Civil Municipal - June 2024

Beardmore, Geraldton, Longlac, Nakina, Caramat, Dorion, Nipigon, Red Rock, Schreiber, Terrace Bay, Marathon, and Manitouwadge. Alex Marton, Superintendent of Business, expands, “We have the largest English public board by geography in the province. We have 13 First Nations communities that we serve.We have 15 schools, and 18 buildings, across our mass geography, and driving from one end of the district to another can take about six hours. It is quite vast, and yet our student population is small but mighty in comparison.” “We do consider our geography one of the defining factors of who we are as a school board,” continues Nicole Morden Cormier, Director of Education. “We have worked diligently over the last number of years to embrace our uniqueness, and to ensure that all of our stakeholders understand the incredible possibilities that are out there because we are small and because we have such a tremendous geography. It does cause us challenges, there’s no question, but we are now embracing the possibilities of the small size and the uniqueness of our school district in terms of our presence in our communities.” EMPOWERING STUDENT VOICES AND FOSTERING OPPORTUNITIES The first goal of SGDSB is to ensure that students are equipped for the future. “Core to our school board is graduating citizens who have a significant skill set in literacy, numeracy, critical thinking, and those big C’s -Collaboration, Cooperation, all of those core skills that our students need to be successful,” says Morden Cormier. These efforts begin with the youngest learners, who are taught to embrace literacy, in and outside of the classroom. “We learn to read for joy and pleasure, but we also learn to read to garner meaning from the information. And we don’t just read print, we read body language, we read the environment,” she maintains. “So, students have meaningful literacy experiences, where they perhaps have gone out and had an experience on the land and then come back to learn about it, to understand it more deeply, to read, to speak about it.” The board is also taking steps to enhance the learning experience for all, by adapting to a student- centric approach.Through initiatives like the Student Senate, Indigenous Youth Council, and a Community Committee, students are given opportunities to collaborate and represent their peers. Morden Cormier elaborates,“The Student Senate is very much on leadership, and the Indigenous Youth Council is around Indigenous leadership. The community committee is around Equity and Human Rights leadership. So, we have students in the small schools that have a voice, not only in their school but board- wide.” On the classroom side, students actively participate, organizing events like an annual Powwow and learning the skills required for an “Outers Trip”where they live on the land for several days.“I’ve seen up to 215 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 05, ISSUE 06 SUPERIOR-GREENSTONE DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD