The Prince George District Teachers' Association hopes more support for teachers is in the new strategic plan.

By Tommy Osborne

SD57 Strategic Plan

SD57 teachers hope new strategic plan has more teacher supports

Jan 14, 2026 | 5:40 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – School District 57 has begun its development of a new strategic plan for 2026-2031, which the School Board says lays the foundation for all of the District’s planning and decisions for the years ahead.

“It’s a document that the board refers to in its work in governance. As we operationalize it in the board every month, we set goals in our workplan, so we know that we’re on track each year through the workplan, that we’re meeting the goals set out in the strategic plan and for the rest of the organization,” SD57 School Board Chair Craig Brennan explained.

The development of the plan just started, so Brennan says it will be months of consulting and discussions before there will be any ideas on how it will shape out, but he hopes students are the number one priority.

“I can speak personally for my goal is to make sure that student learning is absolutely forefront of the plan,” Brennan said.

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It’s a thought shared by the Prince George District Teachers’ Association (PGDTA), as its President Katherine Trepanier says she “fully agrees” that student success should be the top priority. However, Trepanier says teachers need to see some changes in the strategic plan to better achieve this goal.

“One thing that I noticed in the previous strategic plan is there are some partner groups that are mentioned, but the people that actually work in the schools, the teachers and the support workers, they’re not actually mentioned as one of the partner groups. That may be an oversight, but it would be really nice to have that acknowledged, as we are an important part of the system, and we also need to have the supports that we need to be able to help our students, which is everybody’s goal,” Trepanier said.

“We want kids to be successful. But for that to happen, all parts of the system need to be properly working and properly supported,” she added.

Trepanier calls teachers the “frontline” of education workers, as teachers and support workers are the ones directly working with students, and the ones who play the biggest role in day-to-day success and achieving year-long goals.

“We know what they (students) need, and we want to feel that our voices are being listened to and heard. Unfortunately, our voices are not being heard at the board level where we’re not permitted to speak at the board meetings anymore. So I think it’s important to have better communication in this area,” she said.

Brennan says as discussions surrounding the strategic plan develop, he hopes to hear from all interested parties and stakeholders, as Brennan says equity has been a highlight for SD57 and that takes hearing from everyone.

“Superintendent (Jameel) Aziz often talks about equity, so one of the ways we’re looking at gathering information this year is we’ll be doing a lot of virtual connecting. Our school district serves McLeod Lake, MacKenzie, as well as the entire Robson Valley and Prince George and the outlying areas. So we’re going to create a lot of virtual opportunities for people who maybe aren’t able to come into a meeting and not able to take 2 or 3 hours to be part of a process,” Brennan said.

To help support these communities, Trepanier adds she hopes recruitment and retention are focuses in the new strategic plan, which includes better supporting teachers and giving them the resources needed so teachers and students alike can thrive in any community.

“Everybody gets into teaching because they want students to be successful, and we need to have the the proper supports in place so that our students can be successful,” she said.

Brennan says the new strategic plan will be finalized before the October 17th school board election, to ensure the new board has a solid foundation to guide their decisions.

“There’s so many people depending on us: students and families communities, and it’s really such an important document. It gives that next board a really good understanding of where to head during their term,” Brennan said.

Because stakeholder feedback is such a huge priority for the strategic plan, Brennan adds there will be no shortage of opportunities to make your voice heard in the coming months.