The Ministry of Education is conducting operational reviews of all 72 of Ontario’s School Boards. The review of Bluewater District School Board highlights many leading practices in place at the board.
The review focused on four specific areas: Governance and School Board Administration, Human Resource Management and School Staffing/Allocations, Financial Management and School Operations and Facilities Management. Leading practices were identified in all four review areas.
Under Governance and School Board Administration, the overview found leading practices in Bluewater leads in delineation of roles and responsibilities of Trustees and the System Administrative Team; the Board and Senior Administration have appropriate processes for decision making to address student achievement, operational performance and efficient operation of the Board. Bluewater also proactively engages internal and external stakeholders on a regular basis through a variety of communications vehicles.
In the area of Human Resources, leading practises include a strong focus on maintaining relationships with unions, clearly defined organisational units, roles and responsibilities, processes to monitor HR policy compliance by all staff, and management and HR management capacity building in the understanding of HR polices and procedures.
Leading practises in Financial Management include the Board’s active participation in a purchasing consortia and group buying initiatives; processes to monitor finance compliance policy by staff and management; regular finance policy and procedure awareness, training and skills development sessions and a transparent budget process that incorporates input from all key stakeholders including management, trustees and the community.
In the final review area, School Operations and Facilities Management, leading practices include an accurate and up to date assessment of board facilities, clearly defined organizational units and well delineated roles and responsibilities, processes to monitor school operations and facilities management policy compliance by all staff and management and capacity building in the understanding of school operations, facilities and administrative procedures.
The Operational Review also includes a number of recommendations for improvement that are common to all four review areas. They include: multi year strategic and aligned annual planning, human resource management, operational structures and efficiency building.
“We’re really pleased with the Operational Review,” says Director of Education Mary Anne Alton. “It’s a clear indication that Bluewater Board is in step with the Ministry in keeping student achievement as its primary focus.”
