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With administration changes, School District 51 to shuffle staff

With retirements and departures, School District 51 will shuffle administrators and could open up some teaching positions.
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Shawn Lockhart will spend half of his time as the principal of Christina Lake Elementary School next school year. He will spend a quarter of his time as the principal of Big White and the rest of the time as Info Tech Education support.

School District 51’s superintendent of schools (Michael Strukoff) and current director of instruction (Maxine Ruzicka) are both retiring, spurring a reshuffle of administration.

Darryl Turner, who’s currently the principal of Greenwood and Midway Elementary schools and his wife Jennifer Turner, who is the principal of the Walker Development Centre, in charge of Big White Community School and a district vice-principal, will also be moving to School District 6.

In order to make up for the four administrators that are leaving, SD51 has made a redistribution of staff, said Strukoff.

“We haven’t replaced very many of the bodies and we are re-adjusting responsibilities,” he said. “Overall in the end, the district is going to have fewer administrators and teachers.”

Kevin Argue was announced as the new superintendent of schools and Doug Lacey the new director of learning late last year.

Bob Chapman will be the new principal of Dr. D.A. Perley Elementary School in Grand Forks.

Shawn Lockhart will spend half of his time as the principal of Christina Lake Elementary School – he will spend a quarter of his time as the principal of Big White and the rest of his time will be spend as Info Tech Education support.

Lacey will be the principal of the Fred Walker Development Centre. Marci Butler will be the full-time principal of Hutton Elementary School.

Scott Stewart will stay on as the full time principal of Grand Forks Secondary School but SD51 will be hiring a part-time vice-principal.

Brian Foy, currently principal of West Boundary Elementary and Beaverdell, will be in charge of an additional two elementary schools, taking over Greenwood and Midway as well. The district will hire a part-time vice-principal to help out Foy at Greenwood. A part-time vice-principal of student services will also be hired for the district.

Previously at most of the schools, the administrators were also teachers, said Norm Sabourin, president of the Boundary District Teachers’ Association. “What they have done is they have said all the administrators are going to be full-time administrators and then I assume that will make more room for teachers to be in the classroom.”

Strukoff did tell the Gazette that the shuffle of administrators will open up a few more teaching positions. He said he has some concerns about some of the administrators being spread thin over too many schools. “I hope extra work isn’t downloaded onto teachers because an administrator isn’t in the building.”

Since 2000, enrolment in SD51 has dropped by 37 per cent and the staff will drop by four per cent this year, said Strukoff.

The administration changes will be effective as of July 1.