The Flin Flon School Division is in the end stages of selecting a successor for retiring Superintendent of Schools Blaine Veitch.
“We are to the point of doing final interviews,” Trustee Murray Skeavington, board chair, said at the Tuesday, March 8 school board meeting. “We should have something at our next meeting [on March 22].”
Skeavington said the board received about 22 applications for the position, the top administrative job within the division.
Veitch, who has been in the role since 2002, is set to retire this summer. He started with the division as a teacher in 1981.
Student award
Veitch commended the regional recipient of the Manitoba School Boards Association’s Student Citizenship Award.
The winner for region 4, which includes Flin Flon, is Brandon Kolt, a Grade 11 student at Hapnot Collegiate.
“Congratulations to Brandon. Well deserved,” Veitch said.
According to the MSBA website, the award recognizes “outstanding young people throughout Manitoba who are active participants in their communities and schools.”
In receiving the award, Kolt becomes one of six finalists for the Association of Manitoba Municipali-ties George Harbottle Memorial Award, which will be presented later this month.
Like the Student Citizenship Award, the Harbottle award is meant to “honour the efforts of Manitoba students at modeling and promoting good citizenship within both their schools and their broader communities,” according to the MSBA website.
Anti-bullying
Two Grade 3 students helped update trustees on anti-bullying efforts underway at their school, École McIsaac.
Niki Keramydas and Cassidy Alexander joined school guidance counsellors Carrie Alexander and Paige Baschuk for the presentation.
Trustees heard how students have learned what bullying is, how to deal with it and why it is important to tell someone if it is taking place.
Cassidy took her turn at the podium to detail the school’s Random Acts of Kindness Month, observed last month, while Niki introduced a school-made video called What McIsaac Knows About Bullying.
The video featured a range of students reciting short lines about bullying, including its definition and where it tends to happen. Students on screen noted there is a difference between acting mean in a moment and being a bully, since everyone acts mean sometimes, whether they missed breakfast or are just having a bad day.
Skeavington thanked the delegation, applauded the video and expressed his hope that progress will continue against bullying.
Commended
In his chair’s report, Skeavington wished good luck to winners in the recent Flin Flon Citywide Science Fair who will be moving on to the upcoming regional fair in The Pas.
“It was nice to see 150 projects this year,” he added.
Skeavington commended science fair co-organizer George Trevor “for eight years of dedication” to the fair and “getting this program up and running.”
He noted that Trevor, vice-principal of McIsaac, will be relocating to Prince Edward Island after this school year. A Flin Flon native, Trevor taught in Sandy Bay before moving back to Flin Flon.
Reserves
On the spending front, trustees voted to seek permission from the Public Schools Finance Branch to establish two reserve funds: up to $60,000 for maintenance trucks and up to $125,000 for a new mini bus.
Skeavington said the board sets up reserve funds “so that when we have to replace the vehicles, the money’s there.”
