 Tell me about your program. What is it called, what's the age group, and the aim of the program? So our program I guess is Chief White Cap School and we're part of Saskatoon Public School Division in a partnership with White Cap Dakota First Nation. It's a K-8 elementary school in Saskatoon Public Schools. Our aim and our goals I guess is within the provincial curriculum of Saskatchewan Learning to facilitate all elements of that with a particular focus on our phoneme outcomes that are in the curriculum being sort of centered around Dakota language culture. And the work that's gone into that prior is part of the partnership with our school division and White Cap to create this beautiful building, to create these lessons. So we're sort of dedicated to that and our goals around phoneme outcomes with specifics to Dakota language and instruction. I'll take a run at what we're doing here. I guess the holistic view is just the relationship between White Cap, Dakota, and the city of Saskatoon goes back to I believe it's 1882. We'll have to double check that on our website in our history but John Lake and White Cap, John Lake moved here and wanted to start Temperance Colony and he looked and seeked for the local First Nations people and now it's Chief White Cap. These are people settled down south of Saskatchewan River. And they came in met with John Lake and now the city of Saskatoon is born, right? We wanted to make sure that our roots here rooted as Dakota people were also, I guess, emphasized and commemorated in the city of Saskatoon. So we looked to the city of Saskatoon. It's our primary market for education, for economics, for business, for partnerships. So we definitely were 20 minutes south of Saskatoon. So we wanted to make sure that our kids had a fighting chance when it comes to learning their language, learning their cultural identity and who they are as Dakota people. So we worked with the city of Saskatoon, SPSD, that's the public school division in collaboration and we moved something forward. That started in 1992, I believe, between George Rathwell and Darcy Bear, Chief Darcy Bear and Ray Morrison as well. So those three gentlemen met and then they just progressed on. Eventually we came to this agreement and now we're working together on a program to make sure that Dakota curriculum is taught in all these schools and I believe it's taught in other schools as well, right? It could be, Dylan, I'm not 100% sure of that, but it certainly will be moving forward with these resources and the website being what it is right now. It's certainly accessible. So more or less this seems like a pilot project right now, so that's what we're doing. So we're incorporating our Dakota cultural identity or language into the Stonebridge School, the Chief White Cap School. So there's a lot of history here and also it's a lot of first two as well as Chief White Cap Schools. The first chief, I guess the first school in Saskatoon named after a chief. So there's also reconciliation behind this as well. And that's what we talk about between the TRU Truth and Reconciliation calls to action. So we're trying to make sure that we're following that as well and making sure that we're having reconciliation and we're continuing on moving forward together as partners in the city of Saskatoon and with White Cap. And just from my perspective, just to get started, Saskatoon Public Schools is very proud of our relationship with White Cap Dakota First Nation and like Dylan was explaining, it goes back 25 years or so. One of the things that I see as an aim of the program is to take the students that are going to school and grades kindergarten to grade four at Charles Redhawk Elementary School in the First Nation and to successfully transition them here to Chief White Cap School. And then to have those students successfully take their grades five through eight and then transition into high school in a successful way and then move forward from there after grade 12 into whatever they want to do with their lives. And so that's really important to Saskatoon Public Schools. We value our partnership a great deal with White Cap. The Dakota Language and Culture piece of the school is unique to Saskatoon Public. Something again we're very proud of. And we have some support folks here at the school. So we have, in addition to the regular staff, we have Nancy Linklater and Lois Baer who are here that help us with ceremony every morning for the students and families. As well they're in classrooms helping to bring forward the resources, the Dakota resources and teachings. And we have Ian Worm who's a shared partnership person that works with Saskatoon Public and White Cap. He's often at Chief White Cap School here. And he's also in the classroom supporting students, White Cap students and families. So, yeah, it's a great partnership. We're very proud of it. Yeah, that's very cool. What is the program intended to do? What are the learning objectives? So within our Saskatoon Public Schools follow provincial curriculum set forth by the Ministry of Education, whether students in La Ronge or Estevan. So there's learning outcomes within that. There's some overarching principles around First Nations and UNMAT outcomes in schools that in this particular year we focus on reconciliation, we focus on Canada 150. We talk a little bit about recognizing diversity in our city, in our community, in our province. And certainly the cultural pieces and that respect and learning about treaties, the respect and learning about cultures. That's where you'd see lots of tie-ins with this particular resource and the help that we have in our school for achieving that outcome within Dakota. So there may be other schools in our division that would talk about other First Nations, perhaps like Cree or other cultures within the First Nations outcomes that are there. But ours is sort of, I want to say, tailor-made a little bit. Like again, we've got some things at our access right at the school. Two elders, as Dean mentioned, Ian is sort of a transition support worker for our families and for students. And those outcomes can be achieved, I think, through our teaching staff as well, but through the support of the First Nation and those partnerships that are there as well. So the curricular outcomes, though, you could probably refer specifically just to, and we could provide that for you through SAS learning, and just look right at that document as well and you'll see just the listed kind of right there in the overarching piece as well. What was the question? There was, what's the program intended to do? It's intended to learn your culture, your identity, who you are as Dakota people and also your language as well. So that's something we're going to be incorporating. There hasn't been much language on the forefront, but if you walk around the school, it's basically bilingual in Dakota and in English. You see a lot of schools. Sometimes it's French and I thought, I know there's another school in the city, it's Cree as well. So you have a very diversified city right now and then there's a lot of reconciliation going on and working with our Indigenous peoples as we have one of the second highest population, I believe, within the region. So the program is meant for everyone to learn and learn who the first peoples of Canada are, right? So we're trying to educate everybody about who we are and also our own people as well. So we're definitely trying to keep that tradition alive. I think Dallin had a good point. I still remember this from our school opening. It seems like a million years ago, but it was only about five months ago. I think we have about 45 kids from White Cap that come out every day and certainly, I hope this is a welcoming, inviting place and Dean spoke about that transition from schools they were out last year via Charles Raddock or John Lanker, Budivist, I think, for some of our students. And that learning is tailored for those students but also for the wider audience. There's another 560 or so students that need to know the truth about reconciliation, about treaties, about the history of our province and our region, and so that excites me a little bit, I guess, as well, to get the story straight and to make sure that we deliver that through our curriculum and to have those supports again is huge for all 608 students, I think, what we have now. So that's a big important part of it. I think one of the things, again, just a little different angle on things is we want all of our students who attend the school to feel like this is their place and so for the White Cap students, this is a big brand new school and our partners have put money towards this that they added to the amount that we could spend on our school and you can see it reflected in the dirt walls, dirt being D-I-R-T-T, and it explains some of the history of the region as it relates to the Dakota peoples and I think part of the goal here is to make sure that the White Cap students and families that are transitioning here feel at home and feel like this is their school and so I think some of that is reflected in the design of the building. We also have a culture room, which is unique. There's been eight P3 schools or four sets of two, if you will, between the separate system and the public system. This is the only one that has a special feature like a culture room and that's where we have our ceremony each morning to smudge and to start the day in a good way. We also, our elders and our support workers work out of the culture room sometimes and it's a space for families that they can come in and have a spot that they feel like they have some area that's theirs when they come into the school. How do you measure the success of your program? Do you notice a difference or change in participants at the end of the program? Is enrollment high? Is the demand for the program high? That'd be a question for you. Yeah, so we have, I guess, what I would call traditional measures of success in school where students get a report card three times a year. One of the things that we just completed here and haven't got the results synthesized yet or put together is our tell-them-from-me survey and we were able to disaggregate how our students who live out at Waycap are feeling and relationship-wise or what their perceptions are of the school and how they're enjoying it or not enjoying it or what their perceptions are. So we look forward to kind of getting into that a little bit and seeing what we need to know and reflect on that. We, early on in the year, have had lots of open houses for our parents to come in. On February the 15th, I believe, is our next one out at Waycap, just for our community out at Waycap to take our staff out there and have a little meet and greet and get into small table groups and sit down with parents and talk about how things are going. We're kind of halfway through our first year right now. I think January 29th is for the halfway point of school year. As we sort of develop those routines and relationships, one of the things that we really focused on in our school, along with all the curricular outcomes in every subject is, again, this piece around cultural language but also the relationships. In our first year that we've been open, to me, Tim, that's very important that students feel welcome here, that students feel like this is their school. I think Dean alluded to that a little bit before. How do we make every student feel respected and honored and part of our team and sometimes that involves when kids do things that might not be part of what we're about. We have to find a good way to sort of support them and make good decisions but also celebrate when we're doing things right and get kids on board with what we're trying to do here. I think in that respect we're probably like many schools in our division at the start of the year. We've developed procedures and classrooms that are set up for kids. We've just reviewed that. We just spent a full day here on Monday looking at that again to sort of review how are we doing, what else do we need to do to particularly work with students from downford to the diversity. We have about 45 students from White Cap and another 30 or so students from other First Nations who've declared. About 116 students from I want to say 42 or 43 different countries so it's a very diverse population for sure and we spent a fair bit of time on trying to make everybody feel a part of our crew here and to make students feel like that's my school, that's where I belong, that's where I go every day and I'm proud to be here and I'm enjoying my teachers and I feel like I'm learning and those are those things that we try to get to so there's some formal things around academics I guess Tim, and I don't mean to I probably said that with a tone in my voice I don't mean that to sound like that's a bad thing those are really good things but in our first year especially I want to make sure that we're getting the relationship piece right and established students feeling comfortable feeling like this is a good place to be and they can come every day and I think they have an ally or two here at the school on their behalf that is looking out for them and has their best interests is trying real hard to get to all those outcomes to get their education so that they can go on I think just measuring the success is that the measuring success program? I just think just a lot of us our leadership and white cap we get a lot of parents come up to us so they're concerned about something or else they praise the program so we want to hear good things about the system and what the program that we've established in place and the partnership that we have in place because those are things that have been mandated the ideas come from our leaders so we bring them back to our community our community membership and we ask them is this something you want to go forward with and we get to vote and everyone usually for it we explain the benefits and we explain the negatives as well but definitely the benefits away the negatives and once we hear good feedback this is our first year we'll do a survey we'll talk to our people we'll have a community meeting we'll have I guess an outing here maybe a barbecue again in the fall for our students welcome back but it's definitely just getting the feedback from the parents and also the youth as well how you guys feel at the school you guys feel comfortable there and then once we know that they're feeling comfortable then they're in a good environment to start learning they need to be in a good environment when they're learning whether it's their language whether it's different languages French, math, English whatever it is definitely and also making new friends is key as well so we'll be hearing back after the first year but that's how we're going to measure it we're going to have to come back and talk to the parents and talk to our youth as well just a couple things to add I guess we measure success I guess a lot of times by looking at students reaching the curricular outcomes for the particular grade that they're at and so we want that for all of our students that are attending Saskatoon public schools and we want it for all the students that are here attending Chief White Cap School and so we want to celebrate all the things that are going great so for example the school being brand new is in the process of figuring out what their name and logo will be moving forward and while we haven't made a final decision we think we're pretty close and the visual that's come with that is actually the idea came from a whole bunch of different areas but one of the students who's here from White Cap had some leadership in that and so those are things that we want to celebrate the students that sometimes needs extra supports all of the students we want to get that right so that we can keep students at grade getting their curricular outcomes in place and moving successfully through the transition through elementary school we also want like Dallin mentioned this but I just want to reinforce it we need to ask our community how we're doing and so one of the strengths of Harold and his team here is Harold's a great communicator as the principal and he has been out and talked to the community on a number of occasions while we were preparing to open Chief White Cap School and once we're going here with the great things that are happening or some of the concerns that come up we want to keep that line of communication open with the First Nation, with the community and with the students so we'll be asking those questions and we'll find out where we're doing well and the things that we need to improve on are you guys willing to share any supporting documentation about the program with the NCCIE so I'll not quite defer but I do know that with part of the partnership that has to be something agreed upon between both our school division and the First Nation so if you're talking about these specific binders the agreement, things like that like a syllabus or outline I guess the websites, your key probably your key starting point it's public, it's everything, kindergarten, grade one, grade two and that's exactly what these are so you can print them off it's obviously transparent, you can just walk in there and print whatever you want off on there and just a little bit of background like this is our partners from White Cap supporting financially to go through a process to hire two consultants to work with the community, the elders, the parents the students to create the resources and the lesson plans which we have by grade here so we've got a couple examples to grade seven and a grade two binder but there's one for every grade and you know to create the website and all those kind of things so I mean Saskatoon Public Schools benefits from the fact that this is extra work and cost that our partners have put in place so that we can use them to be successful at Chief White Cap School and also spreading out into other schools with Saskatoon Public so just a little bit of background on the website before you get on there and have a look at it the other thing Tim, I guess too is the other piece of documentation in terms of what's taught at the school that's provincially mandated so we can send you the link that is the Ministry of Education so again, whether you go to school and LeRange or Estevant or all parts in between all schools follow the same curriculum and then within each school teachers have a little bit of leeway on how they get to each of those outcomes so the great part that I'll speak for our staff at the start of the school year some are walking in and going do I have to be fluent in Dakota and we've had lots of supports these being part of that the website now being up and running the work that the First Nation has put into getting Kevin Tachin who's a language person from University of Brandon out here worked with our staff once I think there's a conference coming up here that does May end of May, last week of May is a Dakota Language Summit it'll be our first annual so we'll see how that goes so that's an opportunity if we can get two, three staff out there to that to sort of bring back some of that knowledge to our staff pieces that we'll contribute to our specific work around Dakota Language and Culture but in terms of documentation so the website has given you some background there but the the Saskatchewan curriculum is also part of what we all do at our schools across the province I think Tim just one thing to add there's a formal document called the Alliance Agreement it is a legal document that White Cap Dakota First Nation and Saskatoon Public Schools took a couple years to develop you know with lots of good input from the federal government the provincial government was certainly aware of what was happening chief and council of course and Saskatoon Public School our board level and so that agreement is kind of a foundation for our relationship in terms of the education part of doing good things together and it's up for renewal right now we're in the process of looking at the first four years of it because it's going to come due here August 31st 2018 and we're going to look at the great things that have happened as a result of the Alliance Agreement and again we're going to look at the things that we can tweak and do better moving forward and so there's an evaluation happening right now but that's a foundational document to everything that's happening here with our partnership okay so in your opinion what is indigenous education like how would you define the word indigenous is it a term that you would normally use I think indigenous education would be like I said teaching your values your language, your culture and your identity whether you're a Cree or Soto, Ojibwe I think that's just the term you need to be used you're teaching who you are as an indigenous person and then you're incorporating into the schools with Chief White Cap school or any other school in the city of Saskatoon so indigenous education is coming from your roots of who you are as an indigenous person so I see that just keeping an eye on who you are and your identity and learning it and also teaching others about who you are and your history and who you are in this country as well so I think it's important for the kids that don't know the first peoples of this country they hear a lot of the derogatory things I've gotten it growing up all my life so nowadays we're getting away from that we're all working hand in hand now and we're educating each other on who we are and a lot of people are from other countries so we're learning about their countries as well so it's good to see everyone's learning each other's histories and background one thing I did I think bang on the piece that I think about as well is so we got to get the story right and we want to make sure we do justice to the facts and not to oversimplify it but we can learn about an event or something like that but to sort of get inside kids' hearts a little bit too so changing attitudes, changing thinking beliefs a little bit is part of that education as well and there's a big again in the SAS Learning document but it's just good thinking is that critical thinking piece like what do I know and now how do I think about things based on what I've learned what changes do you make how do you think differently what actions do you take that are more respectful to all cultures so what I think of Indigenous education is education downspoken to culture I would put in there and valuing that as well for all kids whether you are Indigenous or not we all belong here and we all have a voice in the seat of the table that's sort of a metaphor I guess but I do think that's part of the piece that's important to me moving forward to bring some value to that as well just real quickly there are two high schools that are involved with the following their voices work where there's a cohort of staff which is growing each year in those two high schools that look at a specific way of engaging our First Nation Métis students in the classroom and I think some of the lessons that I've learned as I've listened to the themes that have come out of that work in those two high schools is number one it's all about that positive relationship and creating that positive relationship I think between not only the teacher and the student but also between students and like Harold said making sure that students see themselves in the school which they're attending and another big part that I've learned through the following their voices work is the ability of using discursive teaching strategies to bring response and voice to the Métis students in the class and I think in a lot of ways it's about sharing that power that the teacher sometimes is seen as that person that has all the power and we're looking to share that power with the students so that they feel like they have ownership and can bring their experiences to bear in the class in a good way so I know those are high school examples but what I think is happening here at Chief White Cap School is there are classrooms at an earlier stage and so these teachers are teaching with those kind of themes and ideas starting before students get to high school and so I see a lot of the following voices work they might not call it that here at Chief White Cap but they're doing it How would you define education? Sorry How would I define education? Over the next 10 years right? No it's still in the Indigenous education in general? How would you define education from an Indigenous perspective? I think Dean's alluded to some of that you know having a voice I'll think back a million years ago and I often we hear this last time well when I was a kid and old guys like me sometimes say to Dean's point teachers stood at the front and the teacher was the purveyor of knowledge I have something I'm going to give it to all you students and I think Dean's alluded to how we not to share that power but learn from each other and there's a million learning opportunities in a school every day and they don't all just come one way from teacher to student or principal to staff there's I guess the spirit of A we want to show up and learn from each other and with that trust relationships have to be in place to make that happen because if I don't feel like I'm part of this place I'm not going to speak up share my story or share who I am so we kind of want to focus on that at first and that's I think that's true of all of our students not just our Indigenous students but in particular our Indigenous students who in the past maybe felt like they haven't had a voice so it's important to get that part part right in there What is your vision for the future of Indigenous education in the community and in Canada? I think we're second precedent here with our partnership with White Cap and SPSD and also one of the things too is the reason why we did this is the reason why we did it is we wanted to incorporate our language into the schools that our kids are involved with but another thing too is the funding that our children received is adequate we're receiving close to 6500 per student and then now I think we're up to 10,000 per student so there's a major gap that we've closed with funding you know there's a lot of kids, there's a lot of dropouts and they don't get the same attention or the same I guess quality of education that other kids do in the province so we wanted to make sure that we diminished that education gap and we did that by signing this agreement with SPSD but in that agreement we wanted to make sure that our Dakota values our language, identity and culture were still upheld at the highest level so we're both honoring that and we're both working together to meet that to meet that so eventually in 10 years we want to be able to see our kids coming out of there speaking their language, speaking their Dakota tongues and passing it on to our next generations because as First Nations people a lot of us are losing our languages I think there's over 300 linguistic languages don't quote me on that but across the country and that's First Nations so we don't want to lose our language so that's why we're trying to make sure that we uphold that within the city of Saskatoon and also White Cap Dakota so that's why we see ourselves taking care of our language and making sure that our values and who ours Dakota people are always remembered and valued and passed on to the next generation like you said, what is education it's passing knowledge on from one to another that knows a little more than the other learning the student always teaches the teacher as well I would think looking forward 10 years specific to this program we would have a Dakota language teacher full time or more than one or maybe two, it depends on how big our school gets to but that would be front and center of specifically a curriculum kind of objective I guess, Tim the part for me that I think about in terms of fast forwarding is and Dean could probably speak to this more at the division 11 around graduation rates so our First Nations students there is a little bit of a gap and Dallas talked about a funding gap is closed, I'd like to see that gap in graduation rates like on time graduation rates close a little bit and I know again high school example but when students are engaged and want to be there that is never a bad thing and we're going to see some bang for our buck there a little bit when kids are here and want to be here and feel good and have that positive relationship trust with their teachers, with their community with their fellow students this is a good place to be like I want to get up and come to school and do everything I can to be there and I think that's on us a little bit to certainly create it here but sustain it over time and grow it I want the story to be for students at white cap 10 years from now that in grade 4 they're excited oh next year I get to come to chief white cap or in grade 3 they're thinking about a couple years down the road or whenever it starts because it is a transition and if we can make that as smooth as possible and as positive as possible for kids and make this a positive place where yes we're having a high standard of learning that's going on but we're going to make sure that everything you can to facilitate that through positive relationships and supports and community and parents and staff working together I think that takes a little bit of time to really solidify and I certainly hopefully over 10 years for sure we can really grow that just a couple things from my perspective I want to start by echoing that Dallin said that I think what we have built here in terms of the partnership and the alliance agreement and chief white cap school and Charles Redhawks school and working together is unique and it's in our context here so I don't think necessarily you can just take what we've done and replicate it somewhere else and say it's somebody else's answer and they could take it and run but we're very proud of what we've built to this point by no means do we feel like we're finished or that we have it all right and I think that's the beauty of any partnership but what I will say is that there's trust in place so that between the two organizations when we need to celebrate many of the good things that are happening we're getting pretty good at that and there are lots of things to celebrate and when we have some bumps along the way we know we can pick up the phone and have good honest conversations so that we can figure out a way to work our way over around or through those barriers that happen for our students and our families so I'd like to start there the other big piece is the truth and reconciliation commission calls to action and I see that on display with what we're trying to accomplish here and so over the next ten years there are many aspects of that document that I think we need to keep an eye on in terms of both these folks have mentioned Indigenous language and culture and so I think we have to start but what are we going to do to grow some of those things over the next ten years so that we can continue to be at the forefront and a leader for our families and students at Chief White Cap but also in a bigger way with Southend Public Schools because we have other Indigenous languages and communities and interests as well so it's all part of it and I guess I just close the little piece by saying the relationship and the reciprocity are two terms which I come back to often in my work because sometimes I get the question from my colleagues in other school divisions about what Chief White Cap First Nation might be gaining on behalf of this alliance agreement and I listen politely and say yeah there are some things that I think we can do to help with the relationship and support students and families however I don't really think they understand what we as a school division gain from White Cap that's a story that often isn't told as much and I'll just give one example we have a learning opportunity out at Charles Redhawk School with a hoop house that's being constructed on land-based education through the lens of growing and so that's a connection that Chief and Council had and they have brought in the hoop house itself and they're going to be teaching their K-4 curriculum according to the province of course but through the lens of this growing through the hoop house and it's tremendously exciting to see the students and the staff and the community involved with the potential of what's going to happen out there and as a school division we're going to learn from that and potentially learn from it replicated in different parts of other schools within our system and that's just one example but there's reciprocity in this partnership we're learning as much as we're giving into the solution here so that's enough for me okay can you think of any types of information that if you had now it would help to achieve your vision any types of information to help achieve our vision for like 10 years from now you mean? like what information would we need to get there? this question does not have to be asked during the recorded part what information materials resources do you need to achieve that vision like aside from the programs in which you are personally involved what information do you have on other Indigenous education programs in Canada? I just think we have the resources we have the people in place we have the partnership it's a productive positive progressive partnership I think we have what we need more or less it's just it'd be nice to have more of our elders be involved and to continue to give their guidance and their leadership and their history on our past as Dakota people and I think the continuance of SPSD's executive and their staff to make sure that this partnership continues to survive and strive so I think the resources is just basically everybody continues to be a part of the game and be a part of the team and we feel very positive that that relationship will continue that's what I see Harold touched on this but I think I'll just throw it out there to find that Dakota language leader somebody who's going to come in and help guide and work with Chief and Council and the community out at White Cow is going to be a critical position and so there's a process in place where we're going to be as a partnership looking for that individual but I'm just saying that I think it's going to be really important for our progress forward with the language I think I would echo sort of what Dean said in terms of a resource or something moving forward that would be certainly a key asset as we move forward to advance that work you know I think I'll steal some of the downsides there's lots of good things in place already and I guess I just for me sustaining that positive relationship where when we're doing things right we can celebrate it when we get it wrong or we need to tweak something that we can go pick up the phone and say what do we need to know and for me over the next year or the rest of this year we're moving forward however many years I'm here I just want to make sure we keep dipping our toe in the water for our community to say what's going well what do we need to do get some ideas and some feedback and we have a mandate of a Saskatchewan curriculum but within that lots of flexibility in every school and how teachers and how schools achieve that and development how something works out there so can it work here what things are unique out here and we learn that as we go and we talk to our partners we listen to our elders we combine that with our people from our side I guess from Saskatoon Public and keep that sort of synergy going where you can come together often and stay on the same page throughout that extended period as long as we're here we're going to try and do that in a good way Anything else you guys like to add? It's good for us to sit together and to have this conversation I think every time that we chat about things related to the partnership or what's best for our students I learn something and so today's no different so I thank you for bringing us together