The new school year brings with it fresh changes in the upper echelons of the School District of Mystery Lake, including the arrival of a new superintendent in Beverly Hammond, who began her job on Aug. 1.
"The next year is going to be full of exciting possibilities and potential," said Hammond. "The School District of Mystery Lake has gone through a lot of transition - we have an entire new senior leadership team, with myself and two new assistant superintendents." Those new assistant superintendents are Angelle Bartlett, a former teacher who moves into the position of assistant superintendent of human resources, and Angelina Pilon, who moved to Thompson from Ontario to become assistant superintendent of programs.
Hammond replaces Hugh Fraser, a well-known figure in the school district who re-retired this summer. Fraser, a former Thompson student and teacher, was appointed vice-principal of R.D. Parker Collegiate in 1984 and became principal in 1990. After moving to Winnipeg and taking on distinguished positions such as president of the Canadian Association of Principals, Fraser was coaxed out of retirement in 2007 to serve as assistant superintendent, later moving to the full superintendent position.
It's been a long journey for Hammond, who was born in Newfoundland, completed a graduate degree at the University of Alaska, and has worked throughout Northern and western Canada. "My background is rather diverse," she said. "My undergraduate work was done in Newfoundland, I started teaching in Alberta, I taught in the Yukon, I moved to the Ministry of Education in the Yukon, I did a few years in British Columbia as a school-based administrator, then district office in Calgary, in west-central Alberta, back to Calgary, and then here to Thompson. My graduate work I did in Alaska. I have been all over, I've already worked in education from kindergarten to grade 12 right to the ministry level."
That experience has prepared her well for her new position, in which she will be overseeing Thompson's six elementary schools and one high school with a combined enrolment of roughly 3,000 students.
"The superintendent does a lot," Hammond said of one of her positions (she is also the chief executive officer (CEO) and chief educational officer). "The superintendent is the leadership interface between the board, who are our governors, and the operational side of the organization. I have to know a little about an awful lot, and we build powerful learning organizations by working with and through people who are equally committed and passionate about a vision of education that has student success at its core."
Hammond said that her duties include "honouring the role of the board, ensuring the board's will is converted into reality, guiding and advising the board, and then guiding, advising, working for, working through the other staff of district office. Our most important leadership interface in the organization are our school-based administrators, so I work with them. Another role is to be visible in the schools, to be a beacon of hope, optimism, possibility. It is the superintendents' philosophy and behaviour of leadership which sets a culture and tone in an organization. It's about establishing that with our organization, letting people know who I am, what I stand for, what I believe in, and certainly advising the board, acting on behalf of the board, and ensuring that our operations are effective in support of student learning."
She notes that while she may be the leader of the school district, she's not the first person any kid in school - or anybody with a kid in school - will think of in that capacity. "The teachers are the ones in the trenches," she said, adding that her role is to support the teachers and staff just as much as students.
Although she's only been in Thompson for a little over a month, Hammond already feels welcomed into the community. "I'm from Newfoundland, so knowing that there's a large population of people from Newfoundland living in Thompson, I feel like I've come home," she said.
"A number of things drew me to Thompson," said Hammond. "I have worked in the North before, I spent almost five years in the Yukon, and certainly a return to the North was something I was seriously considering. The North is a special place, relative to people and attitude, and how they approach life. Living in the city, you're much removed from that - it's good, but it's different. I was looking forward to returning to the North, so consequently, when I learned of this opportunity, I gave that some serious consideration."
"It is what I expected, and more. I was in Thompson twice before I actually worked here, I was up here in February, I was back again in June, and moved here in July. It's everything I had hoped for. People are very friendly, very open, very down-to-earth. There's a lot of opportunity in Thompson relative to being the hub of the North, it calls itself the hub of the North, and certainly I've seen that it genuinely embraces that slogan."
"Everybody has been very welcoming. I have a great team in the office. We do what we do to hopefully make a positive difference for students, and people here are passionate about doing a great job for the students and the community of Thompson."
Now that Thompson's sights and sounds are beginning to seem familiar and a new school year is beginning, it's time for Hammond to get a firsthand experience of the School District of Mystery Lake in full swing. "Being an experienced education administrator, I do have a passion and a vision for education and that is that we are a school district that meets the needs of our students first and foremost, that we are a school district that values and acknowledges our staff, that we are a school district that focuses on success for all, that we are characterized by excellence in public education, in teaching and learning," she said.
"I believe in building internal capacity so leadership exists at all levels of an organization, not just those vested in the title out of position. I want to create a culture of empowerment, a culture of excellence, a culture of doing the right thing for the right reasons, public engagement in public education, and to leave a legacy of excellence in educational leadership, and through that leadership and service to others to leave a legacy of excellence in education."
Asked about challenges unique to education in Thompson, Hammond replied that "as with a lot of Northern communities, I think you get a degree of transiency. Attracting people to Northern communities to make it home is always a challenge. Those sorts of things exist in every Northern community I've lived and worked in. I believe that for us, unique to Thompson perhaps in Manitoba, but not so unique when you look at other districts that are the hub of a Northern province, we need to work with our aboriginal partners because we have a high population of First Nations students, and we certainly have people in place that built those partnerships in place with the community agencies."
"I think something unique about Thompson that I have seen in my short time here, and it's positive, are the number of community partnerships in support of education. In the last month I've met with Insp. Poulsen of the RCMP, and Mayor Tim Johnston, and I think that's excellent. We are here to serve the needs of our students and the needs of our community, because our students of today will be our leaders of tomorrow. When you invest in education, you invest in the vitality and prosperity of a community."
"Across the country, school districts face similar issues, such as declining enrolments," said Hammond. "We have a high First Nations, aboriginal population. We have a high population of students with needs. We have some issues in the community of gang-related activities and bullying. Those issues face different districts across the country at different times. There's no surprises there, per se. I think that the School District of Mystery Lake has done some incredible work relative to the formation of key partnerships, relative to grants, to address certain issues, focusing on education, focusing on student success, ensuring services are in place to meet the needs of all learners. We certainly need to look at our data and look at our student graduation rates - a host of those issues are faced by all school districts."
Education was not necessarily Hammond's calling from the beginning, as her undergraduate degree is in biochemistry. Nonetheless, she calls her career path "a decision of the heart," noting that she chose teaching (and Alaska) over pursuing medical school, and that looking back, she wouldn't have it any other way.
"We prepare students for a world that is changing, so I think we always need to be sensitive to that, responsive to that, and adept at realizing that," said Hammond. "In five years hence, I would like to be able to look back at those five years and say that we have focused on continuous quality improvement in teaching and learning, that we have increased our student graduation rates, that we have enhanced our student success rates, that we have addressed issues of equity so that those equity issues don't negatively impact education, so we've been able to lessen the achievement gap between our aboriginal and non-aboriginal students, we've been able to lessen the achievement gap between high socioeconomic groups and low socioeconomic groups, things of that nature, but the focus is always on creating the best for the students we serve."
"We're excited about a great year, and we're ready to rock and roll."
