On Tuesday (Sept. 5), students will flood Mission classrooms once again as school returns for another year.
Mission Public School District 75 (MPSD) superintendent Angus Wilson is excited about a return to a “fairly standard school start-up” with the height of the pandemic potentially in the rearview mirror.
“I’m just looking forward to getting back in schools, seeing kids working with teachers and all the wonderful learning that will be going on in our schools,” Wilson said.
Meanwhile, Board of Education chair Shelley Carter is enthusiastic about the new school year now that the current group of trustees has one year together.
“As a new board, we’ve built positive working relationships among the trustees and are eager to get back to work supporting students and families,” Carter said.
The district has some new programs on the docket for the 2023/2024 school year. A newly-revised education assistant program is coming to Riverside College, MPSD has a fresh accessibility plan, and the board is working on a new cell phone use policy.
Wilson says total safety in schools for students both physically and culturally is also a priority for the district this year.
MPSD is introducing its Integrated Child and Youth program as well. Wilson says it will be a one-stop shop for students that connects different groups together.
The district has hired a pair of clinical counsellors for the program that will feature over a dozen employees in total – mostly employed by the province. The team will support students by working with various government agencies.
“Their focus with these teams are mental health and drug use care, which is really good for our community,” Carter said. “They bring services in a multidisciplinary team setting and make it easier for children and youth within our school district to connect with the care they need.”
However, Mission schools are growing tighter on space throughout the system
“This district used to be bigger, got smaller, and now it’s bigger again,” Wilson said.
The superintendent says space is at a premium in upper elementary and middle schools. Hatzic Middle School alone currently has approximately 850 students enrolled.
“We don’t really have any more spare classrooms or anything like that,” Wilson said. “We’ve went with portables at a number of schools. We have a bit more space out in our rural schools like Deroche and Dewdney if we needed to expand there, but of course, those aren’t for that kind of core town area.”
Despite the increase in students, MPSD enters the new school year with a full staff.
“The last few years have been pretty tight with teacher shortages,” Wilson said. “We still have a few positions we haven’t filled but relative to a year or two ago, we’re doing pretty well in that department.”
After a lack of bus drivers led to route cancellations at points last year, the district also enters September staffed on that front.
However, Wilson says there’s a demand for additional bus routes as Mission grows.
“That’s going to be an ongoing thing into the future because it ain’t cheap adding them,” he said.
A new high school to replace Mission Senior Secondary is also a priority for the district.
In March 2023, the Ministry of Education announced funding to replace the current school, pending approval of the district’s business plan.
“We’re always advocating the Ministry of the importance [of MSS] for the community. Community members keep us in the loop of what they’re thinking and we know that we have a bit more work to do,” Carter said. “We’re hard at work with MSS and all that has to be done with that.”
According to the Engage MPSD website, consultants will present a Project Design Review (PDR) report for a new school to the board in September for submission to the Ministry for review/approval.
