GYRD leadership symposium aims for ‘good to great’

Leaders from the Grande Yellowhead Regional Division School Board (GYRD) met in Jasper for two and a half days at the end of last month for the board’s biennial leadership symposium, called Push to the Summit.

Principals, assistant principals, lead teachers, trustees and the superintendent’s team discussed a range of concepts based on Larry Lezotte and Wayne Hulley’s Seven Correlates of Effective Schools, and how this research could be applied to GYRD classrooms, schools and division activities.  

Push to the Summit has been an ongoing theme meant to reflect the school board’s work to move from good to great, which has been an aim since Dean Lindquinst became superintendent about six years ago, said communications manager Nicole Merrifield.

Jasper Elementary principal Raymond Blanchette-Dubé was on the organizing committee for the symposium, which was held at the Lobstick Lodge from Nov. 26 to 28. 

Blanchette-Dubé said he found that a number of the leaders at the event were on the same page. “A lot of us are thinking along the same lines as where we need to grow and develop, we just need to continue,” he said. 

The group started off using information derived from surveys of GYRD staff, based on the seven correlates, he said.

“We took the results from that as one of our starter discussion points, got into small groups, watched a video, had readings and homework to do before,” Blanchette-Dubé said. “We took a look at what we need to do as an organization, about what we need to do to get from good to great.”

The board has three main areas of focus, Merrifield said. The first is to improve student learning, and GYRD has certainly seen an increase in student achievement over the past six years, she said. 

Another aim is building leadership capacity. “A number of people are working towards higher levels of certification to be better at their jobs,” Merrifield said, adding that the school board has implemented some “exciting” leadership programs for staff.

The third area of focus is to improve internal and external communication, which was identified by the division as an area of concern. “The idea is ensuring community members are aware of what’s going on in the school, and on an internal level, working to improve communication between staff.”

Merrifield called the symposium fun, and said in addition to the main focus, it also served as a team building exercise.