EDUCATION

By Sara Bedal

Passionate Principals

La Loche Community School, La Loche, Sask.
Public • 480 students • K–6
When Mark Williment arrived in this small Dene community 14 years ago he had a rude awakening — not one of his grade-four students had any books at home. Clearly, La Loche’s challenge was to improve literacy in a town where many of the students enter school speaking little English. As former assistant principal, Williment made literacy his priority. He spearheaded a levelled reading program and typically devoted an hour a day to helping children read in small groups. When chairperson of the local public library, he opened the library in evenings for Come Read with Me family nights. And each spring and fall, the school holds a literacy carnival. Classes are cancelled for the afternoon and kids play games (for 25 cents a pop) to win coupons to “buy” books. The International Reading Association awarded La Loche the Exemplary Reading Program Award in 2004.

Salem Elementary School, Sackville, NB
Public • 380 students • K–4
When kids at Salem Elementary need to let off steam, you might find them clocking kilometres on the nature trail at the back of the school. The half-kilometre trail was the brainchild of principal Duane McLellan, a former phys. ed. teacher who had observed that parents were driving kids everywhere. Now kids walk or cross-country ski the trail, keeping track of their distance, which is plotted on a mural of the map of Canada inside the school.

Thornhill Public School, Thornhill, Ont.
Public • 390 students • JK–8
Not too long ago morale had hit rock bottom at this suburban school. The parent advisory council was in disarray and the school had had three principals in nine years. Then Yvonne Gilinsky stepped in and turned a fractured, troubled school into a harmonious whole. Under Gilinsky, parents — mostly those new to Canada — attend weekly morning coffee klatches with school council where no question is too trivial. For at least one teacher at Thornhill, who has taught for 29 years under 14 administrators, Gilinsky is simply the best. Now, he notes, morale has never been higher.

Magnetic Hill School, Lutes Mountain, NB
Public • 428 students • K–8
When Carolyn Norman retires at the end of the year as principal of Magnetic Hill School, she will leave an indelible mark there and beyond. During her 19 years at the school, she helped spearhead the creation of the school’s — and New Brunswick’s first — Snoezelen Room (‘Snoezelen’ is from two Dutch words: “snuffeln,” meaning to breathe deeply, and “doezelen,” meaning to relax), a multi-sensory room for special-needs students that serves Magnetic Hill children as well as those from other district schools. A great believer in continuous learning, Norman organized her staff to deliver professional development workshops at the school, inviting teachers from throughout the Maritime provinces. She was named one of Canada’s Outstanding Principals in 2005 by The Learning Partnership and the Canadian Association of Principals.

Originally published in Today's Parent, September 2005