Near North District School Board announces five-year plan

A new vision comes to light from the Near North District School Board (NNDSB), as presented in their newly pressed strategic plan.

The plan will guide district schools and educators until 2026 and is built upon four main pillars: excellence in teaching and learning, transparent communication, excellence in innovation, and excellence in relationships with all members of the education community.

Specific goals include creating more opportunities for equitable access to programs and services, and ensuring those programs and services embrace the culture and diversity of students and community partners.

Aligning resources to ensure the board meets future education trends is also a priority, as is remaining on the forefront of technology to augment student achievement.

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Critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity, and innovation will also be emphasized in the classroom.

Drafted by the NNDSB’s board of trustees, the plan was unveiled on June 17, after 16 months of work.

Jay Aspin chairs the board and explained that short of picking the director of education, drafting the multi-year strategic plan “is probably the most important thing we do as a board.”

Public input was paramount to the success of the plan, Aspin said, and to help gather public opinion, the board brought in Nanos Research and Ramsey Partners Inc. to survey parents and community members to gauge their views regarding the school board’s operations.

Special advisors for the Ministry of Education, Wayne Joudrie and Wally Easton, also contributed to the project.

Bill Steer, who chairs the multi-year planning committee “did a tremendous job of shepherding this project,” Aspin added, mentioning the difficulty involved with creating the plan during Covid.

Overall, community input was gathered “from our six different regions,” Aspin said, which informed the five-year plan.

The NNDSB covers just over 17,000 sq km, with 28 elementary schools and seven secondary schools, serving 9,500 students.

The new plan “offers a long-term guidepost,” Aspin said, providing direction as to how the board should allocate resources “to impact student achievement and well-being.”

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David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.