Joanne McQuarrie, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter | [email protected]
Longtime Jasperite Eric Bouchard has accepted the principalship at Jasper Elementary School and will start the beginning of the 2021/2022 school year.
He is the current assistant principal at Jasper Junior/Senior High School.
“I’m moving across the playground,” Bouchard said. “I’ve been in administration for over nine years and I’ve taught a lot. It was time to keep sharing my knowledge and passion.”
In a news release, Bouchard said his experience in K-12 schools has provided him a “solid foundation” quality leadership, teaching excellence, and lifelong learning. He is both “honoured and humbled” to take on this new role.
“I started teaching in 1999 - 22 years ago. I’m committed now,” Bouchard joked.
His first posting was in Sherwood Park where he taught Grade 3 in French immersion at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic School. He taught there for one year and then got married.
His wife, Claire, got a job in Bonnyville and that’s where they lived until 2009. The school Bouchard taught at had just 35 students enrolled, from Kindergarten to Grade 7, when he started teaching there in 2000.
“When I left it was just under 200 students,” he said.
Bouchard said he “taught pretty much every subject.” After Bonnyville, Bouchard taught school across the pond in Doha, Qatar.
He and his family moved to Jasper in 2015 and has been the assistant principal at Jasper Junior/Senior High School for the last six years. He brings with him many experiences that were formative in his growth as both a quality leader and a dedicated teacher.
Bouchard teaches math and science, and has taken over Career and Technology Studies, as well as academic counselling, off-campus education and French immersion.
Bouchard is an active community member. Along with Claire and their two children, Joelle and Jacob and their dog, Ruger, Bouchard pursues his deep passion for the outdoors, traveling and hockey.
“I’ve been coaching hockey since I got here,” he said. “Claire volunteers with the food bank.”
Jasper Elementary School offers programming from Kindergarten to Grade 6 in English and French immersion with a current enrolment of 220 students, and a junior Kindergarten early learning program for children ages three-and-four years old.
