A Report to the Community 2007/2008

Our Goal: Building Community: A better education starts with strong relationships

• Continued development of teacher advisory, looping, teacher teaming and multi-age programs to ensure that every child is known personally, connected to caring adults and successful in school.
• Maintained our high school graduation rate of 81% with 57% of graduates heading directly to post secondary institutions, 79% of students graduating with more than the required credits and more than 9% graduating with university credit.
•  Initiated a very successful summer enrichment program at Elwick Community School to provide positive educational opportunities for students through the summer.

Our Goal: Engaging Learners: Active, healthy lifestyles begin in school

• Expanded physical education and fitness opportunities for high school students with football programs at West Kildonan and Garden City Collegiates.
• EDGE our after school academic enrichment programs is now in place in all of our middle years schools.
• Established a thriving adult education program with a child care component at Maples Collegiate.
• School programs and the Division’s Safe and Caring Schools Policy are reducing and resolving incidents of bullying in Seven Oaks schools.
• Smoking bans, quit smoking programs and student advocacy groups like Students Working Against Tobacco have significantly reduced tobacco use among Seven Oaks students.
• Began evening parenting groups to provide support and education to parents.

Our Goal: Staff Who Make a Difference: Inspired teachers lead to inspired students and the result is enthusiasm for learning

• Negotiated long-term financially prudent collective agreements with all staff groups.
• Expanded our innovative partnerships with the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba bringing greater professional development opportunities to current and future Seven Oaks teachers.
• Continued an expansion of educational opportunities for all our employees.

Our Goal: Best Possible Learning Conditions: Creating the best possible learning conditions means focusing resources where they make the biggest difference: in the classrooms

• Increased per student grants to schools by $40 per pupil in order to eliminate or reduce costs to parents for participation in a range of school activities.
• Opened the new West Kildonan Collegiate, a modern, well designed 99,600 sq. ft. high school hailed as the finest public school in Manitoba.
• Completed design and tendered a 25,000 square foot addition to Garden City Collegiate that will link the east and west buildings.
• Continued progress towards the goal of making all of our schools accessible to all students with new grooming rooms at Maples, A. E. Wright and O. V. Jewitt.
• Increased maintenance budgets to support painting, flooring, window and door replacement and other projects to improve school facilities.
• Continued lobbying for greater equity in education funding to benefit Seven Oaks students and taxpayers.

View A Report to the Community 2007/2008 (PDF)