School divisions ready to welcome back students

By Lethbridge Herald on September 4, 2023.

Herald photo by AL BEEBER Vehicles pass Senator Joyce Fairbairn Middle School on Monday. Classes resume today for city students and motorists will notice new signs reflecting the harmonization of school and playground zones posted.

ALEJANDRA PULIDO-GUZMAN
Lethbridge Herald

As each school prepares to the return of their students, the Lethbridge School Division and the Holy Spirit School Division superintendents prepare to make sure everything is in place for their staff to be able to help students thrive in the new academic year. 

Lethbridge School Division Superintendent, Mike Nightingale spoke to the Herald Friday and said he was very excited for the start of a new school year and is honoured to officially step into his new role as superintendent. 

“The school year is a timing as educators we all look forward to, the opportunity to see people we haven’t seen in a few months, new and returning students and their families,” said Nightingale. 

He said what he is most looking forward to do is making connections with the different school communities, opportunities to connect with students, with staff and parents. 

In this upcoming school year, Nightingale said they will be implementing a few changes to the curriculum. 

“We’ve got new curriculum coming in the upper elementary and middle school level, so we’ll continue to focus on that new professional learning,” said Nightingale. 

He said he is pleased to know that enrolment is up this year as that gives them the opportunity to serve more students and families. 

“For those first couple weeks of September sometimes we get some more students than we expected, so we have to readjust and sorts things out, so we’ll certainly be working on that over the next couple weeks,” said Nightingale.

He said they won’t know the actual number until they have the students present in the schools, as the number of students registered sometimes is not the same as the number of students that show up to school. 

For Holy Spirit Catholic School Division superintendent Ken Sampson, preparations started off with the administrators from all schools within the division gaining a firm understanding of what the division is all about last week, when it comes down to the basics of their fundamental and foundational statements. 

He said they were focusing on their board priorities while diving into the why of what they do in Holy Spirit. 

“That really centres on both combination of our mission statement and our vision statement, which is ultimately for our students to be cherished and to achieve their potential and to always have in mind that the Catholic faith is the centre of all that we do, and ensuring that all our administrators are understanding in full the purpose and why of our division,” said Sampson. 

He said this year they will be focusing on being action-oriented and endeavouring to provide the best possible learning environment for students to be reaching optimal educational outcomes.

Sampson said their enrolment numbers also increased this year, but as the LSD they can only be certain of the number of students once they are already at the schools. 

When it comes to changes within the division Sampson mentioned a few schools have new school administrators, with some recently named assistant principals and with some short-term support staff positions to be filled but confident that they are in a good position to welcome the students back. 

“We are super excited to be able to welcome back our students and families, and next week Tuesday we are very much looking forward to seeing everyone return, as well as certainly opening up our doors to new families who will be new to Holy Spirit,” said Sampson.