Mike Borgfjord

One of the exciting challenges in Seine River School Division in 2012 will be growth and construction at Arborgate School in La Broquerie.  That from Superintendent Mike Borgfjord.  "You can't think about the coming year without thinking about Arborgate School, the completion of that project by summer of this year, the transition into a new school facility and the additional things that will be going on there."

He notes there will be construction in other parts of the division as well.  "Our science lab renovations will start happening at St Norbert Collegiate.  We are excited for the science program at the collegiate and know it will be a real benefit.  We are working with our architects right now to design the new labs."

Borgfjord adds Seine River continues to grow.  "We are always looking at class size and trying to reduce it.  We know that class size is an important part.  We are not sure how the province's guideline of 20 students per classroom in k-3 is going to flesh out in the next school year but we know when the funding announcement is out at the end of January we will start to see how some of those things will work.  We are very pleased with the opportunity to have that challenge to try to find space and look at how we are going to lower our class sizes."

He notes another item on his plate for this coming year involves some educational improvements from last year.  "We have been collecting a lot of information on how well our students have been doing and we are looking forward to seeing how some of our literacy programs are making a difference.  There was a lot of the professional development we put in with our staff in terms of improving reading abilities, assessments and teaching reading strategies to students.  We are looking forward to reviewing our results and going to the next step to really improve opportunities for students in our division."

Borgfjord says they are also looking forward to bringing together high school students.  "Those who have been involved in social justice issues and 'We Day' and providing some leadership training for them and really trying to connect and build upon some of the things we have done.  We will also be working on getting some of our schools to work together across the division and doing things that are going to make a difference, opportunities for our students that will get them excited about not just their school but other schools in the division and really building the broader community."

He credits a lot of people for making the division successful.  "There are always going to lots of challenges but we are fortunate that we have dedicated staff and lots of support from our school board and we're looking forward to using that to really build stronger school communities."