New Westminster Secondary School will soon have a second principal.
School District 40 has earmarked $194,475 for the co-principal’s position as one of its new budget priorities for 2023-24, as outlined at the school board’s operations committee meeting May 2.
Maryam Naser, the school district’s associate superintendent, said the co-principalship is an “innovative” model of leadership that makes sense for NWSS as one of the largest secondary schools in the province.
“We have a very complex school, somewhat because of the one main secondary school. We have many programs running at New Westminster Secondary, including French immersion, IB (international baccalaureate), trades programs that you may see in other neighbouring districts sprinkled across many secondary schools,” she pointed out.
Superintendent Karim Hachlaf said the addition of the second principal’s position dovetails with the district’s focus on improving student safety at NWSS.
“The dual principalship model serves us well to our commitment around safety and supervision with the entire school community,” he said.
A posting has already gone up for the position, which Naser described as “ambitious.”
Trustee Marc Andres questioned how the role would be divided.
Hachlaf said that will depend on the candidate who’s hired but said there are a number of ways that the role could be split — including a junior/senior model or including particular programs (such as IB) in one person’s portfolio.
But he said the vision for the role is one where the duties and responsibilities would overlap.
“You’re running one of the largest secondary schools in the province and want that integration,” he said. “The vision behind the co-principalship model is to have that support. … It’s to have that kind of collaboration.”
