Board Elections

Near North District School Board (NNDSB) held its annual organizational meeting on December 15, 2020. Trustees virtually elected Board leadership for the 2020/2021 year. The Board of Trustees and Director of Education proudly announce the re-election of Board Chair Jay Aspin, and Vice-Chair John Cochrane, effective December 15, 2020.

Aspin, who represents Zone 1; City of North Bay and Cochrane, who represents Zone 4; Parry Sound, have served as the incumbents of their respective positions, and served as Trustees for two years since their election by the public in 2018. “I am pleased Chair Aspin will continue in the role of Board Chair,” said Craig Myles, Director of Education. “While this has been a challenging year, I am confident that Jay Aspin’s leadership, along with the trustees’ wealth of expertise and skill will ensure that NNDSB is in a strong position to continue providing high-quality education to students in our region.”

The Board chairperson, along with all trustees, serve as stewards of NNDSB with statutory authority and obligation to guide the affairs of the organization. They set the strategic direction of the board in response to the needs of their region and work with the Ministry of Education to ensure alignment on issues such as strategic planning, policies and government direction. Trustees elect a chair and vice-chair each year of their four-year mandate.

“It’s a privilege to continue to serve this region as Chair of the Board and to be working with our talented trustees, the Director, and the administration in carrying out the responsibilities for Near North District School Board,” said Aspin. “I look forward to fostering a culture of collaboration and impactful change as we continue to develop a strong student centric focused organization in the face of COVID-19.”

Reports Presented

Director’s Annual Report 2019-2020

Director Myles presented the 2019-2020 Director’s Annual report, highlighting the breadth and scope of programming and system initiatives NNDSB has accomplished over the last year. This report is especially meaningful as it outlines the progress made in achieving the strategic pathways in the current multi-year strategic plan. Key areas of achievement are noted to be increased experiential learning, a more inclusive environment for all students, enhanced communication practices, and overall accountability. Click here to view the report.

Report to the Minister of Education

The Board reviewed and approved its third and final report for submission to the Minister of Education regarding the progress made towards fulfilling the recommendations from the special advisors’ report. This report represents the last in a series of three reports submitted by the Board on the journey to increasing public confidence and transparency. Major themes in the third report include succession planning, establishment of evidence-based organizational alignment, and governance capacity building.             

Multi-Year Strategic Plan Update

The Multi-Year Strategic Planning (MYSP) Committee provided a report to the Board regarding the next steps in the development of the new MYSP. This update follows the meeting in November at which the Board approved the MYSP draft framework. Information was presented to note the plan is being constructed to align with the board improvement plan for student achievement and wellbeing (BIPSAWB) and school improvement plans for student achievement and wellbeing (SIPSAWB). The Director’s Office has created a dedicated MYSP section on the website to highlight the progress, and provide a forum for continuous community feedback throughout the process. Click here to view the MYSP page.

Trustee Expenditures

Instilling public confidence through transparency and financial responsibility is key. As such, NNDSB is pleased to share the trustee expenditures report for the school year ended August 31, 2020. Overall, expenditures were $23,000 less than last year. View the full report here.

December 4, 2020

Since the beginning of COVID-19, schools and classrooms have changed, but learning has not. In fact, schools have incorporated more outdoor learning.

Argyle Public School is one of the many schools within Near North District School Board that is learning outdoors. The onset of COVID-19 has brought some positive changes to the Kindergarten (ELKP) classroom and its educators Sonja Cudmore and Robyn Ramsay who are excited to see students embracing the outdoors.

NNDSB’s philosophy is to offer students a rich learning experience in both the classroom and beyond. Outdoor education brings learning to life with increased opportunities to advance curricular learning in real-world, authentic contexts. NNDSB engages in outdoor education in all seasons, to deliver interdisciplinary outdoor learning opportunities k-12.

“Students are practicing social distancing, so we thought it was appropriate to spend more time learning in our natural classroom,” stated Cudmore, who noted their schoolyard is a beautiful space for an outdoor classroom; surrounded by farmer’s fields, bushes, and a small pond. “We bring the learning outside by going on scavenger hunts, nature walks, outside math and science. Nearly every subject has connections to learning outside.”

Students even had the chance to go on a pumpkin hunt in the playground, decorating their found pumpkins, and ultimately learning about the lifecycle of a pumpkin. The learning doesn’t stop there. In fact, that’s just the beginning. Students have the opportunity to investigate various common spiders and their webs, which they became fascinated with. Using yarn and other materials, students created their own webs on the school fence to learn about the techniques used in web creation.

Playing outside allows students the freedom to move and explore their environment and make investigations about their world. “Our students have really enjoyed observing nature in our schoolyard,” said Cudmore who noted students have noticed an abundance of Woolly Bear Caterpillars and began to ask questions about them. “They wondered why butterflies lay eggs which led to a discussion on the lifecycle of butterflies. We kept track of the number of caterpillars we spotted each week using 10-frames and tallies and then created a pictograph to display the data.”

She added by November, students observed there were fewer caterpillars, but more chrysalises, which began a discussion on why that might be. Since that discussion, teachers read several books to the students, which helped everyone understand the changes they were seeing.

Students look forward to taking their learning outdoors and investigating the world around them,” said Ramsay, “The outdoors provides the perfect environment for students to explore their wonderings about nature.”