Discussing what can be done to better Education Quality and Accountability Office test results for its schools will highlight the Northwest Catholic District School Board’s regular monthly meeting here Saturday morning.
The board will review the EQAO Board Action Plan report in which reading, writing, and mathematics were identified as areas to focus student achievement.
The EQAO tests students in Grade 3 and 6 on the proficiency in reaching a provincial average in reading, writing, and mathematics. The local Catholic schools had favourable results in the last round of testing, but there is always room for improvement.
Some system-wide initiatives outlined in the report as ways to help increase student achievement include book fairs, encouraging reading at home as well as at school, implementation of classroom-based programs designed to motivate and encourage reading and writing skills, tracking student progress, and establishing baseline results.
Also on the agenda for tomorrow’s meeting—slated for 10:30 a.m. at the board office next to St. Francis School—is a vote on trustee determination and distribution.
Trustees will be asked to decide whether or not to establish areas of low population density in the district, allowing more trustee representation than the population would allow.
Currently, Fort Frances and the surrounding unorganized areas have three trustees on the seven-member board.
Dryden and its surrounding unorganized areas have two trustees while the Sioux Lookout and unorganized surrounding areas as well as communities in the Rainy River/Stratton area each are represented by one trustee.
It has been recommended to the board that the current determination structure be accepted as the population in the district has changed by less than one percent since 2000, when the last determination was held.
Also tomorrow, the board will discuss a report on board governance and hear a verbal report on high school bursaries.
Trustees also will hear reports from the Special Education Advisory Committee and the Native Advisory Committee.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
