Thursday, April 30, 2026 - Pre-Retreat
9:00 am - 3:30 pm
(8:30 am - Continental Breakfast and Registration)
Pre-Retreat Overview Workshop - Collaborative Response: Every Child Deserves a Team
PLEASE NOTE - The April 30 Pre-Retreat session is NOT included in the regular conference registration.
- Kurtis Hewson and Lorna Hewson, Lead Learners and Co-Founders, Jigsaw Learning
- Feeling overwhelmed with the expectations being placed on teachers, leaders and educational systems to respond to the diverse needs of our learners? Ensuring success for all students is a moral imperative for all schools, but takes a highly coordinated framework of structures and processes within a school to maximize the collective capacity of the team. Come learn about Collaborative Response, an organizational mindset that involves some fundamental shifts for schools and districts, such as layering collaborative team structures, transforming how we talk about student needs, focusing on students close to meeting expectations through thoughtful organization of data and evidence and ensuring tiering of supports rather than students. Simple shifts that emerge through a focus on Collaborative Response and the good news is that some likely already exist in your building! Numerous school and district examples, as well as access to a large number of resources, will be provided for school leaders wishing to join hundreds of schools using Collaborative Response to ensure high levels of success for students and staff!
- All participants will receive a copy of the text Collaborative Response: Three Foundational Components That Transform How We Respond to the Needs of Learners (Corwin, 2022) included as part of the registration fee.
- This session is offered as a full day session prior to the annual Collaborative Response Retreat, happening May 1-2. Participants must register separately or as part of the 3-day Pre-Retreat + Retreat registration option.
- Breakfast and lunch will be provided.
Check out the session information below!
Please note sessions will be added to the Learning Blocks identified in the Schedule at a later date.
Leading the Quality Learning Environment: NGPS's Collaborative Instructional Leadership Cycle
This session will explore the robust, iterative instructional leadership cycle implemented by Northern Gateway Public Schools (NGPS) to ensure a high-quality learning environment (QLE) and drive division-wide priorities. Discover the interconnected roles and responsibilities that sustain and deepen the Quality Learning Environment (QLE) across the division, focusing on the strategic alignment of the division priorities as outlined in the Education Plan. This model emphasizes continuous learning, collaborative leadership, and targeted support.
Presenter: Leslee Jodry - Deputy Superintendent, Northern Gateway Public Schools
Getting to Know WeCollab
Trevor will introduce the WeCollab software to users and demonstrate the layout of the features of WeCollab, including the features found in the student profile, how students are organized on team boards, how to conduct a team meeting plus much, much more!
Presenter: Trevor Van Someren - WeCollab Lead, Jigsaw Learning
Ongoing Evolution: A Journey to Data-Informed Operational Excellence
Collaborative Response is a long-term strategy for deep, system-wide improvement. Join our conversation to explore how we transitioned HW Pickup School from simply introducing the Collaborative Response framework to implementing a fully data-driven model. We now use real-time data to inform everything from student supports and classroom instruction to supervision schedules and discipline policies. Our session will include a focus on lateral and horizontal planning, sharing division resources, data collection and usage and integrating the WeCollab software into our Collaborative Response processes.
Presenters: Keri Card-Esau - Principal, H.W. Pickup Middle School - Wild Rose School Division; Nicole Kress - Vice Principal, H.W. Pickup Middle School - Wild Rose School Division; Kim Wedman - Learning Services Coordinator, Wild Rose School Division
Building Collective Capacity: Our Story of Collaborative Response in Practice
Join Edlyn as she shares the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education’s journey with Collaborative Response, highlighting the successes at École St. John Paul II School. Their approach focuses on structured, school-wide systems designed to support every student, ensuring interventions are timely, targeted, and effective. Edlyn will share practical examples of the processes, routines, and structures that have driven positive outcomes for students and staff and participants will learn how intentional collaboration, professional learning, and capacity-building can transform school culture, support student growth, and create sustainable systems that benefit the entire learning community.
Presenter: Edlyn Murphy - Vice Principal, École St. John Paul II - Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education
Improving Collaborative Team Meetings in Our K-6 School
Is your CTM getting stuck talking about one student? Are too many of the actions in CTM falling to school administrators? Having a hard time establishing key issues in advance? In this session, Tamra and Sandra will share their experience building collaborative team meetings in a K-6 school, including these challenges and more. Which aspects were easily improved and which proved to be trickier than the school thought? Come join the session to gain practical insights and resources to support your work in refining your collaborative team meetings.
Presenters: Tamra Wilcox - Principal, Woodlands School - Calgary Board of Education; Sandra Patton - System Assistant Principal for Early Learning, Calgary Board of Education
Divine Mercy's Journey in Collaborative Response - Year Three
Divine Mercy is a rapidly expanding elementary school located in southeast Edmonton. Established in September 2020 during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the school has experienced significant growth, increasing its student population from 100 to 575 over the past six years. Divine Mercy is in the third year of their Collaborative Response journey, which has undergone several administrative transitions, including changes in Assistant Principals and team members. This journey has been marked by continuous reflection and improvements driven by ongoing dialogue and evaluation. The team at Divine Mercy strongly believe in making time for meetings during the school day and have created structures and systems to facilitate them.
Presenter: Amy Cooper - Principal, Divine Mercy Catholic Elementary School - Edmonton Catholic Schools
"Building the Plate" in Northland School Division
The idea of "Building the Plate" comes from the idea that Collaborative Response does not add to the plate, it becomes the plate and helps to enhance the work and collaboration in the division. Since beginning to engage in Collaborative Response in 2024-2025, NSD has been able to change the way they communicate and collaborate in the division. This has made a tremendous difference in the effectiveness of communication and meetings, and has helped to be more effective in action planning and follow through, which flows all the way down to more effective learning opportunities for our kids, following the division's mission of "Children First".
Presenters: Mark Owens - Associate Superintendent, Northland School Division; Amy Savill - Acting Associate Superintendent, Northland School Division
Embedding Non-Negotiables for Instructional Excellence in Collaborative Response
Learn how Griffin Park School refined its instructional processes within Collaborative Response by distilling existing learning continuums into eight high-impact, non-negotiable instructional understandings. We will demonstrate how these non-negotiables were incorporated into teacher supervision, collaboration and professional learning cycles to ensure instructional consistency. Furthermore, we will show how we are working to transform our continuums into dynamic digital resource hubs that house curated knowledge, provide immediate, actionable support for teacher expertise and drive focused collaborative planning.
Presenters: Kendra Adams - Principal, Griffin Park School - Grasslands Public Schools; Joanne Decker - Vice Principal, Griffin Park School - Grasslands Public Schools
Collaborative Response and Building Teacher Efficacy
This session will share a practical, insider view of the first year for the Deanne and Kati as the leadership team at a new school and the collaborative steps used to improve our results report and track student progress. The session will outline how they improved teacher efficacy through targeted professional learning, data-driven CTM's, and coaching cycles that emphasized classroom practices with measurable impact. This session is practical, concise, and designed for educators ready to turn early momentum into sustained gains by strengthening collegial trust, instructional leadership, and teacher belief in their capacity to move achievement.
Presenters: Deanne Good - Principal, Mattie McCullough Elementary School - Red Deer Public Schools; Kati Ramsden - Vice Principal, Mattie McCullough Elementary School - Red Deer Public Schools
Collaboratively Responding to Instructional Leadership
Discover how Grasslands Public Schools’s five year journey with Jigsaw Learning and a focus on Collaborative Response has led to an aligned and enhanced focus on instructional leadership. Scott and Nicole will provide participants with a step by step explanation of how Grasslands’ Administrator Collaborative Team Meetings (Admin CTMs) have become an integral structure and process to support leaders’ key issues, embed leadership collaboration, and build system capacity. Participants will leave the session with ideas and recommendations for how their school division can incorporate Administrator CTMs as a foundation to their instructional leadership and a process that supports leaders in the complex and demanding world of educational leadership.
Presenters: Scott Brandt - Superintendent, Grasslands Public Schools; Nicole Short - Assistant Superintendent, Grasslands Public Schools
Collaborative Response Sustainability Practices Within Wetaskiwin Regional Public Schools
Focused on a practical approach that provides clear pathways to support the continued system wide commitment and utilization of Collaborative Response, this session will review the journey of implementation, and the ongoing refinements of the system wide implementation of Collaborative Response within WRPS. The team will engage in an in-depth share of the current practices developed to support the sustainability of Collaborative Response structures, which includes empowering school administrators with a Collaborative Team Meeting structure monthly to assess and address key areas of concerns. Building, strengthening and ensuring that every administrator has a team is integral to ensuring there are impactful instructional leaders in every school in WRPS.
Presenter: Kristien Holtby - Assistant Superintendent of Student Support, Wetaskiwin Regional Public Schools
Holistic Collaborative Response to Support Indigenous Student Well-Being and Achievement
In this session, participants will explore Holistic Collaborative Response (HCR), an approach that is based on kinship between Jigsaw Learning’s Collaborative Response and the Calgary Board of Education’s Indigenous Education Holistic Lifelong Learning Framework. This integration guides educators to take a holistic approach that includes Spirit, Heart, Body, and Mind when caring for the needs of Indigenous students. Through this lens, HCR emphasizes strategies that support both the overall well-being and academic achievement of Indigenous students, ensuring every learner is honoured as a whole person. Using a Holistic Continuum of Supports, participants will gain practical insights into how collaborative structures and data-informed practices can be transformed to reflect Indigenous ways of being, belonging, doing, and knowing to foster meaningful, responsive support.
Presenters: Beverly Kinley; Shane Spriggs; Janis Weasel Bear; Sarah Meade
Mayhem to Momentum: Building Collaborative Culture in a Brand-New Middle School Team
When a school year begins with 14 of 18 teachers new to the building, most support staff with eighteen months or less experience in the school, two assistant principals only one year in, a newly hired secretary and a brand-new principal at the helm, “mayhem” becomes more than a metaphor—it becomes the daily lived experience. Yet within that whirlwind lies an incredible opportunity: the chance to intentionally build a collaborative culture from the ground up. In this session, we share the story of how Percy Baxter Middle School embraced the turbulence of a fresh-start year to establish clarity, consistency, and collective efficacy through Collaborative Response. Participants will explore how we moved from disconnected individuals to a unified team by anchoring our work in shared structures, predictable processes, and an unwavering belief that collaboration is the antidote to chaos.
Presenters: Jennifer Ferguson - Principal, Percy Baxter Middle School - Northern Gateway Public School; Ashlee Jodry - Assistant Principal and Inclusive Education Facilitator, Percy Baxter Middle School - Northern Gateway Public Schools
Reimagining Support: Evolving Our Service Model with Collaborative Response
In this session, Kari and Corey will share how their department leveraged authentic school feedback to redesign the service model and better align with the needs of staff and students. Guided by the principles and structures of Collaborative Response, the team examined what was working, what was missing, and where support could be strengthened. Participants will learn about the adjustments made in Elk Island Public Schools, the lessons learned, and how continuous feedback is driving their ongoing improvement.
Presenters: Kari Huk - Assistant Director of Support for Students, Elk Island Public Schools; Corey Kropp - Assistant Director of Supports for Students, Elk Island Public Schools
Schedule
Friday, May 1, 2026 - Retreat Day 1
8:00 - 9:00 am
Continental Breakfast and Registration
9:00 am
Welcome and Establishing Team Planning
10:30 am
Break
10:45 - 11:45 am
Learning Block 1
11:45 am - 12:45 pm
Lunch
12:45 pm - 1:45 pm
Learning Block 2
1:45 pm
Break
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Learning Block 3
3:00 pm
Break
3:15 pm - 4:15 pm
Learning Block 4
4:15 pm - 5:30 pm
Social Gathering - onsite at the Lacombe Memorial Centre
Saturday, May 2, 2026 - Retreat Day 2
8:00 am
Breakfast
9:00 am
Welcome and Overview
9:15 - 10: 15 am
Learning Block 5
10:15 am
Break
10:30 am - 11:30 am
Learning Block 6
11:30 am
Break
11:45 am
Networking and Wrap-Up
12:15 pm
Farewell and grab your snacks provided for the trip home