FEATURE by Mary P Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
Friday, September 7 ~ WEST SHORE.
“It feels good to be back in SD62,” says new SD62 Superintendent Scott Stinson. He slid into the top administrative job August 1, but he’s been around the Sooke School District 62 (SD62) in years past.
“I’ve worked with people previously, and there are some people who are new,” said Stinson ahead of the first day back to the 2018-2019 academic year. “There have been a lot of changes in the past six years, but I know where all the schools are (which speeds up his reintegration),” he said. Several of his administrative team he’s already worked with before. In August he met with municipal and First Nations leadership. For back-to-school he was ready to roll.
With a plan to walkabout at several schools on the first day back, September 4, his goal was to meet with administrative teams and get a feel for things around the district. And his first-week to-list included attending the start-up meeting at Royal Bay Secondary and the bus drivers start-up meeting. There was also a leadership team start-up meeting with principals and vice-principals (PVPs), managers and directors. He’s already worked with about 85% of the PVPs.
Stinson’s leadership style is about building working relationships with people, with that as the foundation for action and success by building trust, respect and strength of relationship. And further: “Motivation is intrinsic,” says Stinson. “Set the circumstances for people to be motivated” and things happen from there.
Stinson is keen to work with SD62’s freshly minted 2018-2021 Strategic Plan, with its main goals of Learning (adaptable learners who are creative, critical and social thinkers who can be global citizens), Engagement (purposeful, experiential learning through collaboration and communication), and Growth (facilities expansion with attention to safe and respectful learning environments).
In this day and age of socio-cultural challenges not just on the island but in comparing Canadian and American influences, Stinson says schools should reflect diversity. “People should be who they are, as opposed to being assimilated into the dominant culture.”
::: As first published on page 3 in the September 7, 2018 print-PDF edition of West Shore Voice News.