Kids head back to school

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This article was published 07/09/2023 (1155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As thousands of students poured into schools in the Brandon School Division Wednesday morning, a Wheat City mom who has three kids said she couldn’t tell who was more excited about the first day of school.

For the first time, Jessica Arsenault will have all three of her children in the same school — Maryland Park School in the city’s southeast. The morning bell sounded at 8:40 a.m., with the first class at 8:45 a.m.

“We are a family of four with our youngest now in kindergarten and our other kids in Grade 5 and 8. Everybody’s excited one way or another because it’s like we’re getting back to normal with a school schedule. We had to drag the kids out of bed this morning, but actually, that was pretty fun,” Arsenault said, while she straightened the straps on her daughter’s backpack.

As Cosmin Badea, a father of two, walked with his Grade 8 son to Maryland Park School, he noted that it felt like a “fresh start” for his kids.

“We didn’t really take many holidays this summer, so they were at the YMCA every single day and were up at 7 a.m. anyway. One is at Vincent Massey, and my son in the fourth grade was really, really looking forward to today because his best friend is going to be in the same class, finally,” Badea said.

At the BSD administration office, Supt. Mathew Gustafson said the start of the school year is one of the most exciting times for staff, students and parents.

“Students are going to meet a new teacher, see classmates again and do different activities related to school, like sports. And for parents, it’s seeing their child grow and develop, take on new challenges in a new grade. Sometimes there can be nervousness, but a good relationship with the school and the parents can help minimize the impact on that,” Gustafson said.

There are 25 schools within the BSD, four are high schools, and three are located outside city limits in Alexander, Shilo and Spring Valley Hutterite Colony, which is about nine kilometres south of Brandon.

Student enrolment is increasing each year, said Gustafson.

“Last year we did have a very significant increase, over 300 students. It’s too early to say for sure what our net enrolment increase would be this year, but we are seeing some schools with a large number of registrations in August. So until we get through those first couple of weeks, we don’t have a true picture of the total enrolment of the division just yet,” Gustafson said.

The city’s newest school is Maryland Park, which was completed in early 2021. But since the day it opened, it has been over its 450-student capacity. That’s why four modular classrooms were installed to help accommodate more than 600 students who were at the school last year.

It’s going to be a busy school year, Gustafson said.

“We have the potential expansion of Maryland Park, and many other projects like upgrading buildings’ roofs and rooms, even boiler systems,” he said. “Plus, we have the new school announcement for the southwest corner of the city.”

In June, a 14-classroom addition to Maryland Park was promised by the provincial Progressive Conservative government in a news release announcement that included capital projects for 2023-24.

The PC pledge is to build a couple of new schools for the Westman region, including a Grade 9-12 vocational high school in Neepawa, a K-8 BSD school in Brandon and a K-12 division scolaire franco-manitobaine school in Brandon.

Until those visions become a reality, Gustafson said, the school division will stay on focus.

“Our goals for the division are to improve our literacy and numeracy, and close the gap for our Indigenous students, and English as additional language. How we do that is through a combination of building the capacity of our educators and looking at the students supports,” Gustafson said.

In the city’s west end at J.R. Reid School on 26th Street, Eli Mathieson carried his 11-month-old son and held his eight-year-old daughter’s hand.

Mathieson was prepared, he said, until the school bell rang,

“My daughter Madison doesn’t need me to hold her hand, I think it’s for my sake,” Mathieson said as he laughed. “So, it’s all about school from now on.”

There are 17 more school days in September for BSD students.

In October there will be 18 school days — Thanksgiving Day, on Oct. 9, is a holiday. Three professional development days means there will be no school on Oct. 2, Oct. 3, and Oct. 20.

There are two professional development days in November, so no classes on the Nov. 17 and Nov. 24. And for the last month of the 2023 BSD school year, Dec. 22 is the last day before winter break. The first day of classes in 2024 will be Monday, Jan. 8.

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