The Northwest Catholic District School Board, along with its partners, may be upgrading its telecommunications capabilities soon after the Wide Area Network proposal was approved at Saturday’s regular monthly meeting in Dryden.
“We’re really excited about,” enthused Carol-Lynne Oldale, director of education for the local separate board. “We’ve certainly approved the business plan, and the next step will be to go on to put in the right equipment.”
But Chris Howarth, the controller of finance, added the board is still waiting for final approval from the Ministry of Education and Training, and noted the plan may not go into action until mid-June.
The WAN project consists of installing telecommunications technology to network the participating boards and other private-sector partners, including the Keewatin-Patricia, Superior Greenstone, and Superior North school boards, as well as Lakehead University and Human Resources Development Canada (Kenora region).
The $1.74-million venture includes a $110,000 expenditure by the board here, which will cover costs for video-conferencing hardware and installations.
But it’s hoped any costs will be outweighed by the benefits the network will provide, such as “real time” video and audio communication, reduced travel, accommodation, mileage, and replacement staff costs, and centralized Internet access and services.
In other news, the board also gave the nod Saturday to the new Staff Selection and Hiring Procedures Manual to be used immediately in its schools.
Oldale assured the revised manual contained few compromises in its merging of policies from the previous Fort Frances-Rainy River and Dryden school boards.
“It really contains a blend of previously existing procedures–a change that was facilitated by the fact that both boards used to share a director,” she noted. “First in Paul Jackson, and before him, Garry Bates.”
In other business, the board:
•moved to accept the plan to improve mathematics scoring of grade three students in the annual Education Quality and Accountability Office testing;
•agreed to install lights on the St. Francis Sportsfield, as requested by the Town of Fort Frances;
•adopted the 1999-2000 school year calendar to be submitted to the Minister of Education and Training;
•approved of the “Strategic Planning Process”–a four-stage plan to develop a broad board mission statement.
•ratified the appointment of Diane Sansford, Cathy Gruttner, Pamela Rodrigues, Debbie Black, Patricia MacCarthy, and Christine Varcoe to its staff; and
•approved to increase a request for more hours for Laura Haner.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
