Q&A with SD48 superintendent Chris Nicholson

The Squamish Chief sat down with the Sea to Sky School District superintendent, Chris Nicholson, for a year-end Q&A on Dec. 16.

Nicholson took on the superintendent role in the fall of 2021. Now just over a year later, he reflects on what he’s learned since taking on that position and what lies ahead for the future of schools in the Sea to Sky. 

The following is a portion of the conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity.

You started this position in the fall of 2021, right around the time that the Omicron strain was becoming an issue in Canada. Can you share some of the lessons you and the school district learned over the last year, when it comes to the pandemic and meeting the needs of the students and families?

When we were asked to have kids learn from home, we were actually in a pretty good place infrastructure-wise to make that happen. 

We were able to get devices out to families quickly. Our board was super supportive of using funds that the federal government provided us for COVID to ensure that we’re able to make sure every student had access to a device. So we had a fantastic, small but mighty, I.T. department that worked hard to make sure devices got into the hands of kids. We had folks driving out to the community to provide those devices. Where we needed to, we also provided internet access and paid for that, because our district is really focused on that inclusion, equity and diversity piece.

I am also very proud to say that in our district, we were one of the first districts to also come back to in-class instruction. And when we came back, we went for it. So we had full-day instruction, especially in our secondary schools, whereas many schools in the Lower Mainland had a gradual return.

But we heard clearly from our communities that really supported the notion that students need to be in school, and that necessity for those relationships and those in-person interactions with their peers, with teachers, with support staff. We wanted to get our students in front of real people as soon as possible, and I believe that was well received by the majority of the community as well as the staff, who also missed being with their kids. 

However, on the other side, of course, we also learned about the power of technology to bring people together who couldn’t be in person. So we’ve since leveraged Zoom and other virtual meeting opportunities to invite people into meetings, whereas otherwise, maybe they wouldn’t be able to attend. So, we now have our board meetings live-streamed, which wasn’t the case before. We’ve continued to do that, and we offer those hybrid options. 

How do you think the school district has provided some tangible ways of focusing on Indigenous truth and reconciliation?

We’ve been steadily working to improve grad rates for students with Indigenous ancestry. 

And yet we have evidence over the years across many sectors about systemic racism; we’re not afraid to name it in the education system as well. And so we’re working really hard to learn with and from our Indigenous partners and to make it right.

We’re very proud in the south with the recent renaming of Stawamus School to St’a7mes. That’s our school with a real focus, in Cultural Journeys, on Squamish language and culture. When the Nation said we really should be changing that name, the principal of the school brought that to the board, and we said absolutely, let’s make that happen.

So part of that is actually a pole being worked on at the school, and that is a partnership with the school district, with the Squamish Nation and with B.C. Parks and Recreation. Students are going to have opportunities to provide design and support with the carvers.

We signed an LEA (Local Education Agreement) with the Liĺwat Nation. That’s acknowledging jurisdiction over aspects of education with First Nations. It’s a fantastic example, I would say, of reconciliation, where we’re deferring to a kind of governance from the Liĺwat Nation to be accountable to them and to do what’s right for their children.

We have the Indigenous grad requirement that has been announced by the Ministry of Education for all kids in B.C. We have a number of locally developed courses that were already in place … and then it opens up conversations for further work with the Nations — co-construction of more locally developed courses to provide more opportunities for all students.

Our district chose to do a [equity] scan, even though we have some of the highest grad rates in the province, we still know we have more work to do. So we are really taking our time and doing that scan in a meaningful way. We’re hoping to really get a lot of that work done this year.

Was part of that assessment the workplace math transition?

Absolutely.

In the past, many students of Indigenous ancestry were overrepresented in courses that limited their choices after graduation. 

When a student wants to go to post-secondary, if they don’t have a certain set of “higher level” courses, they can’t go into those schools right away. There are definitely other pathways students have, but those pathways take more time. They’re going to take more money for upgrading. So it was really a form of inequity: they’re not having equitable access because we haven’t provided the opportunities for all students to graduate with as many potential options as possible. 

So we’re continuing to work through that. And we still absolutely respect workplace math as a viable course. But until post-secondary schools also see it as equal to algebra and pre-calc, we’re going to continue to really work to invite all students to take the “higher level” math so that they have equitable access and equal opportunity when they graduate.

Say someone’s in the so-called higher level math, if they need support, has there been added support?

We’ve added support. It wasn’t just, “You can’t take that class anymore. We’re gonna drop you in.” It was done with scaffolding.

We believe that all students should be able to take that course and pass, especially because of the revised curriculum. So the new curriculum provides access points for all kids; it’s the most inclusive one ever. And I think we’re still working through that. We’re still supporting folks in those new approaches to teaching and learning and helping our teachers in whatever way we can.

It’s a real change from having to memorize content. Instead, what we want our kids to be able to do is be critical consumers of information. And critically look at what’s in front of them.

In the last few years, mental health and wellness have been a big focus given pandemic stressors and other stressors, like the climate crisis, for example. How do you think the school district has been doing in supporting its students but also supporting its staff in that way?

Mental wellness is not just about the mental wellness of students, it’s about our staff, because it’s about how we show up to do the work and be with our kids.

Our district, at the student level, has been working for a number of years on mental health strategies for students. There have been some fantastic initiatives from the ministry through mental health in schools and the ERASE [expect respect and a safe education] strategy, social-emotional learning, and all those fantastic things.

As important is ensuring that kids have that mental health literacy, so they know the difference between being really depressed and being sad. We used to call that the hidden curriculum … now we recognize that it’s foundational to learning. You have to feel safe in your classroom; you have to feel that someone cares about you. You have to feel that you belong, and more importantly, in those times that you don’t, you know what supports are around you.

It’s important for adults as well, so our district is currently engaged in a strategy to learn from third-party experts. We’ve done a scan with our staff about their mental health and wellness and are taking all that data in, and then we’ll have a strategy to approach that.

As with many schools, there have been some reports of bullying throughout SD48. What are your thoughts about how the district has addressed some of those concerns? And are you looking at new ways of considering some of those concerns?

We continue to just encourage folks that if there are specific concerns, they really need to speak with their classroom teacher, their school, the school principal because that’s where 99% of those concerns and issues are going to be able to be addressed.

It’s not to say that incidents don’t happen, they do, but I want to assure the public that we take every incident very, very seriously. And while we don’t publicize consequences for the kids, there definitely are consequences and follow-up.

We really recognize our opportunity to be with young people and to teach them how we want them to be in the world, in civil society. We also recognize they’re children and still growing and learning as individuals.

No longer do we quickly expel — you’re out of the school. There’s still going to be a point where, OK, now we need additional consequences, and we do that, but it’s not something that we share. Although, at the end of the school year, we always provide a graph to show suspensions with no names attached.

I’m sure students who are perpetrating some of these incidents have significant challenges. And we’re trying to support those young people as well, the best way we can. But we recognize that for the families of kids sharing stories of bullying, that isn’t OK either. And so we’re happy to have those conversations with families, but publicly or in the media, we really won’t speak to those instances because we’re protecting privacy. 

But are there ongoing strategies to reduce bullying? Absolutely. I mentioned the acronym ERASE. That is a whole new supported suite of things that we do in schools. We bring in speakers. We have positive behaviour support plans for kids. I always encourage people to check out our website; we’ve recently revamped it. And there’s a ton of information on there on mental health, anti-bullying, anti-racism, and support for SOGI [sexual orientation and gender identity].

For more specific questions about how we’ve addressed a specific incident in a school, we would ask parents to contact your school principal, and we’ll be happy to have the conversation with them one-on-one.

Squamish’s population has been growing quite a bit. Between last year and this year, enrolment didn’t change, but in the last eight years, it’s obviously grown. Is the school district actively planning for this growth? And, if so, what are some of the considerations?

Our growth is showing a levelling off. But we are constantly looking for where we need to concentrate on potential growth.

We have had a request in the ministry, and we have been asking for money toward the expansion of Howe Sound Secondary School for a number of years. It’s also up for a seismic upgrade, so we’re hoping that by packaging the seismic upgrade — which is necessary and will be funded by the ministry — with our ask for the expansion, we can get a two-for-one.

Our ultimate goal — but no timeline yet — is to have Howe Sound become [grades] nine to 12, and Don Ross will be six to eight. We feel that that is going to really help us in the future in order to spread the kids out appropriately and ensure we have good learning spaces for kids.

There have been struggles to hire bus drivers. How’s that been going of late?

We actually have hired a few, which is fantastic, so thanks to anyone who helped us do that. We’ve been really public about that at board meetings. Our website still says right on there, we are hiring bus drivers, we are. Still hoping for E.A.s, clerical as well, and we are happy to have more supports to draw from. 

We are contracting Diversified for some additional busing. We would love to have more CUPE staff as bus drivers, but in order to ensure kids got to school, we were able to work out a deal with Diversified to provide some drivers on their buses.

Have there been any further talks with the District of Squamish about the potential for a joint municipal hall-school district building?

Because there was going to be a new District of Squamish council and a new school board, we decided that each of those governance bodies was going to meet separately to determine if we wanted to strike a joint committee to go further.