It will be a year of challenge and change, said Patricia Gartland, the district's new superintendent who takes over the top job from Tom Grant.
The former head of international education will continue to oversee that revenue-generating department but will also be responsible for leading the district with its more than 2,000 employees and 31, 000 students.
Coming off a year of budget restraint, Gartland is optimistic about the new year and said people can expect to hear more about what the district is up to in 2015.
"In this high-octane world of communication, it's a great opportunity to be able to engage our community partners, students, parents and teachers so much more rapidly than we have in the past."
Gartland said the district will turn increasingly to social media to get its message out and she will work with the newly elected board of education - six of whom are newcomers - to define its strategic vision for the year.
Among the goals will be to implement the new student tracking system called MyEducation BC, which Garland said will eventually have a portal for parents to access their children's records, and KEV, a new accounting system, which will make it easier to track school funds and collect money.
Today's kindergarten students will see more opportunities for personalized learning in the future.
The district will also find ways to support teachers in implementing changes to the K-12 curriculum. Education will still be about the 3Rs, but a new R has been added, social responsibility, with students being expected to develop their critical thinking skills and work on projects that blend aspects of science, math, social studies and English.
There will still be performance standards but Gartland said the system is becoming more flexible with students expected to take "ownership of their own learning in terms of goal setting and their accomplishments."
To help with the transition, the district expects to continue to provide professional development opportunities for teachers with a speaker series, peer mentoring and other strategies, including making the district's www.sd43.bc.ca website a more robust source of information.
With a recently-balanced budget under its belt, Gartland said the district will now be able to focus on the learning agenda. "This is allowing us to refocus and solidify our gains."
