English

Message from the Director General

Abraham Jolly, Director General

Greetings to the members of the Cree Nation!

As a Cree School Board serving our generation of youth in Eeyou Istchee in the realm of education, we are privileged and honoured to report to you on another year of service to our students.

We continue to uphold a high level of responsibility and a strong sense of accountability because of the youth we serve. We understand that each community in our Cree society envisions and expects to see their youth be successful in their education, and we share that desire in our place of work and service.

We are also mindful that our very own students want to achieve, and that we must encourage and guide them to meet their goals.

This past year has been a journey and a process of putting our minds together to determine what our focus should be going forward in the next five years. It became clear that we are staying course of committing ourselves to improve our services, as part of the mandate we owe our students to help them achieve at high levels. But we are also learning that what and how we do education impacts our Cree society as a whole; that realization makes our work not only purposeful, but also an awesome task.

We believe the four strategic themes we identified in our 2016-2021 Strategic Action Plan will move us forward in big strides in the next five years. We again are mindful that executing and implementing the plan in a focused way will be key.

We are committed to the four strategic themes of

1. Educational Success
2. Student, Parent and Community Engagement
3. Qualified, Competent and Engaged Staff
4. Organizational Behaviour and Effectiveness

The key initiatives identified under each strategic theme will be the focus areas for the next five years for the Cree School Board. The bigger task for our organization will be how we execute and implement the plan effectively in all areas, including the schools, departments and services.

This is the stage we are entering at this point and time of the Cree School Board's history. We are confident that we are on the right course and direction going forward.

I personally want to thank the Chairperson and the Council of Commissioners for their continued support and encouragement. I also want to thank my management staff for their eagerness and commitment to stay focused on our mission as we enter this year, and the next five years. We anticipate positive outcomes as we journey forward.

More importantly, I thank our principals, teachers and the Community Education Administrators and their staff in our schools. Your commitment and hard work is appreciated.

Together we can build a well-educated Cree Nation through inspired teaching and valued learning.

God Bless our journey going forward.