Stephen Jaddock is preparing to step into the role as the new superintendent/CEO of  Mountain View School  Division.

The current assistant superintendent has been hired  to take over from Dan Ward when he leaves the division  at  the end of the month.

Get more in this week's Roblin Review. 

Last week, twenty seven female students from Scott Bateman Middle School journeyed out the to Clearwater Lake Boy Scout camp, spending three days taking part in a Girls Empowerment Retreat. Joined by four staff members - Shirley Rivalin, Skyler Harrison, Jaime Mercredi and Jolene Salisbury, the retreat was an opportunity for the students to try new activities, create and learn together and take on things that were new and empowering,
This is the second trip organized by the school, the first being held in 2019. As with most things over the past couple of years, COVID halted the event for the last two years, so organizers were extremely happy that they could once again provide an opportunity for the students to take part in a retreat again, “We are hoping to make this an annual trip moving forward,” Salisbury noted.

We will remember them.
Many will remember the poem that encases those words but for the veterans whom they were written for, there are precious few left to stand by and salute their fallen companions. After two years of being forced to reduce, or outright stop, the D-Day memorial service due to the Covid-19 pandemic, The Royal Canadian Legion Branch 19 held their first open to the public service since 2019 on Sunday.
Joining Legion members and executive were representatives of The Pas Air Cadets, paramedics, local RCMP members and the Legion Ladies Auxiliary, taking part in a brief half-hour long ceremony that included a laying of wreaths at the cenotaph located at Lakeside Cemetery. In 2020 the number of people who could attend the ceremony was limited largely to family and loved ones and last year there wasn’t a ceremony at all as compliance with Covid-19 restrictions prevented it.
“I felt it went pretty good. I know everything was kind of catching up and getting back into routine so we should have done a little bit more to get more of the community out as well, but I’m glad we had our partners here,” explained Angie Nikolychuk, President, Royal Canadian Legion Branch 19.

June 1st marks the beginning of Pride month and Opaskwayak Cree Nation held a flag raising cermeony last Wednesday, where a small group of people gathered at the base of the OCN community sign, braving windy, raining weather to show their support.
Maureen Brown greeted those in attendance, a prayer was offered by Linda Buchanan and Edwin Jebb brought welcoming remarks from Chief and Council, telling the group the flag would fly for the entire month of June and it was being done to help educate people about pride month. Jebb encouraged people to respect everybody and not be ashamed of who they are.

One can only dream about being recognized on a prestigious level for their work, but for former Valley resident, Dr. Evan Eichler, it’s become a reality he never imagined. Dr. Eichler has been named as one of Time Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential People of 2022. His work and study on the human genome has been groundbreaking and led to his team being selected.
Dr. Eichler’s education has taken him all over the world and resulted in him studying in some of the most outstanding universities in his field.
“I went to the University of Saskatchewan, in Saskatoon, Sask, from 1986 to 1990, where I got an Honors B.Sc Degree in Biology,” said Dr. Eichler. “After a post-back year at the Ludwig-Maximillians University (LMU) in Munich, Germany, I was accepted to the Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), in Houston, Texas. Here I received my Ph.D. after four years of study in 1995 in the field of Human and Molecular Genetics.”
Dr. Eichler’s field of genome sciences is a fascinating one. He focuses on what's in a person’s genetics as it refers to genetic disease.
“Genome sciences is the study of the complete genetic instructions of a species,” said Dr. Eichler. “In the case of humans, it is essentially human genetics, but starts by having the complete set of instructions and then using it and new technology which is often referred to as genomics technology to understand biology and the basis of genetic disease.”
His extensive study and research began in Germany and has continued on throughout his career. Dr. Eichler’s work has placed him in many different universities across North America.
“In Germany, I interned in Molecular Veterinary Medicine and at Baylor, I worked on human genetics,” said Dr. Eichler. “My specific work at BCM involved understanding the genetic susceptibility to Fragile X Syndrome, which is a form of developmental delay due to an unstable piece of repetitive DNA on the X chromosome.
“After finishing my Ph.D., I moved to the Livermore National Labs in California, where I completed a postdoctoral fellowship from 1995 to 1997. It was here where I began some of my work on the Human Genome Project. I received offers for faculty positions from the University of Toronto, University of Ottawa and Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). I accepted a position as an assistant professor in the Department of Human Genetics at CWRU in Cleveland, Ohio, where I started my research lab in 1997.
“I continued my work on the Human Genome Project with a specific focus on characterizing unstable regions of our genome,” said Dr. Eichler. “I was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor in 2003 and offered a faculty position in the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington, in Seattle, Wash., in 2004. I was promoted to full professor with tenure in 2008 and the National Academy of Sciences in 2013.”
Dr. Eichler received the honour of being appointed to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) for his work on genome science. This is another outstanding achievement and recognition that comes with an incredible source of funding to do research.
“After I arrived at the University of Washington, Seattle, I was nominated by the University for this honour and was appointed in 2005 to the HHMI. HHMI is a virtual position, which does not require a change of universities, but it has the advantage that it pays your salary and gives you a research budget of approximately $750,000 million per year to pursue research.
“The position involves doing everything that a professor does. This includes running a research laboratory in size from 15 to 20 people; teaching classes; mentoring students and working with them to help get their Ph.D.; considerable travel giving lectures and seminars as well as serving on university and national committees."
Dr. Eichler’s research program is dedicated to understanding human genetic disease in relation to the human genome.
“My research program is focused on understanding the mutation of large repeats called segmental duplications,” said Dr. Eichler. “Our hypothesis is simple; we believe these repetitive regions contribute disproportionately to both human genetic disease and human evolution. We’ve shown over the last few years that many forms of autism, developmental delay and epilepsy are caused by mutation of these regions.
“On the flip side, some of the genes that make us uniquely human correspond to these same regions. Since the original Human Genome Project, back in 2001, our laboratory has been focused on finishing these regions, because we believe they are critical to understanding our species and genetic disease. These were however particularly difficult regions to accurately resolve. Most scientists left these and other regions, which is about eight percent of our genetic code, unresolved back in 2004.
“New sequencing technologies made it possible for us to sequence and assemble these for the first time in 2015,” said Dr. Eichler. “For the last 20 years, we have been working to finish all of these regions in the human genome, which we successfully did with a large team last year. The papers were published in April 2022 and we completed every human chromosome from telomere-to-telomere, from one end to the other without gaps. That’s why the project was called the T2T consortium.”
Being recommended for Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2022 has been both an extreme honour and mystery for Dr. Eichler. He was nominated along with his team for their work, but to this date, they still aren’t sure just who exactly recommended them for this honour.
“I honestly don’t know who recommended us,” said Dr. Eichler. “There’s a rumour that the Nobel Laureate, Jennifer Doudna, who wrote the description in the TIME 100 nominated us, but I don't know this for sure. It was a team effort and Adam Phillippy, Karen Miga and I led the project. Michael Schatz was one of about 96 other scientists in the project.
“I was honoured and to be honest completely surprised that we received this recognition. It's not the sort of thing that a human geneticist ever expects and it certainly isn't our usual crowd of peers. When I first received the notice, for example, I thought it was a hoax, but my secretary assured me that it was the real deal."
Dr. Eichler still has plans to continue his research and work in both human and non-human genomes. This time, he plans to focus on characterizing the genomes in children with autism.
“This is only the beginning,” said Dr. Eichler. “The next step is to complete more human genomes as well as non-human genomes to help us understand the genetic basis of disease as well as help better define the mutational processes that occur in our genome. I believe the telomere-to-telomere approach will be applied to children with unsolved genetic diseases. I have already received funding to characterize the genomes of more than 100 children with autism, cases we haven’t resolved with more traditional approaches.
"We believe that T2T sequencing of the genomes of these kids will provide us to new insights into how autism occurs and the genetic variants that underlie it. It's a long road but I believe the methods we have developed will be applied more routinely in the clinic 10-20 years from now.”

The Swan Valley Active Living committee, in partnership with Swan River’s Canadian Mental Health Association and their Ride Don’t Hide event, held the Run. Bike. Hike. Festival on Sunday (June 5) with nearly 200 participants registering. Runners had the option of completing in a half marathon, 10km, 5km or 1km kids fun run while bikers chose between 10km, 5km or a 2km kids race.

It was all hands-on deck as the staff of the Russell Swimming Pool - along with a number of friends who volunteered - spent last Saturday getting ready for the June 11th opening day. 

Pool manager Nate Fingas checked on the pump while Dillon Rathgeber and his grandpa Henry Snitnysky carried the chairs over to the cleaning station.   

The Dauphin Kings added 11 players to its program, Saturday, when the Manitoba Junior Hockey League held its draft of first-year U18 players.

Dauphin used its first-round pick, 12th overall, to select forward Gavin Nemis of East St. Paul.

Nemis, five-foot, nine-inches tall weighing 130-pounds, played for the Rink Hockey Academy (RHA) Winnipeg U16 prep team in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League last season, scoring 14 goals and 25 points in 36 games.

In the second round, Dauphin selected forward Rhett Perrin of Morden, 20th overall.

Playing for the RHA Winnipeg U15 prep team, the six-foot, 170-pound Perrin tallied 14 goals and 29 points in 32 games.

In the third round, the Kings stayed in the Parkland, taking Parkland Rangers forward Hayden Seib of Russell, 37th overall.

Seib, six-feet, weighing 160-pounds, scored 13 goals and 26 points in 44 games with the Rangers last season.

Dauphin then selected Onanole’s Max Collyer in the fourth round, 50th overall after the six-foot, 172-pound forward netted four goals and 12 points in 43 games with the Yellowhead Chiefs of the Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League.

In round five, with the 67th overall pick, Dauphin selected Winnipegger Dylan Jaquet, the younger brother of former Kings defenceman Colby Jaquet.

The younger Jaquet had 11 goals and 25 points in 33 games with the Winnipeg Bruins U17 team.

Dauphin had four picks in the sixth round, beginning with the 76th pick which was used to take defenceman Spencer Sabourin of St. Jean Baptiste.

The five-foot, eight-inch, 152-pound rearguard had one goal and one assist in 42 games with the Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League’s Pembina Valley Hawks last season.

With the next pick, 77th overall, Dauphin selected forward Declan Hoad of Brandon.

In 33 games with the U17 Wheat Kings, Hoad scored seven times and had 13 points.

Five picks later, with the 82nd overall selection, the Kings took defenceman Zhenya Miles of Winnipeg, who played for the Kelowna RHA U16 prep team last season, where the six-foot, 146-pounder scored four goals and 22 points in 31 games.

With the next pick, 83rd overall, Dauphin took Winnipeg’s Ethan Cull of the RHA Winnipeg U16 prep squad.

The five-foot, seven-inch, 134-pound forward had four goals and seven points in 31 games, last season.

Dauphin then took Josh Fluker of Boissevain in the seventh round, 96th overall.

The five-foot, 10-inch, 134-pound defenceman had six goals and 20 points in 38 games with the Southwest Cougars of the Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League and added five assists in 10 games with the Western Hockey League’s Swift Current Broncos.

Another members of the Cougars went to Dauphin in the eight round, 109th overall, when the Kings selected forward Jackson Hofer.

In 28 games with Southwest, the Deloraine native scored twice and recorded four points.

Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley said they wanted to get the best possible player available.

“Anytime you draft, it depends on the guys drafting ahead of you which direction you go in. When the Nemis kid and the Perrin kid were both available in the first two rounds, they were our guys. We got two of our top five picks,” he said. “They’ve got speed. They’ve got skill. They can both skate real well.”

Forwards were a need that Hedley filled with eight selected in the draft, compared to just three defencemen.

“Our backend is decent with the ‘04s and ‘05s right now. So we thought we could probably top up the forwards section,” he said.

The Kings will play host to the annual Par 3 Extravaganza, Saturday at the Gilbert Plains Country Club. The annual general meeting will be held, June 23, at 7 p.m. in the Aspen Lodge at the Parkland Recreation Complex. The Manitoba Junior Hockey League prospects camp will be in July in Winnipeg.

Hedley made his first deal of the offseason, acquiring goaltender Cole Sheffield from the French River Rapids of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League for future considerations.

The 18-year-old native of London, Ont., posted a 13-15-1 record in 31 games, with a 3.75 GAA and .904 save percentage.

Hedley said if starter Carson Cherepak gets a Division 1 scholarship, last year’s backup Keaton Woolsey would become the starter for next season and Sheffield would be in line for the backup position. If Cherepak returns to the Kings next season, however, Woolsey has indicated he has no interest in being a 19-year-old backup, opening the door for Sheffield.

“It was a good move for us. This kid is very good,” Hedley stated.

Stephen Jaddock is preparing to step into the role of Mountain View School Division superintendent/CEO.

The current assistant superintendent has been hired to take over from Dan Ward when he leaves the division at the end of the month.

“I’ve been three years in the assistant superintendent role, and, of course, came to that position from the ranks of being a teacher and a principal and vice-principal within the division,” Jaddock said, adding he enjoys his role in administration. “It’s the ability to make decisions that influence education and influence what happens with students and with teachers and staff involved in the system. It just gives you a little bit of a role in that.”

Born in Brandon, Jaddock came to Dauphin via Edmonton.

“Of course my dad was born in Dauphin and we’d visit my baba here. I knew where Dauphin was on the map and I spent some good times here,” he said.

Jaddock started with MVSD in the 1993-94 school year as a Ukrainian language and Chemistry teacher at Dauphin Regional Comprehensive Secondary School.

“I had sent sort of an application package just blindly to every school division that had an English/Ukrainian bilingual program,” he said, adding it was the year Grade 9s were leaving Mackenzie Middle School for the DRCSS and a Ukrainian instructor was needed. “I got called for an interview and the rest is history.”

After three years teaching at the DRCSS, Jaddock moved to Smith-Jackson School where he taught for another four years before moving into the principal’s chair for a nine-year stint following which he moved back to the DRCSS as a vice-principal.

“My first year at the DRCSS they had an adult learning center, so I was also the director of the adult learning center. I just finished a master’s degree, so that was something that they were looking at having somebody look after,” he said, adding the program moved out of the school after the first year. “So then I did almost two years as a dual credits facilitator for the school division, working on getting high school students some college courses and university courses while still in Grade 12.”

And Jaddock is looking forward to putting everything he has learned throughout his career into action as superintendent.

“I’m just humbled and honoured to serve and I feel that all of the different positions that I’ve been able to have throughout my career will help me in that role as superintendent,” he said. “Right now the big thing is after coming out of COVID, learning and the mental health of students and staff is first and foremost. And making sure that we get on that firm foundation of where we want to move.”

Jaddock added the division has not been able to complete any “robust” planning in the last number of years.

“Looking at where do we want to be in the next five years or three to five years. We’ve just been able to do one-year plans the last couple of years, so what we’re looking forward to is being able to do a little bit more of the long-term planning,” he said. “Our minds were just in survival mode throughout the pandemic. When we were in the throes of the pandemic, we were just worried about one day at a time and we weren’t doing a whole lot of future thinking.”

Jaddock added the job will be made easier thanks to the firm footing Ward has put the division on and the talented staff at the division office.

“The great thing about Mountain View School Division is that there’s an excellent team in place at the division office and with all of our administrators and staff to work with students and to help them along the way,” he said.

Jaddock’s replacement in the assistant superintendent’s role will be announced soon.

Graduation ceremonies throughout Mountain View School Division will have an air of familiarity this spring, as the division has cleared school to return to in-person convocations.

Over the last couple of years graduation exercises across MVSD have been “different”, said MVSD superintendent Dan Ward, with formats such as drive-through ceremonies, outdoor events or grad parades promoting the social distancing requirements of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’ve always made our decisions guided by the public health guidance of the day,” Ward said. “In reviewing the public health guidance as it stands right now, we felt comfortable moving ahead with in-person grads and really a return to normal so to speak. The grads will have the look and feel of grads pre-COVID.”

Ward added there are elements of the pandemic years grads which will have been adopted going forward. For instance, most communities will continue to have a grad parade following the ceremonies, he said.

“And some of our schools, including Dauphin, are looking at live streaming the events, knowing that there could still be some family members of our graduates that don’t feel comfortable coming to a large in-person event. Maybe they have a family member who’s immunocompromised or maybe they’re immunocompromised themselves, so they’ll still have that opportunity in particular at some of our larger schools for the live stream,” Ward said. “And we’re still going to recognize our grads in local publications like we’ve done in the past because we felt that was very well received in terms of having the grad pictures and write-ups from our six high school principals and our board.”

All six high schools in the division have decided to return to in-person convocations. Gilbert Plains will kickoff the schedule with its traditional Friday night graduation, June 17, followed the next day by Ethelbert and Grandview. The following week, Dauphin Regional comprehensive Secondary School, Winnipegosis and Goose Lake High in Roblin will have their graduations.

“Most of our communities are participating in the safe grad initiative this year, as well. By and large those safe grads are happening following the actual convocation event. That’s something that, of course, has been around for some time to ensure that our graduates are safe and can celebrate their accomplishment in a safe way,” Ward said. “We’re still going to emphasize good hand hygiene and masks are certainly welcome for those that choose to wear them. We’re encouraging any family members who are symptomatic to stay away, and if their school has that live stream option to use that option instead.”

Ward added a complete listing of graduation dates, venues and time will soon be available on the division website at www.mvsd.ca. A list of elementary and middle school year-end events will also be available.