Checking in with local schools

With a growing student population, a hiring spree heading into the current school year is paying off as the Kanesatake Education Center (KEC) begins a new academic term and looks ahead to expanding its programming in the coming years.

“Everyone is doing a fantastic job at their roles,” said education director Watsenniiostha Nelson. “I think people are seeing the services that we’re providing and it’s benefitting the students. Overall, it’s been really great, and I feel very grateful to be part of such an amazing team.”

In addition to a number of positions being filled in time for the fall, such as student life animators, a guidance counsellor, and others, the KEC recently hired a community member to serve as building maintenance manager.

“So far, he’s been a huge help to both the schools. His list is never-ending,” said Nelson.

It may seem like a modest addition, but having someone to focus on building maintenance does more than ensure schools are in good shape. It also frees up other staff to focus on their main responsibilities, instead of fixing doorknobs and replacing ceiling tiles. It even helps out the principals, who were spending time calling around for quotes when things broke.

The aging infrastructure is another reason it’s helpful to have someone on hand, with Ratihén:te High School now built around 50 years ago.

“It’s falling apart. We are dealing with something every day, so that’s a struggle,” said Nelson.

Another physical challenge the education centre faces is a lack of space, especially with more students attending - 44 were enrolled at Ratihén:te to begin the year and 73 at Rotiwennakéhte Elementary School.

“Even for hiring new employees, whether it’s at the elementary school or at the high school, they have a hard time finding spots to put them. We’re just putting anyone anywhere at this point,” said Nelson.

She is hopeful that when a new education agreement is signed between the province and the First Nations Education Council in 2027, that there will be an increase to the budget for infrastructure.

Something sooner on the agenda is the FNEC Inter-School Games, which will take place this year from May 22-25. Schools are already preparing for the event, with notices going out imminently.

“We’re in the very beginning stages of getting all the teams ready and figuring out who’s going to be where, who wants to play what, and from there we’re going to be doing the practices and everything,” Nelson said.

In other sports news, Ratihén:te was recently chosen as a Jays Care Foundation affiliate, receiving equipment free of charge to help the school start up a softball program.

As for plans to start up a Kanesatake Combined Schools Committee, with the education centre starting to look for applicants late last year, it could be a while before it’s in operation.

“I want to kind of get our ducks in a row first before we have a first potential meeting of people who are interested in it,” Nelson said.

The committee is an important component of her goal to increase the involvement of the community in the local education system. The committee should be up and running by the end of the school year or at least by the beginning of the next one, Nelson said.

The education director has also been looking at future programming, with the KEC being selected by the FNEC for its language revitalization project, for which a language committee has been started. The project will run from now until 2028.

“We can figure out what we want to do with this project, and in the end, we decided we want to start from the very beginning of creating benchmarks in the Kanien’kéha classes, so from nursery, what they should know by the end of the year, all the way up to grade 11,” she said, adding the education centre is working with the Tsi Ronterihwanónhnha ne Kanien’kéha Language and Cultural Center on it.

Nelson recently met with the FNEC about land-based learning with the same advisor to discuss programming opportunities. That advisor, Liza McLaughlin, is familiar with Kanesatake, having served for years at Ratihén:te High School as special education technician.

Also on the topic of land-based activities, the KEC plans to send smaller groups of students to do land-based activities at the Kanesatake Health Center (KHC) farmland this year, with an eye to expanding programming in the future when logistical issues such as transport can be sorted out.

Nelson, whose first anniversary in the job is coming up next week, is looking back not only on the first completed term of the academic year, but also her first full year at her post.

“I’ve learned so much with the help of my colleagues,” she said. “I feel like we’ve been playing a lot of catch-up, and I think that’s something I’ve emphasized a lot, that we’re playing catch-up on a lot of things, but I feel we’ve made a lot of really great progress over the last year.

“As a team, I’m really excited to where the future takes us. I’m really pumped for that.”

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Marcus Bankuti, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter