The Lloydminster Public School Division (LPSD) has some leftover homework to prepare staff, teachers and students for the first day of school.
Principals plan to huddle with LPSD’s director of education, Jason Neville, this Wednesday (Aug. 21) at the division office to get the ball rolling for the fall term starting Sept. 3.
“It’s good to get back into a routine for sure,” said Neville on Monday following his summer break.
Teachers will return to work on Aug. 26 with a required cellphone policy up for discussion.
“We’ve got a draft created that we think will work. We’re going to meet with our principals and go through it and probably make some tweaks when they get their eyes on it,” said Neville.
The Saskatchewan Ministry of Education banned cellphone use during class time for the 2024-25 school year across K-12 schools, including those in the LPSD.
Neville says each teacher will create his or her own management plan on what it’s going to look like in individual schools.
Student enrolment at LPSD is expected to number around 4,400, on par with last year, but it’s wait-and-see until classes resume.
“With a full-time Kindergarten at three of our schools, it could be a little bit of a jump, but we’re not sure yet,” said Neville.
The big change in the division is the upcoming move of roughly 300 Grade 9 students to the Lloydminster Comprehensive High School, while Grade 6s will move from elementary to middle schools.
Teachers have also been on the move with the changes that result from the completed expansion at the Comp to accommodate the Grade 9s.
“There was a lot of movement of staff in May and June, but we’re comfortable; we’re ready,” said Neville.
“We put out a survey to see if any teachers would be interested in moving and we had quite a few that were open to making a move to a new building.”
Neville thinks the transition for many affected Grade 9 students should be a smooth one for that reason.
“A lot of the teachers teaching Grade 9 will already be teaching Grade 9 in the high school,” he said.
“There will be some familiar faces for sure. We’ve done a whole bunch of open houses in our middle school and in our high school to try to help that as well at the end of the (previous school) year.”
Bussing is another work in progress before Sept. 3.
“I know our transportation manager has been working on bussing with the Grade 6s moving and the Grade 9s moving to the high school. It’s definitely a change in our typical bussing layout,” said Neville.
The Avery Outreach School will also be open to classes in September as the move to the old Barr Colony School is expected to happen in mid-year once renovations are completed there.
“At some point when the other building is ready, we will move them over,” confirmed Neville.
Routine capital improvements over the summer include new flooring and roofs in some buildings and a plan to add two modular classrooms at College Park.
“They are being built right now, so at some point hopefully, they’ll be delivered in the fall and we’ll start attaching them to the building,” explained Neville.
“It’s to try to ease some of the growth they’ve had over there and just give them some more space.”
Neville says LPSD could use another school to pace with population growth.
“We’re always hoping, but nothing was announced in the last budget. Just the way the city’s growing, it would be nice to get another school in that southwest corner of the city,” he said.
Read More: Word on the street: Back to school blues
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