There will be a familiar face missing from the throngs of staff and students returning to New Westminster schools this September.
After 36 years in the New Westminster school district, associate superintendent Janet Grant is retiring.
“I’ve been here for a long time and I’ve made many wonderful relationships, so it is going to be a bit strange to not be here,” she told the Record recently.
Grant was first hired as a substitute at New Westminster Secondary School in 1981. She was fresh out of school and looking for a permanent teaching position.
“I must have looked pretty young because the older teachers would say, ‘Why aren’t you in class?’” she laughed.
Like most teachers, Grant started on the sub board. Because the city only has one high school, she got called over and over again to fill in and that’s how she got to know everyone, she said.
She was invited to staff parties and included in most things a full-time teacher would be included in, but still there weren’t any full-time positions available.
“And so I had my son,” she said.
In September 1986, she got a call from the NWSS principal of the day. He offered her a temporary English and social studies position for the first semester.
“I thought, OK, if child care doesn’t work out, I have an out. Well, I’ve been working full time ever since,” she said.
Since then, Grant has worked in both the English and fine arts departments at the high school. She also worked several years as a counsellor, but an early morning phone call from then-district superintendent Tom Rothney would catapult her in another direction.
“He said, ‘Janet! We need you to go to Connaught Heights as acting principal,’” she said.
The current principal was on medical leave and they needed someone to fill in. So Grant accepted the offer and ended up spending the entire year at the elementary school.
“That was a wonderful opportunity,” she said.
In 2000, the district was getting ready to open its newest school – École Glenbrook Middle School (unofficially called Terry Hughes Park School at the time). Grant had been tapped to be the vice-principal for the new school, but at the last minute, the chosen principal was named associate superintendent, leaving a vacancy at the new school.
“I went back to Tom Rothney and I said, ‘You know what? I’m the one,’ and so, luckily, the board made me principal, and so I opened Glenbrook as principal,” she said.
“I found out later it was rather cheeky, but I felt it needed to be done because we were really on a roll towards the opening.”
Grant’s ambition and self-described “Type A” attitude have served her well throughout her career. One of the accomplishments she’s most proud of is the creation of New Westminster Secondary School’s apprenticeship program. As director of instruction, Grant developed the program, bringing in partners from BCIT, VCC and industry as training partners for the students.
“I’m so proud because I know those programs make a difference to kids,” she said.
Rounding out her “wonderful career” was her role as associate superintendent, a position she’s held for the past two years. It’s allowed her a chance to get more involved in the community through partnerships and relationships meant to benefit all kids in New Westminster. Accomplishments include her work at the Early Years Centre at École Qayqayt Elementary School and programs at community schools.
“The part of my job I love the most is just being there to support the principals so they can support their staff so the staff can be there for the kids,” she said.
Moving forward, Grant hopes to kick off retirement as she has every other experience, with enthusiasm and excitement. First up, some holiday time – hopefully in Palm Springs – and from there, the sky’s the limit in her so-called “refirement,” she laughed. (Grant describes refirement as getting fired up again.)
Looking back though, she can’t help but be happy with everything she did over the years.
“I’ve been afforded a really wonderful career in New Westminster. It seemed every time I needed to have something different or that next step, it just came. So it’s been wonderful because I’ve had so many varied positions through my career,” she said. “It’s just been great.”
