Schools out but staffing challenges begin

School District 52 officials won't have much in the way of a summer vacation as the District makes its final arrangements to eliminate a number of teaching and support positions across the city.

However, when it comes to administration, the School District seems to have filled out its line up card for September as the final bells echo from last week.

The Daily News outlined who is moving where and what administrative moves have been made to take on the challenges of September.

School district firms up staffing plans
BY KRIS SCHUMACHER
The Daily News
Friday, June 27, 2008

Pages one and three

With the school year officially over as of yesterday afternoon, senior staff at School District 52 can focus all of their attention on preparing for what is surely going to be a challenging new school year for everyone in the school district.

With Director of Instruction Bill Ford leaving Prince Rupert to take the same position in Kootenay Columbia School District 20 (the very district Secretary Treasurer Kim Morris recently moved from), former Port Edward Elementary School Principal Leah Robinson has taken on the new role of Assistant Superintendent.

The role that Ford previously held was large enough that he was performing tasks well outside of the understood duties of a Director of Instruction, and therefore an Assistant Superintendent position was created in order to better reflect the work necessary in the district, said the school district.

Super-intendent of Schools Eric Mercer also announced the finalized administration lineup for the upcoming school year, which includes changes from those previously announced in April.
With Kanata now closed, former Principal Debb Taylor will be assuming the role of principal at Lax Kxeen, and Sandy Pond will move from the position of vice principal at the Kaien Island Alternate School and become the principal of Port Edward.

Westview Principal Andree Michaud, who was previously slated to be moved, will instead remain at Westview. There was some backlash from the community over the prior plan for Michaud to be moved to Lax Kxeen, as it was argued that moving a fluent French-speaking principal from the school with the French Immersion program and replacing her with an administrator who may not be as fluent did not make sense.

Mercer said that an understanding of a natural rotation of administrators in the school district exists, but agreed that keeping Michaud at Westview does work out well.

Susan Kobza will be the new principal at Roosevelt, and Kathy Dann will remain the vice principal. Steve Riley, the long-time Roosevelt principal is taking on the role of principal of the re-vamped Kaien Island Alternate School, the new site for which is close to being decided, says the district.

Darrell Wright will remain principal of Pineridge Elementary, which should be fully restored from the smoke damage it incurred due to a fire in the staff room kitchen by the start of the new school year.

Conrad will have Marcy VanKoughnett and Judy Zacharias as principal and vice principal respectively.

As reported in April, both Charles Hays Secondary and Prince Rupert Senior Secondary schools will keep their current principals and vice principals.

Mercer said he is very optimistic about the shuffling of administration staff for the 2008-09 school year, but pointed out that administration positions are still subject to change because the plan for next year is being further developed and unfolded.

"Leah is very knowledgeable of our Achievement Plan and has worked very closely with it, so we don't see that as being a hurdle for her at all," said Mercer.

"Human Resources remains a growing issue for our district as teachers age, which you can see by the numbers of the latest retirements in the district.

"So, we clearly understand what's in front of us."

Three of the district's senior staff will work during the summer on meeting the many deadlines set by the Ministry of Education for achievement contracts, and on preparing for the scheduled district review that will be happening this fall. Getting the district Alternate School program logistics finalized will also keep the staff busy through the end of August.