Friday, Jan. 10, 2025               

Chippewa Secondary School celebrates 10 years of excellence with International Baccalaureate program

Chippewa Secondary School is thrilled to announce the successful completion of its recent five-year evaluation, conducted by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), reaffirming its commitment to providing a world-class education. Chippewa Secondary became an IB World School in 2014.

The IB evaluation process is a five-year cycle, culminating in a review of all documents, processes and procedures, and academic and school priorities during a five-year period. This was Chippewa’s second such evaluation. The successful evaluation, conducted over 12 months, underscores the program’s adherence to the high standards set by the International Baccalaureate organization. The IB community – administrators, teaching staff, current students, alumni, and families – are all allowed to participate in the process. This comprehensive review is designed to provide the opportunity to celebrate the successes and to look for ways to continually improve.

Chippewa’s World School Manager, Remy Lemon, stated, “I would like to thank your school community for the thorough and thoughtful presentation of your self-study results. Your commitment has been evident in the review of your school’s documents and engagement throughout the process.”

The evaluation team at the IB World Schools department commended the school for its dedicated faculty, robust support systems, and overall growth and success of its IB students. The conclusions of the evaluation team noted, “Chippewa Secondary School has consistently aligned its mission and vision with the IB educational principles. This commitment is evident. [They showed] a strong focus on equity and inclusion across both curricular and extracurricular activities. The school team fosters relationships between students, teachers and the community, encouraging global perspectives and equipping students with the skills and knowledge needed to thrive in an evolving world.”

Next year marks the 10^th anniversary of the program at Chippewa Secondary School, with its first students entering the diploma program in 2015.

For more information about the IB program at Chippewa Secondary School, please contact Kim Larivee, IB coordinator, and check out Chippewa’s open house event, Welcome to High School, for Grade 8 students on Jan. 16 from 6 to 8 p.m.

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Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024

Another successful Indigenous Youth Council Gives Back

After last year’s incredible success with the Necessities Drive, the Indigenous Youth Circle, in partnership with the North Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre and the Anishinabek Police Service (APS), held a Stuff the Cruiser fundraiser.

The Indigenous Youth Circle is a student organization comprised of Indigenous students from all Near North District School Board (NNDSB) secondary schools. Over the last two months, the Indigenous youth at six secondary schools across the board held various fundraisers to collect money and toys to donate to the North Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre for their holiday gift-giving.

Indigenous Student Trustee Riley Trudeau and NNDSB’s Indigenous Lead Kelly Nootchtai Huston joined Sgt. Chantal Larocque, Const. Justin McLeod and Const. JP Spence at the Sturgeon Falls Canadian Tire, where they collected toys and monetary donations from customers.  Over the two days, while also handing out popcorn and raffling an APS hoodie, stuffed police dog and maple syrup that was donated by a local business owner, they stuffed an entire APS truck with toys, as well as raising more than $1,282.

Stuff the Cruiser event culminated on Dec. 12, when Student Trustee Riley Trudeau and Dokis First Nation student Jacob Restoule hopped in APS cruisers driven by Sgt. Larocque and Const. McLeod. Joining them in the back seats were Indigenous Education Coordinator Amanda Mathias and Indigenous Lead Kelly Nootchtai Huston. They visited five of the six secondary schools to collect their donations and completed their travels at the North Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre.

Along with a $1,000 donation from Dokis First Nation and the monies procured at Canadian Tire, more than $4000 was raised.

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Monday, Nov. 25, 2024

Artists to battle it out at Parry Sound High School’s first Art War event

Local artists are getting ready to battle it out in Parry Sound High School’s (PSHS) new fundraising event Art War!

The exciting evening of entertainment will see Parry Sound students and alumni go head-to-head in a live art-making competition judged by the audience. Attendees will enjoy a delicious meal catered by the PSHS hospitality department while they watch artists create artwork right in front of them.

Artists will participate in a three-round elimination contest until one artist is left standing. In the first-round participants are tasked with creating a still life or portrait, round two is a landscape painting and the final round is freestyle where those remaining can play to their strength and let their imaginations run wild. Participating artist specialties range from ink portraitists and watercolour painters to street artists.

After each round, the audience browses the art and then votes for their favourites with their phones through a QR code found at each table.

Proceeds from the event will go towards replenishing the whole school collaborative event account.

PSHS visual arts teacher Melissa Beasley said the account is used to fund large scale collaborative events at the school such as full-scale musical productions, the One-Of-A-Kind show and even events like Art War.

“Art War was in collaboration with business leadership students, the arts council and hospitality students,” Beasley said. “Hospitality students will cater the dinner, business leadership students are handling the marketing, advertising and are event organizers. Arts council is creating the venue design and selling tickets. They will also staff the event, waiting on tables, ticketing at the door, selling art, and managing the artists.”

PSHS hospitality students will be serving a gourmet four-course meal. Hospitality teacher Blair Cousins said the dinner starts with a ravioli with spinach and fresh ricotta followed by Caesar salad and lasagne with garlic bread as the main course. The dessert will be a cranberry tart.

“Students have been working on perfecting the tart and ravioli for weeks,” Cousins said.

Art War will take place on Thursday, Nov. 28 at 6 p.m. at Parry Sound High School. Tickets are $40 per person and can be purchased by emailing Melissa.Beasley@nearnorthschools.ca or David.Wigney@nearnorthschools.ca.

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Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024

NNDSB first to offer senior virtual Indigenous language courses to students across Ontario through eLearning Consortium

Near North District School Board (NNDSB) is offering a first-of-its-kind opportunity for secondary school students through the Ontario eLearning Consortium (OeLC). Students in the 56 school boards who are members of the OeLC can now earn upper-level Indigenous language credits through the virtual courses offered by NNDSB.

Previously, Level C and D Ojibwe language courses have only been offered through in-person learning. However, due to timetable conflict, students often faced the difficult task of having to select courses that are pre-requisites for post-graduation opportunities over language. Starting in January 2025, the availability of the courses through e-learning eliminates the issue of timetable conflicts, low enrolment, and potential course cancelation. This is not only a benefit to students in NNDSB, but across the province.

NNDSB teacher Falcon McLeod, who will be teaching the online courses, explained that a crucial aspect of learning Ojibwe is to gain proficiency in navigating resources (such as dictionaries and grammar resources of various dialects). The online courses NNDSB offers can inspire and support students in their learning experience and language learning goals.

McLeod has developed meaningful and authentic course content that can be used effectively to reach more students. With his dedication and focus to language revitalization, he supports the employment of strategies and resources that can best support language learners.

McLeod’s Nishnaabe name is Nishnaabemwin Bemwidood which means Keeper of the Language, and so, he has been learning the language since the age of five. He sought out every opportunity available to study Ojibwe while in school and studied with many notable language instructors along the way. The real turning point in his language education came when he attended his first immersion camp Ojibwemotaadidaa Omaa Gidakiiminaang (OOG) in Cloquet, Minnesota.

“Ever since that experience, I have been slowly trying to emulate all those experiences in my home community of Nipissing First Nation and recreate several of those resources in the Nipissing dialect,” McLeod said. “These resources have ultimately become what I use to teach Ojibwe in my classes and plans for future materials.”

The courses build on learned skills from week to week. McLeod said students will cover one grammar concept per week and the following week will build on that knowledge in a way that has students learning Ojibwe at an exponential rate.

“For example, first week we introduce a set of nouns to be the actors for our sentences. The next week we have those same nouns doing actions and that’s how we introduce verbs,” McLeod said. “From there we introduce commands, then prepositional phrases, etc. Within about four lessons we’ve gone from no language knowledge to nearly story-telling abilities in Ojibwe.”

Each lesson consists of a pre-recorded video of the in-class lesson available on YouTube, a PowerPoint presentation from the video going over the lesson, a worksheet to get learners situated and aware of what to do for the work and an opportunity for them to seek help. Students also receive audio files of McLeod speaking Ojibwe at regular and slow speeds for learners to transcribe and translate.

“Upon entering the online classes and following along attentively with the materials I share, students can go from no awareness of the Nipissing dialect to being able to express conservatively hundreds of thousands of sentences in Ojibwe with one out of four types of the verb classes,” McLeod said.

“At NNDSB, we recognize the importance of Indigenous language revitalization and preservation, in fulfilling the Calls to Action related to language and in forwarding Truth and Reconciliation,” said Sarah Spence, NNDSB Principal of Student Achievement and Well-Being. “The board is situated on the Robinson Huron Treaty Territory, specifically on the lands of seven Anishinaabe First Nations. We are honoured to have exceptional language holders who can offer such calibre of language teachings to not only students in NNDSB, but across all of Ontario.”

Students from across the province that are interested in registering for the courses can do so through their school guidance departments.

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Friday, Nov. 15, 2024

Week spotlights anti-racism education and new Bullying Prevention Plan

Bullying Awareness and Prevention Week occurs Nov. 18-22, 2024, and all schools across Near North District School Board will actively participate in this annual event.

Racist and discriminatory actions and words continue to increase across the  province, which is evident in schools. As a result, NNDSB’s Safe Schools team has identified the theme Call It Out for this year’s Bullying Awareness and Prevention week. The focus will be on providing skills for students and staff to identify and define racism and discrimination, as well as develop the skills needed to feel confident in calling it out when it occurs.

The Safe Schools team works with local and provincial partners to curate meaningful content for students that is tailored to provide specific, developmentally appropriate safety information for all students from Kindergarten to Grade 12.

The North Bay Battalion continue to support NNDSB in cultivating safe, inclusive and welcoming spaces through video resources, school visits, and game spotlights. The Vincent Massey choir will be singing the national anthem at the Battalion game on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024.

The North Bay Police Service, in partnership with Amelia Rising, is providing anti-human trafficking education to Grade 11 and 12 students at West Ferris and Chippewa Secondary Schools. Provincial and local experts will increase awareness of human trafficking and its impact on communities, educate students on how to identify the signs of human trafficking, empower students to become advocates for awareness and prevention, and provide resources for further education and involvement in combatting this issue.

Pink Shirt Day occurs on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. All staff and students are encouraged to wear pink to show that they pledge to call out bullying, racism or discrimination when they see it.

Harmony Movement will be providing a parent workshop entitled Words Matter. The workshop will be held virtually on Tuesday, Nov. 19, starting at 6:30 p.m. Participants will examine and understand how children are exposed to harmful and discriminatory language, practice how to respond to discriminatory language in a range of scenarios, and identify actions they can take to promote a culture of acceptance, respect, and understanding in all of our schools. Parents, caregivers, and community members can register here. Parry Sound High School will also be hosting a watch-party for those in the West Region. Join them at 6 p.m. for pizza and stay for the in-person watch party by registering here.

NNDSB is also happy to share an updated Bullying Prevention and Intervention Plan, which supports Safe and Accepting School Teams with a blueprint for creating student-centred plans that are tailored to the in-year needs of the students within the school.

Through these partnerships we can model citizenship for our students and demonstrate the power of coming together as a community to create safer spaces. “Presentations given by experts, role models, and community members allow us to make the content even more meaningful for our students,” said Principal of Safe Schools, Emily Samuel. “Our partners provide relevant and responsive knowledge that support our students’ development of personal safety and positive citizenship,” she added.

The Safe Schools team appreciates the work that all staff, parents and community members do to support inclusivity in our schools and neighborhoods. We encourage everyone to call out racism, discrimination and bullying when they see it to create safe spaces for all.

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Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024

Chair and Vice acclaimed at annual organizational meeting

The trustees of Near North District School Board (NNDSB) met Tuesday night for their annual organizational meeting.

Indigenous Trustee Ashley St. Pierre and Zone 4 Trustee Howard Wesley were acclaimed as the Board’s Chair and Vice-Chair respectively, positions they held last year. They will serve for the third year of the Board’s four-year term. The 2022-2026 Board of Trustees is composed of these trustees.

Chair St. Pierre was nominated by Trustee Bill Steer, and Vice-Chair Wesley was nominated by Trustee Jeanie Fuscaldo.

Following her acclamation, Chair St. Pierre thanked Trustee Steer for the nomination, and said, “It’s been an honour to learn the work. I look forward to another year of working with everyone.”

Similarly, Vice-Chair Wesley thanked Trustee Fuscaldo for the nomination, and said he looks forward to continuing the work of the Board.

Membership of trustees to the Board’s various committees was also determined and approved at last night’s meeting.

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