The Voice of Leadership

I will take this opportunity to publicly thank our principals and vice-principals who have posted blogs on my site each week over the last eighteen months. The exercise was quite interesting and enjoyable (at least it was for me). If you have been following along (and I hope you were), you will know that I asked the leaders from each school and department in the district to post a blog on the site.

Some of the posts outlined new and innovative things they were doing in their schools and departments, some challenged the status quo with their ideas, others celebrated the tried and true things they have been doing for years, and some simply shared powerful stories about student successes. Most importantly, each post was a celebration of the people who make it all happen: the teachers, support staff and, of course, the leaders, who pave the way for the amazing things to happen for children in our district.

One of my objectives for this activity was to shed a brighter light on the work going on in our amazing district. I hope you all got a glimpse of the unique and wondrous activity in our schools. A secondary objective was to give voice to the importance of leadership in our organization. We have a very strong and diverse cadre of leaders in our district, as diverse as you will see in any classroom. They have unique gifts and talents. They also have much in common. One important commonality is a commitment to children and doing the very best for them. The blogs were an opportunity to give voice to that commitment.

As this year draws to a close, and we cast our eyes on the year ahead (not too intently as yet, because summer is upon us!), I hope you will all see more and more celebration of the great things going on in our schools. I have the great privilege of visiting every school every year, so I have first hand knowledge of just how special our schools are, and how important leadership is to our vision of being a world class district.

I would like to wish all our staff, parents and students a summer full of enjoyment, friends and family (and learning). Next year promises to be a great one.

~ Kevin Godden