“There’s a saying, no child left behind,” says the director of Saulteaux Heritage School. “But at the same time kids need to know there is a consequence. They’ve got to work toward something.”
Melvin Aisaican says this is the concept behind 40 students earning a trip to Niagara Falls, Canada’s Wonderland and Toronto, Ont. The students are on their trip this week, having left June 14 by chartered van, and are due to return June 21. A dozen teachers are accompanying the Grade 4 through 8 students.
To earn their trip, says Aisaican, students worked to achieve three A’s– academics, attitude and attendance.
“We’ve seen the difference in the kids.”
The students also had to raise $40,000. This was done with the aid of the rest of the Pre-K through Grade 8 school, the community, parents and grandparents, sponsors and reserve leadership.
Grade 6 student Laynee Moccasin, 12, says. “We all helped out with the school to raise money for the trip.”
It brought them together as friends, she says.
One of the most popular fundraisers was taco in a bag.
“We sold a lot.”
Holden Katcheech, a Grade 7 student, says he took part in many fundraisers and was looking forward to the things he would learn on the trip.
Aisaican says their fundraisers, which started in September, included bingos, a golf tournament and a variety of taco sales.
“Indian tacos are a big seller on Saulteaux,” he laughs. “We even had people from the next reserve coming over and placing orders.”
A Kokums’ Group was also started in late 2014 that helped with a variety of fundraising efforts.
“We had some major supporters such as Staples,” he adds.
North Battleford Staples general manager Faye Schlemmer delivered a $500 cheque last week.
“We know Melvin’s passion toward the school and his children and letting them learn is awesome,” says Schlemmer.
Staples has also supported numeracy and literacy nights at the school.
These events have been well attended by students and parents, said Aisaican. The literacy nights have brought 2,500 books into the homes of Saulteaux First Nation.
“We’ve got lots of support in our schools from our consultants to our superintendents and on to our leadership,” says Aisaican, “and suppliers like Faye who believe in what we’re trying to do here at the school.”
He says the school also appreciates the support of Pat Bugler, executive director of the Treaty Six Education Council, and Don Hodges, its First Nations Students Success Program project manager.
Aisaican, who has been director for three and a half years, says Saulteaux Heritage School has three school goals– numeracy, literacy and retention. The school trip is part of the goal of retaining students, attendance being one of the three A’s children had to aspire to.
Teachers Tara Aisaican, Miranda Moccasin and Charlene Gopher-Swiftwolf have been the “brains” behind the project, says Aisaican. They have seen to all the details and were instrumental in deciding where to go.
Moccasin, one of five new teachers from Saulteaux recently hired to teach in their own community, says when she first started teaching she wanted to form a travel club as an incentive for students.
“Word got out and, the next thing, the travel club turned into the whole senior end going on a field trip.”
Coincidentally, Tara and Melvin had been to Niagara Falls on their honeymoon and had thought at the time what it wonderful place it would be to bring school students to. They’d learn science, history, geography and literacy all rolled into one. When it turned out Moccasin and Swiftwolf had also thought of Niagara Falls as a destination, it was sealed. The addition of a visit to Canada’s Wonderland and to the CN Tower in Toronto merely added to the excitement the students felt at the possibility of going on the trip.
Spencer Gopher, first time member of the Saulteaux First Nation Band Council, says, “I think this trip will be very beneficial for them. Some of them don’t get to leave the reserve and some only as far as North Battleford or Saskatoon.”
Aisaican says Gopher has been supportive of the project as a member of the band leadership.
“Our kids are always number one,” says Gopher, a power engineer student who went to a nomination meeting during a break from his practicum work at St. Walburg, and found himself being asked to run for office.
At the encouragement of his parents, he let his name stand and is now taking time off from his studies to hold several portfolios as a council member. (The 32-year-old is short on sleep, but, he laughs, “I’m young, I’m aggressive, a go-getter, I don’t give up.”)
The first trip isn’t even over and Saulteaux Heritage School is already planning a second. Next year they will probably travel to British Columbia. It will be a little less expensive, say the teachers, but just as educational and beautiful.
Aisaican says the Grade 3s are already benefiting, looking to the possibility of earning a trip when they become Grade 4 students.
First Nations schools, like all public schools, struggle with retention, says the director, which is why incentive projects like the Niagara Falls trip are so important.
“It gives them that little extra to get them kick started.”
