Manitoba's deputy minister of Education and Training paid a visit to Border Land School Division last week. Bram Strain says the afternoon was a chance for him to see some of the work happening in local schools and assess any infrastructure needs.

"It's nine months on the job and I made a commitment very early to all thirty-seven superintendents that I would come and visit the various divisions, so I'm working my way through the list."

The deputy minister went on to say that it's still in the early days of the new P.C. government in Manitoba and he's looking to see how certain changes are impacting school divisions across the province. Strain adds Border Land is a progressive school division with some great results, and he also hoped to pinpoint some best practices that can be taken to other divisions.

"I'm also responsible for immigration so some of the work that's been done with refugees, and more specifically with the Syrian refugees...(it's been) nothing but success. The integration here and the way that the community has branched out and accepted people and help them through...it's really a best practice."

Border Land Superintendent Krista Curry says officials are feeling positive following Friday's meeting, noting an afternoon tour offered a chance to show off the division geographically and demographically.

The tour started at the Division head office in Altona where Curry says trustees and senior administrators shared some information about Border Land and got to ask some questions of Strain. From there, the group headed out to various schools within the division.

Curry adds the hope with the tour was to help Strain be able to put a picture to conversations he's had with division officials in the past and the ones he will have in the future.

"So if the gym project comes up for example, then he knows exactly what it looks like. Or if he's talking about vocational programming, which is a big career developer in the province, then he knows - he's seen some the programs that we're offering."