Public school trustees discuss services for students with complex learning needs
By MO CRANKER on December 9, 2020.
mcranker@medicinehatnews.com@MHNmocranker The Medicine Hat Public School Board took a long look at services offered to students with complex learning needs Tuesday night during its monthly meeting. The board took in a presentation from director of early learning Joanne Stockman, who went over the services offered by the public school division. It also touched on funding and the future outlook for programming. Stockman went over services provided by MHPSD for students in Early Childhood Services through Grade 12. She began by briefly addressing funding, which was decreased this year. She noted that there is more flexibility on where the money can be spent, but the overall plan needed to be looked at. “The goal is to start with kids as early as possible, from pre-Kindergarten to Grade 2, to have the biggest impact,” she said. “We want to close as many gaps as we can for students and transition throughout the grade levels. “We have designed layers of support based off the needs of each student.” The three key areas for services are speech and language, occupational therapy and physical therapy. Each area has different programs students can work in to hone in on their specific needs. Stockman added that other services provided would be gone over in the new year. Name change The board discussed changing the name of the YMCA Stay in School Program to ‘Pathways.’ “We’ve worked a lot with our secondary schools around providing inclusive services to students who struggle to fit into the traditional way of learning,” said superintendent Mark Davidson. “The way outreach services have been used has changed rather significantly. “We have a different relationship with the YMCA now with respect to that school, where it was once a partnership school. It’s now a place where we rent space. “We feel like the new name better embodies how we are working with students.” Trustee Deborah Forbes moved the motion to change the name, and the board voted in favour of the change. 16-15
I was glad to go back to school, live communication with the teachers means a lot to me, I can always come up to ask what I do not understand. In distance learning, everything is difficult, I even once ordered myself an essay, just because I did not understand the topic, I’m glad I passed this work, now I want to write myself.