A Red Deer Public Schools town hall meeting attracted lots of valuable input on how to improve rates for high school completion, said Superintendent Piet Langstraat.
The town hall meeting, held last Thursday at Hunting Hills High School, drew about 180 people.
People suggested a number of ways to support high school completion, including: more relevant practical application and making course work real; having caring relationships in the school; and have more flexibility and choice so that high school isn’t so rigid for students.
Langstraat said the information gathered from other town hall meetings — involving students only, staff only and administration only — will go to a board retreat later this month.
The board of trustees will look at all the input to come up with strategies that can be implemented through the school district’s three-year plan.
“The end goal was not to just have interesting information, but to have practical, doable strategies,” said Langstraat.
Langstraat even told the students at their town hall meeting that he would personally go back to them on April 15 and tell them what would be done regarding high school completion.
Besides high school strategies, the school district has two other focuses right now — that of inclusion and literacy.
“We’re working really well in inclusion and literacy, but high school completion, the numbers aren’t where we want them to be,” he said.
ltester@www.reddeeradvocate.com