Flourishing Through Education

How Manitoba’s second-largest school division combines data-driven planning with community engagement to create pathways for student achievement

At the heart of Louis Riel School Division’s approach to education lies a clear vision: achieving more fulfilling and flourishing lives at school and at work. Superintendent and CEO Christian Michalik leads Manitoba’s third-largest school division with this purpose firmly in mind, guiding the educational journey of over 17,700 students across a diverse community.

“Our core values centre on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility principles,” explains Michalik. “We’re also deeply committed to integrating Indigenous worldviews and perspectives in our work.” This commitment is reflected in the division’s comprehensive Multi-Year Strategic Plan 2023-2027, which maintains four strategic priorities: Belonging, Mastery, Independence, and Generosity.

The division’s approach to leadership stands out through its collaborative model. “Co-stewardship with staff is key in building a better future,” Michalik notes. “We don’t go it alone as a senior leadership team or school board of trustees. We create the journey with all staff, in partnership with families, and by nurturing student voice and agency.”

Data-informed decision-making drives LRSD’s operations, visible through their extensive Data Hub that provides transparent, up-to-date information through interactive dashboards accessible to the community. “We’ve been hard at work developing our data literacy as a school community, as a workforce,” Michalik shares. “Leveraging this data literacy is essential to know that we’re actually accomplishing what we’ve set out to do.”

Full-day, every-day kindergarten

Louis Riel School Division’s full-day, every-day kindergarten initiative represents a significant achievement in early childhood education, fulfilling a key strategic goal years ahead of schedule. “Our full-day, every-day kindergarten initiative is absolutely working out,” Michalik states with enthusiasm. “What’s exciting is that we’ve been able to achieve it in the early stages of our multi-year strategic plan. We had given ourselves until 2027, but now we’re focused on sustaining and enhancing the program for the future.”

The division is conducting rigorous action research to measure the initiative’s impact, with plans to report findings to the community in June 2025. Early indicators show multiple benefits spanning educational outcomes, family economics, and community well-being.

“All I hear is how impactful it’s been on families, staff, and students—with students at the heart of it all,” notes Michalik. “There’s the obvious impact on learning and well-being for students, but there’s also the impact on families who now don’t have to worry about childcare for their kindergarteners.”

LRSD views full-day, every-day kindergarten as a strategic first step in addressing broader childcare challenges. The initiative aligns with Strategic Action 4.3 from their Multi-Year Strategic Plan, which calls for implementing universal full-day, every-day kindergarten and enhancing access to before-and-after school care.

“Before we could solve the before-and-after school care crisis and the preschool childcare crisis, we as a public education system needed to solve the KinderCare dilemma,” Michalik explains. “Now that we’ve achieved that, we’re turning our attention to before and after school care. Our objective is that any family requiring before and after school care for their children has access to a fee-for-service program in their catchment school.”

The René Deleurme Centre and Beyond

The René Deleurme Centre (RDC) exemplifies Louis Riel School Division’s integration of education with community services. “The RDC brings together a remarkable number of community stakeholders,” Michalik explains. “We have the Newcomer Settlement Services team, which is federally funded support to newcomers. We have a school and family community connector that’s provincially funded through the community schools mandate. There’s Morrow Avenue Early Childhood Learning Centre, a private childcare provider with innovative practices, where we collaborate on developing approaches to childcare.”

The centre also houses EDGE, a nonprofit organization offering literacy and adult English as an Additional Language (EAL) program. This concentration of services creates a comprehensive community resource serving multiple schools including Lavallee School, Victor Mager School, Victor H.L. Wyatt School, St. George School, and Hastings School.

Building on this successful model, LRSD is now expanding its community-centred approach. “We’re busily expanding that work,” Michalik shares. “The RDC serves schools in the south of the division, and we’re going to replicate but also adapt a version to serve schools in the northern part of our division—Marion School, Archwood School, and Nelson McIntyre Collegiate.”

This community hub approach aligns with Strategic Priority 1 (Belonging) in the division’s Multi-Year Strategic Plan, which emphasizes inclusion and well-being for all students, staff, and families. The focus on community connections highlights LRSD’s understanding that educational success depends on strong partnerships beyond classroom walls.

STEM/STEAM and Career Pathways

Louis Riel School Division has developed a comprehensive approach to STEM/STEAM education that creates seamless pathways from early childhood exploration to career-ready skills. This approach, outlined in Strategic Action 3.6 of their Multi-Year Strategic Plan, connects play-based learning in early years to specialized technical education and career development opportunities.

“We’re connecting the dots of a project-based approach to learning across all grade levels,” Michalik explains. “There’s a play-based approach to learning in the early years that has a deep, strong connection to STEM/STEAM concepts. As students progress, this evolves into arts education and practical applied arts becoming increasingly specialized learning opportunities.”

The division’s strategy intentionally builds bridges between elementary experiences and secondary options. This educational continuum culminates at the Louis Riel Arts and Technology Centre, which serves senior years and adult students with technical and vocational education.

“We want to enhance what the Arts and Technology Centre offers to the community and how it connects to work that starts as early as kindergarten,” says Michalik. “This also connects to our apprenticeship programs for students and adult education offerings, along with the career development work we do as children enter high school.”

The division’s approach recognizes that today’s students need both technical skills and creative problem-solving abilities. By integrating arts into traditional STEM fields (creating STEAM), LRSD prepares students for a rapidly evolving workforce while nurturing essential creative and critical thinking capabilities.

A Data-Driven Approach to Infrastructure

Louis Riel School Division has established a comprehensive, transparent approach to infrastructure planning through its LRSD 2034 initiative. This 10-year infrastructure plan for growth, maintenance, and modernization incorporates detailed data analysis to guide decisions about facility investments across the division.

“Building safe, modern, and accessible learning and work environments for everyone we serve in the southeast quadrant of the city is essential,” Michalik states. “Strategic Action 4.1 focuses on creating those safe, modern, accessible spaces for learning and work in all schools and workplaces, considering both indoor and outdoor environments.”

The division’s approach stands out for its unprecedented transparency. LRSD has developed an annual school building review dashboard accessible to the public, providing comprehensive information about each school facility.

“I believe transparency is at the core of this work,” explains Michalik. “Infrastructure investments require a long-term vision and don’t happen overnight. One way to build trust, excitement, and willingness to support these investments is to be as transparent as possible.”

The dashboard includes detailed information for each facility: construction year, additions, size, program offerings, capacity, enrollment, utilization rates, enrollment projections, accessibility features, capital projects, playground information, building systems, transportation, and childcare spots. This information connects directly to the LRSD 2034 plan, which outlines specific projects by priority.

Current infrastructure priorities include additions to J.H. Bruns Collegiate, Windsor Park Collegiate, and Collège Béliveau, along with five new schools planned for developing communities. These include École Varennes, a new elementary school in Precinct J (north of Sage Creek), a high school and elementary school in Precinct K (south of Bonavista and Royalwood), and a dual-track school in Waters Urban Village.

Nurturing Bilingualism through French Immersion

Louis Riel School Division hosts Manitoba’s largest French Immersion program, serving 32.3% of its total student population. This signature offering has become a defining feature of the division’s identity and a key attraction for families seeking bilingual education opportunities in southeast Winnipeg.

“When I look at program enrollment data that’s publicly available on our website, you can see the growth pattern,” Michalik explains. “In kindergarten this year, 41% of students are enrolled in French Immersion. In Grade 1, it’s 43.3%.” This concentration of early years participation shows the program’s increasing popularity among families entering the school system.

The division’s transparent data dashboards reveal compelling statistics about French Immersion enrollment patterns. The most significant participation occurs in the primary years, with enrollment rates exceeding 40% in kindergarten through Grade 3. This creates a substantial French language learning community within the division.

LRSD has focused intensively on program retention, which has historically been a challenge for French Immersion programs nationwide. “A phenomenon that’s true in French immersion across Canada is attrition over time,” notes Michalik. “In Canada overall and in Manitoba, when you look at a kindergarten cohort, essentially only 50% of the students in French Immersion complete the program through Grade 12.”

The division has achieved remarkable success in addressing this challenge. “In LRSD, it looks more like 70-75% of students who see it through from kindergarten to Grade 12,” Michalik shares. “We’re still not satisfied though. We want to see that improve.”

Strategic Priority 2 (Mastery) in the Multi-Year Strategic Plan includes specific actions to strengthen French language education, including Strategic Action 2.5 to make the French Immersion program more accessible by introducing new entry points, and Strategic Action 2.6 to enhance French language teaching and learning in English program schools.

Building on a Legacy of Lifelong Learning

Michalik approaches educational leadership with a philosophical perspective that places continuous learning at the center of human fulfillment. “I believe that to be alive is to be a learner and that we are learning every moment,” he reflects. “We are always growing and developing a deeper understanding of the world we are part of; ourselves, and the communities we belong to. It’s at the heart of our sense of fulfillment and flourishing as human beings—to be curious about the world, about ourselves, about others.”

This philosophy directly informs LRSD’s educational approach. The division instills a love of learning. “Hopefully, one of the essential values that students leave our public education system with is excitement about learning, excitement about one’s capacity to learn,” says Michalik. “I truly believe that it’s at the heart of our wellness—to feel we belong, to feel we are purposeful, to feel we’re contributing.”

Looking ahead, Michalik sees the division’s Multi-Year Strategic Plan as the roadmap for continued growth and improvement. “Our energies for the next 24 months lie in making that plan come alive,” he explains. “I sense that people are really buying in and excited about the work. There are 25 strategic actions, and we’re making tremendous progress on many of them.”

The plan’s four strategic priorities—Belonging, Mastery, Independence, and Generosity—create a framework for the division’s decision-making while honoring core values of diversity, inclusion, and data-informed practice. These priorities are visibly reinforced through posters in every classroom, connecting daily educational practices to broader divisional goals.

As Louis Riel School Division continues to evolve, its blend of thoughtful planning, community engagement, and transparent data sharing creates a model for how public education can respond to changing demographics and emerging needs while maintaining a steadfast focus on student success and well-being.

AT A GLANCE

Who: Louis Riel School Division
What: Manitoba’s second-largest school division serving over 17,700 students with the province’s largest French Immersion program
Where: Southeast Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Website: www.lrsd.net