Enhancing Community Engagement
Welcome to our dedicated page on Enhancing Community Engagement. In RETSD, we firmly believe that collaboration between our Board of Trustees, division staff, and the community are essential to nurturing a thriving educational environment.
On this page, we will share our commitment to fostering open communication and actively involving parents, staff, and students in informing the strategies we use in our decision-making processes. We're dedicated to ensuring that our entire community is well-informed and empowered to participate in shaping the future of education within our school division.
Below, you will find information about our first initiatives since launching this page—an Enhanced Engagement Survey and a Community Education Forum. Stay tuned as we unveil further events, initiatives, and opportunities for engagement. Thank you for being a valued part of our educational community.
ENHANCED ENGAGEMENT SURVEY
In Spring 2023, an Enhanced Engagement Survey was emailed to all parents in River East Transcona School Division with the purpose of assisting the Board of Trustees in planning community education forums. The Board of Trustees was thrilled that 1,438 responses were received! We want to thank you for your input. Here is a synopsis of what we learned:
What are the two most important topics you would like to see us incorporate into a forum?
- Student Success/Life Skills: No matter the grade level, what does student success look like and what is needed to make sure they have what they need when they graduate? (1,151 responses)
- Mental Health & Well-Being: What supports are needed to help our students with their well-being? (893 responses)
- Safe Schools, Safe Streets: Keeping students safe in school is important. What are we doing to accomplish this? (677 responses)
- COVID-19 Student Learning Recovery: What are we doing to help our students readjust to classroom education since COVID? (155 responses)
When prompted with “Please indicate other topics that are important to you,” we received 621 responses. After compiling the information, the following trends emerged:
- Funding distribution
- Bullying
- Class sizes and combined classes
- Inclusion
- Refocusing on the essentials
- Character education
COMMUNITY EDUCATION FORUM
The Board of Trustees identified, as one of their priorities for the 2023–24 school year, the opportunity to enhance communications externally and increase their community engagement. As one of the Board’s steps to achieve greater community engagement, they approved a Community Education Forum.
On November 18, 2023, the Board of Trustees hosted the Community Education Forum at the Education Resource Centre in Bernie Wolfe School. The theme was Creating Student Success: What Does This Look Like To You? This theme was based on an Enhanced Engagement Survey that was sent to parents in the spring of 2023.
The forum welcomed 138 participants from across the River East Transcona School Division community, including students, parents, community members, business leaders, educators, senior administration, and School Trustees.
The forum included a panel comprised of students, a parent, a school principal, and a community business member, and time for discussion rounds at small table groups. The theme sparked engaging discussions among the participants, whose diverse perspectives were valuable when examining the four questions proposed during the forum.
It was a wonderful opportunity for Trustees to hear from their community and, in turn, for participants to listen to what others have to say about creating student success. A report was presented to the Board of Trustees, for their consideration.
A synopsis of the discussions can be found here: Community Education Forum—November 2023
We hope that you enjoy reading through it.
