August 28, 2025

Dear Parents / Guardians / Caregivers,

Welcome back to a new school year. I sincerely hope that you had an amazing summer with loved ones and friends and that you had many opportunities to connect with nature and enjoy the beautiful summer weather. The summer season serves as a reminder of the deep gratitude we share for living in such a beautiful province and country that we are privileged to call home.

While many staff and students have been enjoying a wonderful summer break, our facilities staff members have been busy preparing our schools and facilities and looking after various summer projects for the new school year. The Sardis Secondary School Expansion and the New Rosedale East Side Elementary School Capital Projects are progressing well and are scheduled to be completed for the start of the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school years respectively. These capital projects are a remarkable feat, and we thank our Facilities Staff sincerely for their dedication, commitment, and service to our families.

Key Ministry of Education and Child Care Updates:

• As part of the ministry mandate to ensure that BC’s early interventions for children struggling with literacy are the most effective in North America, this fall, school districts will begin implementing mandatory screening in kindergarten. In Chilliwack, this practice is already in place, and we will continue to build on this important work.
• Curriculum Updates for 2025/26 School Year:
  • Holocaust education has been added to the Social Studies 10 curriculum - September 2025.
  • Mandatory in PHE10: CPR and AED learning before graduation starting in the 2025/26 school year.
• Effective July 1, 2025, amendments to the Support Services for Schools Ministerial Order require Boards of Education to publish a district policy/procedure for unexpected health emergencies and to ensure Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) and naloxone kits are accessible and maintained—secondary schools by Dec 31, 2025; elementary/middle schools by Sept 8, 2026. Chilliwack already has AEDs at all sites and an Opioid Poisoning Response AP; an AED-use Administrative Procedure will be published by November 2025.

Last year, we completed a comprehensive refresh of our 2021–2025 Strategic Plan, resulting in a newly revised 2025–2029 Strategic Plan, which the Board of Education unanimously approved in June 2025. The plan is anchored in four priorities: Student Success, Human Flourishing, Truth and Reconciliation, and Accountability—advanced through focused goals in Literacy, Numeracy, Well-Being, and Transitions, and guided by our values of Kindness, Collaboration, Inclusion, Equity, and Innovation. 

Also during the 2024-25 school year, District staff initiated preliminary conversations on enrolment and facilities across the district. This early engagement will inform a formal Board consultation in 2025–26, preparing for the opening of the new north-side elementary in 2027 and responding to continued growth on the south side of the highway.