Blackwell: We don’t know where we are going to land yet but we are making sure we get it right the first time.

By Pepper Parr

May 17th, 2018

BURLINGTON, ON

Terri Blackwell, a Superintendent with the Halton District School Board, gave a report last night on the progress of the creation of a new kind of high school that will be made operational within the existing Aldershot High School in September of 2019.

She has a tight schedule to work within and, as she out t in her presentation to the trustees last night, “we don’t know where we are going to land yet”.

Superintendents Blackwell and Truffen

Blackwell and her team, which includes Superintendents Truffen and Hunt Gibbons, are in the process of figuring out “what the learning will look like”. “What will there be in the way of specialty classes” How will the classroom space be configured?

The Board learned that $1.475 million has been allocated for renovations to some of the space at Aldershot high school.
The program Blackwell and her team are creating is being called iStem – Innovation – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics that will be focused on a problem solving approach to learning.

In a really instructive video that Blackwell and her team use to make their point they argue that there haven’t been many changes in the way education is delivered.

Julie Hunt Gibbons making a point during the Mercedez Benz workshop.

The Board has decided they want to create a curriculum and a location that will be a first step in changing the way high school educations will be delivered.

The idea was a sort of last minute thought that came out of the difficult, painful process of deciding to close two of the city’s seven high schools.

Blackwell reported that there are already teachers asking to be part of the process.

The objective is clear – now the path has to be chosen.

A full day workshop with more than 70 people was held at the Mercedes Benz dealership on the North Service Road where the classic cars were on display. The setting was apt.

With the concept approved, the needed funding in place the hard part begins – making sure they get it right the first time.