Mother of five, 44, loses home to pests, finds new life with high school graduation

Aside from her designated laundry day at an inner-city shelter, Jolene Sumner’s schedule was wide open for self-loathing in the winter.

“I felt like a loser — a big loser,” Sumner said as she described what life was like in the leadup to her fifth and final attempt to finish high school.

“I felt so embarrassed. I never wanted this for my life, for my kids.”

The 44-year-old, along with her three youngest children, found themselves homeless on New Year’s Eve.

As school year ends, thank an educator

As the long days of summer approach, many Manitobans are preparing to hit the out-of-office button. But before the school year fades into memory, I’d like you to take a moment to thank the more than 17,000 Manitoba public school educators who have gone above and beyond to support kindergarten to Grade 12 students across our province.

Close encounters of the amphibian kind

Frogs, snakes and horses, oh my!

Liam Peterson, an 11-year-old outdoor enthusiast, encountered all of those during summer camp last year at Circle Square Ranch.

“There were always frogs hopping around our cabin, and I let one in because I wanted it to have company because it was bored — it was just sitting there,” recalled Liam.

“And then my friend freaked out because it was on top of (his foot) in the morning. Everyone in the cabin woke up and he woke up with a red bump on his head after hitting his head on his bunk.”

Booth University College continues program for emergency shelter residents

Shelter U has found a permanent home in inner-city Winnipeg.

Following a pilot that produced 50 certificates and inspired multiple recipients to pursue further studies, Booth University College will continue an alternative program that makes higher education more accessible in Manitoba.

“It is the best of what education can be,” said Rev. Rob Fringer, president of the Christian post-secondary institute.

In January 2025, Booth’s Aaron Klassen launched the first of a series of humanities courses — a project he dubbed Shelter U — out of the Salvation Army’s Winnipeg Centre of Hope.

Ottawa adding $5.4B for child care; provinces, advocates had warned progress at risk

The federal government is giving provinces and territories an additional $5.4 billion over two years for the national $10-a-day child-care program, money the minister is framing as stabilizing the program.

The program that started rolling out across the country in 2021 set ambitious targets for reducing the fees parents pay and creating hundreds of thousands of new spaces by this year, but those targets have not yet been met in many jurisdictions.

Jobs and Families Minister Patty Hajdu said Friday in an interview that she has heard the provinces' calls for more federal money, as many struggle to reduce fees, add spaces and recruit and retain enough early childhood educators in the face of rising costs and demand.

"Certainly, money has been part of the challenge," Hajdu said ahead of a meeting with provincial and territorial ministers.

Elementary students develop friendships with care home residents

Nine-year-olds and seniors in their ’90s regularly bond over bocce in Tuxedo.

École Tuxedo Park and Extendicare Tuxedo Villa are marking a decade of Senior Buddies, a partnership that began to build intergenerational friendship and understanding in their neighbourhood.

“It’s opening (students’) eyes to different parts of being a human and humanity and the community that they live in,” said Diana Stahl, a school counsellor at the kindergarten-to-Grade 4 building in Winnipeg.

Stahl and her students made the 350-metre trek to the long-term care home on Thursday for their final visit of the school year.

Eager to work, teens find a frustrating summer job search

NEW YORK (AP) — Jaelyn Chester will wait your tables or stock your shelves. She’ll wash your dishes or scrub your toilets. If only someone would give the 17-year-old a chance.

“I’ve been looking everywhere,” says Chester, an A+ student, high school basketball star and aspiring engineer who has blanketed her community with dozens of applications. “I’m not unemployed because I’m incompetent. I’m unemployed because nobody’s hiring.”

The summer job, a rite-of-passage for generations of American teenagers, isn’t so easy to come by.

About one-third of 16- to 19-year-olds in the U.S. were employed last summer, federal data show, down from a peak of about 60% in the late 1970s. Experts’ pessimistic forecasts are combining with reports from frustrated jobless young people around the country to form a seasonal outlook far from bathed in sunshine.

Cellphones silenced at LRSD board meetings to keep trustees ‘engaged’

LOUIS Riel School Division trustees are subject to new rules, which are not unlike the ones for 17,000 students in their division in southeast Winnipeg, that dictate when they can use their personal devices.

The board of trustees approved multiple updates to its code of conduct this month. Among them is the explicit requirement every member must use divisional laptops at their public meetings.

“We look at our iPhones, laptops, emails and text messages — that’s life nowadays, but trustees don’t only need to be present in the physical sense. We need to be engaged,” longtime trustee Chris Sigurdson told a recent meeting, speaking in French.

Sigurdson raised the topic on June 2, one week after the nine-seat board received a letter from a resident expressing concerns about tech-related distractions in the boardroom at 50 Monterey Rd.

School board’s plan violates rights of young people: children’s advocate

Backlash is mounting over the Steinbach school board’s plans to disregard “mature minor” status and recognize parents as primary decision makers in all student health matters.

High school grads feel the love during North End parade

Talon Phrakonekham felt a tinge of nostalgia as he and fellow members of the Class of 2026 roamed North End streets lined with young cheerleaders and gave out high-fives on Tuesday afternoon.

Dozens of children from elementary schools in the neighbourhood that Talon grew up in shouted congratulations from the Salter Street sidewalk and waved posters marking the occasion.

“You did so good in math. We are so proud of you,” one sign declared in a child’s wonky handwriting.

Talon, 17, said the North End Grad Walk — now in its fifth year — provided an opportunity for both celebration and self-reflection.

Division undertakes close to $1M in security upgrades after sex offender gets into two schools

Selfies are now standard protocol for all visitors to public schools in St. Vital.

Free Press Summer Reading Challenge for kids returns with a trove of new titles

Calling all young readers — the Free Press Summer Reading Challenge for Kids is back in session!

A partner program to the Free Press Book Club since 2020, the summer reading challenge offers four titles for each of three reading levels based on age — 7 to 9 years old, 10 to 12 years old and 13 to 15 years old. McNally Robinson Booksellers staffers curated the reading lists, prioritizing a diversity of perspectives, formats and topics to make sure there’s something for everyone — and there’s even a few local authors on the list.

The Summer Reading Challenge also offers budding reviewers the opportunity to submit their thoughts on any of the books on the reading lists, with a rating out of five stars, and have their reviews published in the books section of the Free Press print and online editions. All kids registered for the reading challenge will also receive activities and reading resources for each book to encourage deeper learning and hopefully help spur some thoughts and reflections for those reviews.

More information about each book on the reading lists, as well as additional information about what to include in reviews, can be found here. All of the books are available for purchase at McNally Robinson, and almost all are also available at the Winnipeg Public Library.

City looking into expanding 30 km/h zones in residential areas, on regional streets

Winnipeg city council’s public works committee has directed staff to study whether to expand its 30 km/h school zone speed limit to additional residential streets, or even busy regional roads.

Sisler program creating new generation of animators

The characters start as crude shapes and stand-ins, then take on form. Your Elsa, Miles Morales or Buzz Lightyear are born, but move only in key poses, like a picture book.

Province tabs $4.3M for programs to boost employment strategies for young Manitobans

It’s an ongoing cycle in Tasnim Aljoumah’s orbit: submit a stack of resumés, get a sprinkle of responses.

The 16-year-old hasn’t started job hunting yet, but she’s watched her friends’ disheartening results.

“It’s not as fun as it seems, and it’s definitely not as easy,” Tasnim, who’s finishing Grade 11, said Tuesday outside University of Winnipeg Collegiate.

She pondered the job market hours after Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew announced $4.3 million for two initiatives to boost youth employment.

Bike-to-school day initiative features fun pit stops across city, encourages families to ride

Bike Week Winnipeg is piloting new student-friendly pit stops Tuesday as part of its signature event.

This year, for the first time, bike-to-work day is also being branded as bike-to-school day.

“When students ride, their families ride,” said Andraea Sartison, event producer for the volunteer-run organization promoting cycling with activities scheduled through Sunday.

“(This initiative) is a really good way for us to reach more people, I think. School communities are much larger than the student population, so this is a really nice way to get into neighbourhoods.”

‘Exciting and meaningful’: St. James Collegiate track replacement nears starting line

St. James Collegiate students circled the edge of the school’s 400-metre track on Thursday morning as Couns. Shawn Dobson and Brian Mayes stood nearby, announcing a plan to rebuild the surface beneath their feet.

Louis Riel School Division embraces AI agents of change

End-of-year report cards will be drafted using a new digital assistant made by and for teachers working in St. Vital and surrounding communities in southeast Winnipeg.

The Louis Riel School Division’s data team has spent much of the 2025-26 school year designing and piloting secure artificial intelligence-powered tools to address common problems for staff and students.

Curriculum-Linked Assessment and Reporting Assistant is one of its five new “AI agents.”

“Teachers put in all their assessment data and it helps them create meaningful, curriculum-aligned, jargon-free comments for parents,” said Marnie Wilson, data strategy officer for the division.