The Kamloops-Thompson Board of Education Acknowledges the Bravo Coup de Coeur Award Recipients for Welcoming Students to RLC

The Kamloops-Thompson Board of Education is proud of the Communications team for their recent award for the “Welcome to RLC Video” as part of welcoming families who experienced a necessary catchment change to balance school enrollment across south shore elementary schools.

Catchment changes mean that students attending one school are asked to attend a different school. These changes happen as a last resort when there are more students than spaces in a school and a change of school is required to best meet students' learning needs.

“Last year, the Board was addressing space pressures in multiple elementary schools (Westmount Elementary, Dallas Elementary, Juniper Ridge Elementary, Marion Schilling Elementary) and South Sa-Hali Secondary School,” shared Board Chair Grieve. "We engaged in consultation to learn firsthand how we could support families in this transition."

“Assistant Superintendents Grant Reilly, Vessy Mochikas, Bill Hamblett, and Secretary Treasurer Trina Cassidy led consultation with parents about how best to support students who were leaving one school to attend another,” stated Superintendent Dr. Rhonda Nixon. “Strategies such as providing welcome bags to students, early opportunities to go to the school, and a welcome video were examples that came from consultation. The idea was to create a connection to the school staff, students, building, and programming before students changed schools.”

The Communications team (Manager, Ms. Diana Skoglund; Communications Coordinator, Ms. Jessica Johnson; Website Coordinator, Ms. Jessie Furnell; Graphic Artist, Mr. Cory Edwards) worked with staff, students, and parents from every school experiencing a catchment change to create a welcome video designed to introduce the students to their new setting, to meet the staff and students, and to learn firsthand about their programs.

The Canadian Association of Communicators in Education (CACE) BRAVO! Awards, which are the only Canada-wide awards program specifically designed to recognize excellence in school board communications, honored this team with the The Coup de Coeur Award. This award is given to candidates who submitted a single communication piece that had proven results of “having touched the hearts and minds of the intended audience”. SD73’s RLC Welcome video was such an exemplary example that achieved this award.

The Communications team and Principal Blake Buemann and Principal Claire Sullivan collaborated to make the video showcased for the award. The video was filmed at RLC Elementary School to welcome students from Dallas Elementary School. As a result of their collective efforts, they were selected for this honor. 

“The Board of Education is proud of the Communications Team, District Staff, and RLC and Dallas students, staff, and parents for working together for making a video that warmly welcomed  incoming students and their families,” stated Board Chair Grieve. “The Board of Education is committed to ensuring that students feel welcome, cared for, and a sense of belonging and connectedness to their school communities. This was one way to contribute to this goal.”