Rivers academy only one in Western Manitoba

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Published on Thursday, September 11, 2014

By Sheila Runions
Banner Staff

Rivers Collegiate has partnered with Hockey Canada Skills Academy. Superintendent Reg Klassen says it's the only academy administered by a school division west of Portage la Prairie, right through to the Saskatchewan border and beyond. Teacher Bruce Helgeson suggested an interview with Klassen because, "He got the ball rolling, it was his baby."

Klassen chuckled at that definition but did admit that, "Along with our principal Mike Klassen, I pursued it. We had a couple meetings early in the year, talked to a couple people and they expressed an interest. We did a tour, looked at a number of other programs, surveyed students in Rivers and realized even if there aren't any other students from any other community that might like to consider this, we had initially, enough students in Rivers that would like to participate. With that information, I began to make some presentations to the board of trustees. We got quite a bit of interest from the town, the people of Rivers, those who were perhaps part of town council, minor hockey, rink board. Rivers has a brand new beautiful complex, another reason why we felt it was a place to investigate. There was a lot of openness to continue the conversation which eventually got to a place where Rivers graciously offered us the ice, at no cost, in order to help get this program off the ground.
"Our school division is working really hard to keep costs for programs down; we don't want to charge students for programs and we're trying to take costs out of our programs, particularly for courses where students are in class. Students can gain credit from participation in the academy toward high school graduation."
Some parents have claimed the school pursued the academy as a means to bolster enrolment, which has been on a steady decline; Reg refutes that statement.
"If that was the only reason we were doing it, it wouldn't be there. It's a possibility, but not the primary objective, which is to create a program which serves the community, and this program seemed to be available because of the facilities, proximity of the school and rink and community support. I'm very proud of the arrangement we have between the division, the school and the community of Rivers because it really speaks about how to support each other in terms of creating programs that are of interest to the local community. I'm excited by the possibilities of the program. I think we've got a great commutiy and great people involved with it. I'm also proud of our board for stepping forward with an initiative like this; it might be a good model to build other intiatives in other schools."
Bruce lives in Dauphin where he was a teacher for 28 years and the high school hockey coach for 15 years. He has also coached Dauphin Kings for five years. He will continue to make his home in Dauphin, commuting from Brandon where he will spend weeknights at his mother's house. Bruce attended a four-day training session in Calgary and will spend the last class of the day teaching Hockey Skills curriculum to the Grades 7-10 students (one day Grades 7 and 8, the next Grades 9 and 10).
"There's a career section, nutrition, citizenship, exercise skills, on- and off-ice training. I hope to be on the ice the first week of October. I'm just pumped about this; it's so cool. Twenty-eight kids (four girls) are registered for the 1,10-hour program. and I've got a good feeling about this."
Bruce will spend his mornings at Rivers Elementary teaching phys ed classes and in the afternoon, he'll be joined by Brandon University student teacher Stu Durston.
Superintendent Klassen says, "We're paying the cost of the teacher. [Stu] would be there to do his school experience for his bachelor of education program; he wouldn't be there the whole time. If weather requires or time dictates, we will bus students back and forth; those are costs borne by the division. With co-operation between town and division, we're in the process of putting together a time table. We've got at least 30 kids, and interest expressed to us from outside the division who may be coming next year."
The previous report, which relied on online information from principal Klassen, said the academy would be offered to all students in Rolling River. When the superintendent mentioned busing students back and forth, it seemed costly in terms of time and finances to bring, for example, one student from Erickson. Reg confirmed that to participate in the hockey academy, one must be enrolled in school in Rivers.
" Everything is new to us, we might make changes for next year. What this does is provide our students with another option, specifically the ones in Rivers. We have power mechanics in Minnedosa and an excellent culinary arts option in Erickson. We're trying to provide a wider variety of options for students and this one got a surge because of the new arena in Rivers."
Some rumblings have also been heard in town about the lack of educational assistants (EAs) hired at the high school. There have even been suggestions that Helgeson's salary was paid for at the expense of EAs.
"Our EA budget is based almost solely on Level 2 and 3 student funding. This year we saw a drastic reduction in funding for a variety of reasons, because we didn't have as many students. Some have run through their funding cycle, some have left, some have graduated. This is simply a balancing of what we experienced two or three years ago when we were hiring EAs like crazy because we had a huge influx of Level 2 or 3 students. What's unfortunate about all this is that when there isn't the funding from the government because we don't have as many Level 2 or 3 students, that means we don't hire as many EAs. EAs this year not being offered jobs to come back is entirely because of that [not because of hiring Helgeson]. It's really easy to say, 'Bruce was hired at EAs expense' because then they can throw stones at a new program; it's too bad they're saying that. As we went through this challenge of not having as much funding and ultimately, not as many EA positions, we were very careful to ensure our EAs with the greatest amount of seniority kept their jobs. They all got asked first if they wanted those jobs and the ones with the most seniority got to stay at their school.
"We didn't increase the teaching allotment for Rivers Collegiate. The Hockey Skills Academy is being taught with the current teacher allotment. I told MIke the only way this works is if you build it into your program with the middle years getting a phys ed credit and high school credit for grad, and we're not going to hire an additional teacher to do that. The position is only half-time at RCI, the other half is at Rivers Elementary."
Helgeson lived in Rivers for a while; his father Bill was the train station agent from 1963-85.