Colin Dacre

Penticton Secondary School

The Okanagan-Skaha school district has provided an update to their overall strategic plan after its first year in action, emphasizing a focus on projects supporting mental wellness for both students and staff. 

Superintendent for School District 67 Wendy Hyer presented progress reports on the five major themes in the strategic plan of governance, education, technology, human resources and facilities and transportation.

The focus in education has been on health and wellness to promote learning.

"A lot of work is being done around especially social and emotional mental health wellness, in terms of creating a holistic plan to support all students," Hyer said. "We have had a wellness committee working together but they have yet to develop a finalized plan."

Examples of wellness projects the board and individual schools implemented over the past year include expansions to the Aboriginal Education Program, physical learning programs and a school garden at Parkway Elementary.

The focus on wellness extends to the board's goals in the human resources category. In September, the board held a district-wide Wellness Symposium for all employees and are organizing various recreational sports tournaments. 

Hyer also highlighted a selection process on bringing new technology into schools, which will take place next month.

"We’ll have a group of teachers and administrators and engage students in providing some feed back as to what teachers and students need devices to do to support student learning," Hyer said. "From there, we'll look into what devices we’ll be using to replace the machines in our schools."

In the coming two years, the board will also be working to optimize existing bus routes for district transportation.

Current routes will be reviewed, as well as the needs of the roughly 700 registered student riders that currently use school board buses.