Superintendent’s Update

Dear Parents and Caregivers:

Throughout March, we have experienced many successes, including a Robotics Gold Championship for NorKam, students at Westsyde and Sa-Hali preparing for the UNESCO Anglophone National Youth Conference, and several schools competing in BC High School Sports Provincial Championships.

Twin Rivers Education Centre (TREC) – March 14, 2025

Upon entering TREC, there was a big sign for students to sign up to play Lahal. Several names were already on the list and Principal Johnson said, “Every Friday, we try to do activities that just offer some fun and ways for students to connect that promote well-being.” He shared how they’ve had yoga, pickleball, weight room classes, art, outside guest speakers, and trips to TRU labs, as examples. These days are well attended and students look forward to them.

Another important part of bringing the community together is having a space in the hallway lined with tables for sharing breaks and lunches. We stopped in to talk with Mr. Robert Arychuk who loves to cook and prepare meals and snacks for students. He was making a rice dish with vegetables, and students were looking forward to having a hearty lunch. TREC is looking forward to a kitchen renovation to expand it to make the space one that accommodates more people to assist with preparing food. This will open up more opportunities for students to help and to learn what it means to work in a kitchen, to plan meals, and to imagine a career in culinary arts.

We then visited Ms. Courtney Bruin’s Anatomy and Physiology 12 class. The students were engaged in direct instruction about how to label a brain, and one student was tasked with carefully dissecting the brain down the middle. Principal Johnson and Vice Principal Finley shared how this has been a great success to gather students for direct instruction and to participate in labs within the classroom and at TRU. While one group of students labelled the brain, another group examined tissue under a microscope and provided a detailed description of the cellular structures.

A third group was measuring response time using a measuring stick and timer. While we talked with students about their experiment, they recorded trials to try to beat their best reaction time and found that there is a norm that predicts most human response times. I was struck by the focus of each group, how dedicated they were to understanding the reasons for their results, and the excellent questions that they were asking and learning about with respect to the different experiments. I also saw videos of lessons done by this class with cow lungs and studying the capacity of different lungs. The rich experiential learning was evident.

Ms. Kehler and Mr. Marasco were working together in a humanities class where a student was completing a practice driver’s test. They took time to show me how they had expanded the classroom and hallway libraries of books, and how students were excitedly waiting for the next new titles. Ms. Kehler explained how they had determined the need for creating literacy rich spaces everywhere because it invited students to read without having to go to one specific room. She had put up signs wherever there were book shelves to share how to sign out the books through her.

Mr. Noble shared how he had three students working on English 12 and one was finishing a project that was part of their work in the Digital Arts and Design Academy (DATA) at Valleyview from last semester.

Rayna, the DATA Academy student, shared, “I know what I want to do, I want to be a 2D animator”, and they shared a video of their work. The video showed their artistic capacity to sketch a sequence of drawings to show movement of a character that looked professional. Rayna indicated that in the first part of the DATA program, students developed skills in a wide breadth of digital production from drawing, planning, coding, to visioning a project. In the second half of the semester, they worked in teams to bring project visions to life. Rayna felt that this was so valuable because it helped students to know what it is like to work in career roles connected to projects in a design studio or business.

We then visited Mr. Jeremy Banke’s Art class where a brand new student shared how she knows that she will be successful here because “regular school is too slow.” When I inquired about what she meant by “too slow”, she said, “I spent too much time waiting and now I can move ahead at my own pace.”

We ended our time with Indigenous Education Worker, Ms. Geri Thomas, and Indigenous Youth and Family Consultant, Amanda Big Sorrel Horse. They had put together 31 hampers for Spring Break and were just finishing up as we arrived. They shared how they loved to do this work and it is much needed. Feeding Futures funding has made it possible to provide food security for families who need it over the break.

2025 Elementary Basketball Season Recap

The District’s Elementary Basketball season came to a close this week as the Tier 1 Competitive Division finalists played their final games on Wednesday, March 12, 2025. Over the season, 140 teams of 1,700 Grade 4-7 students participated across three divisions. A huge thank you to all volunteers who made this season possible and congratulations to all the student athletes. Read more.

BC School Sports Provincial Championships

Congratulations also go out to all the SD73 secondary school sports teams who recently competed in Provincial Championships. In the Curling Provincial Championships, the Westsyde Girls team placed 2nd and the NorKam Boys team placed 7th. In the AAA Senior Girls Basketball Provincial Championships, Sa-Hali placed 2nd, SKSS placed 11th, and Valleyview Secondary placed 14th. In the AA Senior Girls Basketball Provincial Championships, Westsyde placed 12th and in the AA Senior Boys Basketball Provincial Championships, Westsyde Secondary placed 4th. Thank you to all the student athletes, staff, coaches, and volunteers who represented our District at Provincial – we are proud of your hard work, dedication, and achievements.   

Owl Award – Nominations due March 31, 2025

The Owl Award recognizes individuals, groups, or organizations who have made outstanding, system-wide contributions to public education in our District. If you know an individual or group who are role models, selfless, generous, and have made significant contributions to your school community and the District, consider nominating them. Nominations for 2025 Owl Award for Excellence in Public Education are due March 31, 2025. Read more.

Enjoy Your Spring Break!

Rhonda Nixon, PhD
Superintendent