Rocky View Schools’ (RVS) area directors are having a positive impact on helping newer school administrators to find their way, according to RVS Associate Superintendent of Schools Murray Besenski.
“The role of the area directors has been critical as the years of experience of our administrators has been relatively young. We have a new core of administrators from an experiential perspective,” he said while speaking at the Board of Trustees meeting April 21.
“It’s been incredibly important to have a first contact person who can help these individuals as they’re learning and growing in their understanding of the role, to help with decision-making items or provide some support and direction to those new administrators.”
According to Besenski, the area directors also act as liaison between the schools and RVS Education Centre staff.
RVS has three area directors: Ira Stroch who looks after the schools in Airdrie, Dr. John Burger who is responsible for the schools in the north and east areas of the division and Manny Ferreirinha who monitors the schools in the west section of the division.
Burger said he’s been involved in many different discussions with school administrators, including tackling staffing and community issues, education plans and results reports and discussing professional development.
Trustee Helen Clease said she felt the area structure was working “very well” for RVS.
“When I go to my school council meetings, I hear from school administrators. From what I’ve seen, the administrators are on board and even parents are starting to understand the structure of what we’re doing,” she said.
“The area directors really are the first point of contact with our area schools,” Superintendent of Schools Don Hoium said. “As I’ve been making my area visits, every single school administrative team has commented on the support and the services that come from the area directors.”
Grant program
Trustees were provided with an update on the efforts of RVS’ Community Partner Program Co-ordinator Nikki McAlister at the April 21 board meeting.
McAlister has been responsible for helping schools and the jurisdiction find sources of grant funding for a variety of projects since the position was established four years ago. According to Associate Superintendent of Learning Dave Morris, McAlister’s efforts have helped to raise in excess of $808,000 in grant funding.
“In 2015, this school division did purchase Metasoft, a data warehouse of more than 120,000 foundations, representing billions of dollars of grants,” Hoium said. “Nikki has become an expert in searching that database and has this year directly tied it to accessing a $320,000 grant for a student attendance research project.”
The Board of Trustees presented McAlister with a certificate in recognition of her work to help schools and the jurisdiction access grant funding.
