The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

6 4 5 - Continued from page 3 wursday, November 17, 2022 | § z schoo! Board (HCDSB) parent jhas come forward i Fe aned schools. rie McDougald is an Oakville parent with two School. She believes one potential Solutio! ion is the specific pro- ene ‘ low popula- tion schools. "It's an attempt to boost enrolment at some of the schools that are seeing low- er enrolment and to offer students a different way to learn something that's more aligned with the kind of careers that they're go- ing to be having outside of school and just to meet insidehalton.com more of their interests,” said MeDougald. regional pro- orans, othe concept is to designate specific schools within a board as specializ- rest. For example, there could be an arts school, an athletics school or a STEAM school where additional focus and exper- tise is provided for stu- dents on that particular subject. “Arts programs, high tech programs, they're more aligned with what kids are seeing out there right now. And | think it would bring, more kids and get them more excited.” school. I think it would sur- This concept isn't new. round them with like-mind- The Peel District School _ed peers who share their in- Board offers a wide variety terestsandallow them ex eX: of these programs includ- press themselves in ing SciTech and Transpor- __ that kind of the traditional tation, Engineering and t not be Technology. doing," said McDougald. “Arts programs, high Generally, students tech programs, they'remore have to provide their own aligned with what kids are transportation to special- seeing out there right now. ized schools. That means a And I think it would bring, school designated as the more kids and get them Arts school, for example, more excited about goingto would draw students from - Laurie McDougald er areas including edu- cational facilities that are bursting a the seams. en the idea was re- cently sceoented to Catho- lic trustees, it received vo- cal support from key voices at the board. At the same meeting, Oakville trustee Nancy Guzzo successfully passed amotion for a feasibility re- port into the creation of ex- panded arts programming at particular schools. That report isexpected in March 2 Guz said she felt arts was the best place to start partly because it has sucha broad appeal. “There isn't one offered in Halton. And we know that for those students who seek to go into a specialized arts program there, they're leav- ing our region to do that,” said Guzzo, adding, "It's an- other way of attracting su dents and maint schools that we have." The proposal for the ex- panded Arts program was widely supported around the board table. John Klein, director of education at HCDSB, said he believes programs like vides the opportunity for SPECIALIZED PROGRAMS SEEN IN OTHER REGIONS students to express them- selves, particularly for those 0 might find that the weave that they're in, in schools, may not necessari- ly, be the one for them. This er opportunity to transcend the world that we live in —I am a big believer in this," said Klein. STORY BEHIND THE STORY: With Halton fac- ing a signifi icant enrolment wanted to expi parent's proposal of spe- cialized regional programs could help address the problem. | Bug SCAN THis cope for more local news. HEALTHY EATING EASY! ketolibriyum 2387 Trafalgar Rd Oakville M-F10 -7|S-$10-5