Trustee Tony Goulet, also the Chair of Quesnel’s Board of Education, says the New Year will bring with it a lot of new faces in the District.
“There is an election coming in October for municipal and school district, so we may see a change there. We have a new Superintendent that has started with us, so that will be 2022 and on, and a new Indigenous Education Principal has also been hired.”
Dan Lowndes will take over from Sue-Ellen Miller as Superintendent who had been in that position for more than 16 years, and JoAnne Moiese will replace Patty Kimpton, who is also retiring.
Goulet says how the District adjusts to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will be another focus in the New Year, much as it has been for this past year.
“Looking at being mandated vaccinated, and working through that process. A lot of health and safety meetings took place with the schools and the principals to make sure all of our kids were safe and that we stayed open, rather than closing schools, so quite the challenge. And it will be a challenge again in 2022 as new restrictions come and this new variant starts to take over.”
Goulet says dealing with land stability issues at Carson Elementary School will be another challenge in 2022.
Looking back at 2021, Goulet says there were definitely some successes.
“Of course our continuation with the QJS and the new high school, so that was exciting for us to have that work done during 2021. Success too with our aboriginal graduation rates rising, and continuing to be at that high level is also exciting for us.”
Goulet says they are looking forward to the completion of the new Junior Secondary School this coming year, adding that they now have requests in for two new elementary schools as well.