the broken typewriter

“As always, we’re excited for a new school year,” Superintendent of Schools Stephen Petrucci said on Thursday, as district staff put the finishing touches on preparations for the first day of school on Tuesday, September 2.

While numbers won’t be finalized until after the first week of school is over, Petrucci says enrollment looks stable for this year, with just over 6,000 students projected to be enrolled in schools throughout School District 60 for the coming year.

Twenty-two new, certified teachers from outside the district were welcomed with an orientation and tour of the city this week. These teachers bring SD60’s compliment of classroom teachers to just two or three short of all classrooms being staffed. Petrucci points out that this is an improvement over last September when the district was short eight classroom teachers.

“We also have about 30 teachers on Letters of Permission,” he said. “Each year [the number of LoPs] ranges from 20 to 30 or so. We definitely have a good cadre of teachers on LoP.”

Teachers on LoP must reapply each year, so some of those who have applied this year already have experience, both as LoPs and in the district. The LoP teachers will be joined by new teachers this week for training in planning and preparation to support them all in getting ready for the new school year.

“[Having the LoPs] really helps us out in our schools. It still tells us that this district, like many others, faces ongoing challenges around staffing.”

In SD60, the first week at the elementary school level is spent in fun, educational activities while enrollment numbers firm up, and students are assigned to their classes at the end of the week.

During this time, Petrucci urges parents to let their school know if they have moved out of the catchment area, to help school staff determine classroom configurations.

“We would love to have timely communication from families, if possible, in terms of their plans,” he said. “It might be that they’re moving out of town, and we still have them as registered.”

If families have moved out of their school’s catchment area but wish for their children to remain at the school they attended last year, attending on variance is a possibility. The district has printable school variance applications on the SD60 website, however, Margaret Ma Murray Community School is closed to new variances for the 2025-2026 school year.

“Schools are filling up, which is a good thing, and we try to accommodate [variance requests], but there is no guarantee,” Petrucci said.

With schools filling up, several capital projects to provide more space for current students are underway and are expected to be ready for students this winter.

The new Wonowon School, which serves students from Kindergarten to Grade 9, is being built on the other side of the school gym from the present facility and is slated to open in November.

“That’s going to be a beautiful new school for the Wonowon school community.”

The eight-classroom addition at Dr. Kearney Middle School is scheduled to be ready for students in December.

“That’ll be great because Dr. Kearney is quite full, and so that will alleviate some [of the pressure], and accommodate an already full school population,” he said.

In addition to these two big projects, Petrucci said that other improvement projects have taken place in various schools over the summer, including flooring, offices, cabinets and other renovations that are typically carried out by the facilities department over the summer.

“We’re feeling great. All our leaders are in place, our board has already met informally, just to get an update on our plans for the year.”

Motorists are reminded that school zone speed limits of 30 km/hr from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. will be in effect on Tuesday, September 2. Also, school buses will be back on the roads picking up and dropping off students so please remember that flashing lights on school buses mean STOP!