INNISFAIL - Promoting and supporting an inclusive and welcoming culture in the overall school community has been a highlight of his time at Chinook’s Edge School Division (CESD), says outgoing superintendent Kurt Sacher.
The top administrator in the 11,000-student, 40-school division, Sacher will be retiring from the position at the end of the current school year after 15 years on the job.
“When I arrived there were a lot of great things happening in the school division and it was a people-centred school division,” Sacher told the Albertan. “I hope that through my influence we’ve really enhanced the culture of the school jurisdiction so that people feel like they matter, whether they are a student, a parent, a teacher, a support staff member, or an administrator.
“We have a number of what we call the ‘matters committees’ that really gave voice to different groups of people and allowed that voice to influence the direction for many years. And then through that voice we’ve responded to issues that arise along the way in a timely, appropriate way and I feel really good about that work.
“For the most part I feel that people have a high level of trust in the organization and the culture is generally perceived as being very positive. It’s a place where new people want to work and veteran teachers want to stay here. We don’t have a lot of teacher turnover and we are proud of that.”
The tireless work of the division's teachers has been fundamental to the success of thousands of students during his time as superintendent, he said.
Sacher started at CESD on June 1, 2010. Before coming to CESD, he was an assistant superintendent at Wolf Creek Public Schools, as well as a teacher and administrator in Lacombe, Trochu and elsewhere.
The new CESD superintendent should be named sometime in mid-February, with the recruitment process underway for the past several months. The Innisfail-headquartered division includes schools across the region.
Working closely with administrators across the division has been key to his success as superintendent over the past 15 years, he said.
“We have an amazing group of school-based administrators that I’m really proud of,” he said. “I’m surrounded by amazing people in division office, from our admin support folks to associate superintendents and the different departments.
“We just have great people and I feel really good about how we have worked together, building the culture and having high-quality people right across the system.”
There are a number of projects Sacher says he plans to work on in the few months he has left on the job.
“We’ve working hard with schools to help them with navigating and supporting teachers and students in the area of inclusion and complex needs,” he said.
“We’ve got a number of initiatives going on there that are working really well for us and that we are really proud of. I want to move some of those efforts a little further.
“We are revisiting a focus on instructional leadership, so prior to my departure I’m hoping to put forward a little more encouragement around our administrators supporting classrooms and teachers and just helping them to be in a really good position to be really great instructional leaders.”
The way the entire school community came together in response to the pandemic is a particular source of pride and one of the highlight of his time at CESD, he said.
“COVID was a a very significant challenge for us as school division because in a very short period of time we had to ask our teachers in particular to essentially turn on a dime and deliver instruction through an electronic device rather than face-to-face, which we’d all be trained on,” he said.
“We were a little like a fish out of water and I’m really proud how our administrators dug in and helped move that forward. It was a good solid couple of years; every week it seemed like there was a different twist to what was in front of us and how to move forward.
“We made the best of it and we learning a lot through that and I’m proud of the people in the school division and how they responded to a major challenge.”
As he winds down his time at CESD, Sacher says he is confident future students are in good hands.
“Every time there is a change in leadership and a transition it is an opportunity for the next person to build on what was done within the division prior,” he said.
“A good leader is assessed by the number of great leaders that they leave behind and I feel like I’m leaving behind just a ton of great leaders. I feel really good knowing where the division is at and where it is heading.
“I also certainly acknowledge our teachers and those staff who work in our schools on the frontlines. They have a heart of gold to support kids and families. And the trustees over the past 15 years have provided tremendous support and I’m very appreciative of that for sure.”
