3 Hot Topics

I'm wondering if there is any desire to share thoughts on three key issues (of many) in Saanich and across our province:
1. Foundation Skills Assessment: FSA 2010 is underway and students in grades 4 and 7 are busy completing reading, writing and numeracy assessments. Depending on where you sit, FSA is either a useful instrument for understanding student achievement and when results are aggregated up provides a useful tool for planning, or it is an unnecessary intrusion into the lives of children and teachers. I am always interested to know what people are thinking when it comes to FSA.
2. Full Day Kindergarten: Our Board, like others across the province, has made a decision in regard to FDK for September 2010 and has accepted the offer of 240 funded FDK seats for next year as we move to every child being in FDK as of September 2011. Schools in Saanich were selected based on a number of criteria related to need, space and more. FDK will be provided September in Brentwood, Sidney, KELSET, Lochside and Cordova Bay. Registration in neighbourhood (catchment area) schools is the week of February 1st, and anyone wanting to be out of catchment is invited to come to the School Board Office beginning February 8th. We will process those applications in the order in which they are received.
3. Budget 2010/11: Our budget situation for next year is, unfortunately, a major challenge. After a $3.6 million reduction (relative to carrying on with "status quo") coming into this year, we face a challenge of about $3 million as we move toward September 2010. Information on this is available on our website www.sd63.bc.ca and we invite everyone's participation in the budget setting processes that will unfold over the next few weeks.