August is nearing its end and as we turn the calendar to September, it can only mean one thing – it’s time to go back to school.
Angus Wilson is preparing for his ninth year as Mission’s superintendent of schools and said there is always a build up to the new year.
“At the end of July you start to see all the back to school ads and kids and parents start to prepare and get excited for a new school year. Everybody starts thinking about it,” he explained.
This year’s enrolment figures are relatively stable according to Wilson, who said the numbers have grown a “little bit.”
“It’s a little slower than a few years ago.”
Just under 7,000 students are expected to be in the school system this year. That number drops to 6,490 if you only include full-time attendance. When Wilson started in Mission, the numbers were at 5,700 to 5,800 students.
Some students, usually part-time students taking two or three courses, use Mission Online which impacts the overall attendance figures.
Also impacting the number is Riverside College.
“Riverside College graduates over 100 people every year and yet on an full-time enrollment there’s actually only about 25 students there. The reason for that is a number of students there aren’t children, they are adults and they don’t count in the same way,” said Wilson.
One major change facing students this year are the new cellphone restrictions.
All across the province, new limitations have been implemented regarding cellphones and personal digital devices in schools. Wilson said Mission’s policy is fairly restrictive relatively speaking.
“We have essentially no use of cellphones in elementary schools,” he said. In middle schools cellphones are only permitted after school ends at 3 p.m.
Secondary school students can have cell phones but they are expected to be put away during class.
Wilson said there will be some exceptions for people with various medical conditions.
While cellphones are not permitted, Wilson emphasized that this doesn’t take away from the use of technology in the schools.
“The schools will be using modern technology for learning activities and so on, but we should be providing the equipment and broadly speaking there is more use of technology as kids get older.”
Wilson knows that cellphones can be addictive, adding it’s “going to take a community effort to recognize that we need to move away from them a little bit.”
He also believes the limitations can help with the issue of cyberbullying although he admits it can still happen after 3 p.m.
“We will continue to emphasize that all our schools are safe and inclusive for all students,” he said, adding that the schools will continue to have inclusive flags flying and other events.
Wilson said the vast majority of the community is totally supportive.
The school district will continue to hold its youth forums, giving voice to students in middle and secondary schools which is particularly important as they move towards a new high school.
Wilson said they are moving further ahead and on schedule with the new high school and so far all the steps that need to happen have occurred on time.
“To be clear, we are not digging a hole right now and throwing up a building, but we are getting close to the process of picking out who is going to be doing that.”
Other schools are also receiving some upgrades and repairs. For example, HVAC upgrades are taking place at Mission Central and a new roof is to be installed at Dewdney.
The district is also purchasing a new bus to increase the number of routes.
“In the time I’ve been here, we haven’t added any buses, we’ve replaced buses. Now we are adding an additional bus,” said Wilson.
Last year, Mission had some troubles finding enough bus drivers to fill the need.
“It was tight, we had a few cancellations last year,” said Wilson, noting they are always looking for more bus drivers and anyone interested should feel free to apply.
Mission students return to class on Tuesday, Sept. 3.
