The end of this school year brings an end to one of the more popular and successful of programs that were initiated at the Roosevelt Park Community School. A program now considered expendable, due to the many cutbacks that School District 52 must face in the wake of the claw back of 2 million dollars in funding by the provincial government.
The Rediscovery Camp became an integral part of the learning curve for senior students at Roosevelt, students who have year in and year out found the camps to be the greatest of learning experiences that they have taken from the school, providing them with a sense of self respect, confidence and maybe even some accountability.
They were all worthwhile goals for students and a school that has faced many challenges over the years, a situation that could have done without more roadblocks being placed in the path to learning.
The School District is clearly in a very bad situation these days, with hard decisions to make, funding allocations to re-address and job losses to contemplate.
Being put in the position of having to disband a program that has had such an impact on its students and staff and to disperse those that were the prime motivators behind it, must have been a very hard decision to make.
It’s unfortunate that the Liberal government, which is constantly downloading the cost of providing education to our students back to financially strapped communities, isn’t aware as to just how devastating their financial edicts are becoming across the province.
They’ve been dropping the ball on a number of issues of late that no longer seem to hold the fancy of the Premier, who instead chases the more exotic of items for his talkiing points as the lynchpins of his government’s mandate and perhaps for his legacy.
Things such as health care, education and transportation needs to communities outside of the Metropolitan Vancouver area to name a few, seem to be a black hole for the Liberals, unsure of where they want to go and clearly unable to chart a financial path to get them there.
What they don’t seem to see from their handling of these issues is just how out of touch they seem to be with the needs of the population and what the important things are that they need to be working towards.
While the matter of funding for the school district and its programs is out of the hands of Prince Rupert City Council, they need to become more pro-active in their approach to these key issues.
Programs such as the Roosevelt camp provide a vital component of education for those that need it most, council should be fighting as hard as they can for the community by making the Province, the education minister and the Premier more than aware of the terrible cost their financial decisions are having on the communities that they are supposed to serve.
School District 52 has kind of been left to hang out to dry locally on the issue, damned if they do, damned if they don’t. A little help from the council couldn’t have hurt in their efforts to impress upon Victoria that there is a serious problem in the system, once you get past the Legislature lawn.
Losing a program that appears to have worked as well as this one did and has received many accolades for its success, should have had our elected officials working the phones, writing the letters of concern and requesting visits from officials from the Ministry to the Premier, to come and explore first hand, what all these cutbacks will do not only to a school system, but to a community.
The Wednesday Daily News featured a front page story with details of the success of the Rediscovery program, the celebration of its achievement and the communal mourning for its end.
It’s an end, which if you consider the achievement of and need for a program such as this, really shouldn’t be forced to take place at all.
SCHOOL CUTBACKS HITTING ROOSEVELT CAMP PROGRAM
Camps credited with huge improvements at school will be lost thanks to cash woes
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Pages one and three
It was a bittersweet month for the senior students and staff at Roosevelt Park Community School, as they participated in the last pair of Rediscovery Camps that the school will offer.
The community of Prince Rupert at large is still trying to fathom what education in School District 52 will look like with 38 fewer people on the school district staff, as some of the most important components of teaching special needs and at-risk students are being scaled back or eliminated entirely by following a $2 million fall in provincial funding.
One school that is already lamenting what they will no longer be able to offer children is Roosevelt, which will say goodbye to the role of Peter Loy as the community programs coordinator at the end of this month.
Rediscovery Camps at Roosevelt have always been very intensive and a large part of learning for senior kids at Roosevelt since their implementation, with one week in the fall and another week at the end of the year.
Loy has always taken great pride in the programs as he has overseen at the school such as the camps, the most important goal of which was to teach students respect for one another, their instructors and elders, and most importantly respect for themselves.
For example, whenever a problem arises between individuals or groups during the week- long camps, everyone gathers together and holds a council circle to work out the issue and bring restorative justice to the group.
Principal Steve Riley, who will also be leaving Roosevelt at the end of the school year, has played a large role in the success of the camps and knows they will be greatly missed by everyone.
Sitting in a council circle last week at the school, senior Roosevelt students shared their fondest memories and most significant learning experiences from their recent week at camp, which included the ways they have matured as young people, the responsibility and patience they had gained, and the self-confidence they found through teamwork and leadership activities.
“Our camps have been getting better all the time, and it’s been an ongoing process. It’s a bit ironic that our two most successful camps that we’ve had are our last,” said Riley.
“The confidence level really comes through in the kids.
“They believe in themselves and their ability to do things, and in the years I’ve been here I can see tremendous improvement in all aspects of the students.
“We haven’t had a problem with violent behavior among our Grade 6 and 7 students all year. Some of the kids who would normally blow up are the ones who now stop the younger kids from fighting, and the kids have internalized their responsible roles to the point they don’t even have to think about it anymore. And that’s happening with kids that we thought at one point we had lost.”
The camps have not only been learning experiences for the students, but also for staff like Loy, who says this year he learned to trust his decision-making ability more, and senior teacher Mrs. Mackley who is learning to ask for and accept the help of others more often.
The Roosevelt Park Community School formula has experienced such success in recent years that riley has been invited to conferences as a speaker to present on the ways a school like Roosevelt can benefit children, and the school has received federal accolades for its work.
Riley points out that the Roosevelt Re-Discovery camps are not stand-alones, and in fact are part of the community school’s ethos that carries on throughout the entire year, which includes activities like council circles and the Junior Leaders program that Loy oversees.
The loss of Loy’s community programs coordinator position and Terry Kolesar’s Opportunities Room teaching position, among other cutbacks, eliminates the ability for Roosevelt to offer the types of programs it has offered in the past, many of which are geared toward helping at-risk students.
School Elders Leonard and Mona Alexcee aren’t even sure if they will continue to play a role in the lives of students in the school, but are hopeful that they will be able to.
“Since I’ve been involved here for the last three years I’ve seen an improvement in all the kids,” said Leonard Alexcee.
“A few years back, out of the whole group that we had gathered today there could have been only one or two, maybe three at the most, who could express themselves (in a group). You can hear how enthused the kids are now, and that all stems from camp where they learn how to get along with each other. But now that all is going to be taken way from them.”
The Rediscovery Camp became an integral part of the learning curve for senior students at Roosevelt, students who have year in and year out found the camps to be the greatest of learning experiences that they have taken from the school, providing them with a sense of self respect, confidence and maybe even some accountability.
They were all worthwhile goals for students and a school that has faced many challenges over the years, a situation that could have done without more roadblocks being placed in the path to learning.
The School District is clearly in a very bad situation these days, with hard decisions to make, funding allocations to re-address and job losses to contemplate.
Being put in the position of having to disband a program that has had such an impact on its students and staff and to disperse those that were the prime motivators behind it, must have been a very hard decision to make.
It’s unfortunate that the Liberal government, which is constantly downloading the cost of providing education to our students back to financially strapped communities, isn’t aware as to just how devastating their financial edicts are becoming across the province.
They’ve been dropping the ball on a number of issues of late that no longer seem to hold the fancy of the Premier, who instead chases the more exotic of items for his talkiing points as the lynchpins of his government’s mandate and perhaps for his legacy.
Things such as health care, education and transportation needs to communities outside of the Metropolitan Vancouver area to name a few, seem to be a black hole for the Liberals, unsure of where they want to go and clearly unable to chart a financial path to get them there.
What they don’t seem to see from their handling of these issues is just how out of touch they seem to be with the needs of the population and what the important things are that they need to be working towards.
While the matter of funding for the school district and its programs is out of the hands of Prince Rupert City Council, they need to become more pro-active in their approach to these key issues.
Programs such as the Roosevelt camp provide a vital component of education for those that need it most, council should be fighting as hard as they can for the community by making the Province, the education minister and the Premier more than aware of the terrible cost their financial decisions are having on the communities that they are supposed to serve.
School District 52 has kind of been left to hang out to dry locally on the issue, damned if they do, damned if they don’t. A little help from the council couldn’t have hurt in their efforts to impress upon Victoria that there is a serious problem in the system, once you get past the Legislature lawn.
Losing a program that appears to have worked as well as this one did and has received many accolades for its success, should have had our elected officials working the phones, writing the letters of concern and requesting visits from officials from the Ministry to the Premier, to come and explore first hand, what all these cutbacks will do not only to a school system, but to a community.
The Wednesday Daily News featured a front page story with details of the success of the Rediscovery program, the celebration of its achievement and the communal mourning for its end.
It’s an end, which if you consider the achievement of and need for a program such as this, really shouldn’t be forced to take place at all.
SCHOOL CUTBACKS HITTING ROOSEVELT CAMP PROGRAM
Camps credited with huge improvements at school will be lost thanks to cash woes
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Pages one and three
It was a bittersweet month for the senior students and staff at Roosevelt Park Community School, as they participated in the last pair of Rediscovery Camps that the school will offer.
The community of Prince Rupert at large is still trying to fathom what education in School District 52 will look like with 38 fewer people on the school district staff, as some of the most important components of teaching special needs and at-risk students are being scaled back or eliminated entirely by following a $2 million fall in provincial funding.
One school that is already lamenting what they will no longer be able to offer children is Roosevelt, which will say goodbye to the role of Peter Loy as the community programs coordinator at the end of this month.
Rediscovery Camps at Roosevelt have always been very intensive and a large part of learning for senior kids at Roosevelt since their implementation, with one week in the fall and another week at the end of the year.
Loy has always taken great pride in the programs as he has overseen at the school such as the camps, the most important goal of which was to teach students respect for one another, their instructors and elders, and most importantly respect for themselves.
For example, whenever a problem arises between individuals or groups during the week- long camps, everyone gathers together and holds a council circle to work out the issue and bring restorative justice to the group.
Principal Steve Riley, who will also be leaving Roosevelt at the end of the school year, has played a large role in the success of the camps and knows they will be greatly missed by everyone.
Sitting in a council circle last week at the school, senior Roosevelt students shared their fondest memories and most significant learning experiences from their recent week at camp, which included the ways they have matured as young people, the responsibility and patience they had gained, and the self-confidence they found through teamwork and leadership activities.
“Our camps have been getting better all the time, and it’s been an ongoing process. It’s a bit ironic that our two most successful camps that we’ve had are our last,” said Riley.
“The confidence level really comes through in the kids.
“They believe in themselves and their ability to do things, and in the years I’ve been here I can see tremendous improvement in all aspects of the students.
“We haven’t had a problem with violent behavior among our Grade 6 and 7 students all year. Some of the kids who would normally blow up are the ones who now stop the younger kids from fighting, and the kids have internalized their responsible roles to the point they don’t even have to think about it anymore. And that’s happening with kids that we thought at one point we had lost.”
The camps have not only been learning experiences for the students, but also for staff like Loy, who says this year he learned to trust his decision-making ability more, and senior teacher Mrs. Mackley who is learning to ask for and accept the help of others more often.
The Roosevelt Park Community School formula has experienced such success in recent years that riley has been invited to conferences as a speaker to present on the ways a school like Roosevelt can benefit children, and the school has received federal accolades for its work.
Riley points out that the Roosevelt Re-Discovery camps are not stand-alones, and in fact are part of the community school’s ethos that carries on throughout the entire year, which includes activities like council circles and the Junior Leaders program that Loy oversees.
The loss of Loy’s community programs coordinator position and Terry Kolesar’s Opportunities Room teaching position, among other cutbacks, eliminates the ability for Roosevelt to offer the types of programs it has offered in the past, many of which are geared toward helping at-risk students.
School Elders Leonard and Mona Alexcee aren’t even sure if they will continue to play a role in the lives of students in the school, but are hopeful that they will be able to.
“Since I’ve been involved here for the last three years I’ve seen an improvement in all the kids,” said Leonard Alexcee.
“A few years back, out of the whole group that we had gathered today there could have been only one or two, maybe three at the most, who could express themselves (in a group). You can hear how enthused the kids are now, and that all stems from camp where they learn how to get along with each other. But now that all is going to be taken way from them.”
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