Three Calgary principals among top 40 in Canada
Posted Jan 26, 2016 7:13 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Three Calgary educators have been named among the top 40 principals in Canada, according to the Learning Partnership.
Kevin DeForge of St. Dominic Fine Arts School, Deena Helton from Bishop McNally High School and Christine Meaden, formally of Robert Thirsk High School have been recognized after being nominated by their peers.
They will head to Toronto next month to receive their awards, while also attending an executive leadership training program at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.
“It’s a huge honour to be selected, when you have 40 people in all of the country that you’re in a group with, it’s amazing,” said DeForge. “It was not only a surprise, but a bit of a shock and it’s wonderful to have that opportunity.
For Meaden, the honour comes after she recently took on a new position with the Calgary Board of Education after overseeing the grand opening at Robert Thirsk in 2013.
“There are many, many fine educational leaders out there and I will tell you that none of the work that we do, we do alone,” she said. “The opportunity and challenge to open this school was absolutely thrilling for me, but it wasn’t done alone.”
Like DeForge and Meaden, Helton also shares the honour with her staff and admits she too was surprised.
“Truly honoured to be recognized not only by my district, but as well by the Learning Partnership,” she said. “It’s a tremendous opportunity and I’m quite humbled.”
Helton has been principal for four years at Bishop McNally and cites the school’s increase of students graduating in three years by 10 per cent as one of her proudest achievements.
“Our staff works extremely hard in making sure our students are successful, working with the students from where they’re at and as a principal, that certainly is very gratifying to see your staff work so hard to make our students successful,” she said.
Meaden said one of her top accomplishments was taking educational risks in research.
“We were an innovative place that was able to try things out and to be able to adapt to our learners, I’m very, very proud of that,” she said.
DeForge was commended for his work not only at his current school where he’s been since August, but also at his former one in Cochrane, where he was principal for three years.
He added, like Meaden, innovation has been a critical part of his educational policy.
“How do we do something different and how do we collaboratively work as a team with leaders to make that happen?” he said.
