A NEW LEADER AT VERDUN ELEMENTARY

As current VE Principal Joanne Brady-Merola is retiring after 5 years at the helm, the job was left to the LBPSB to find a new person with maybe different ideas, and maybe someone who knew the area and possibly someone living close to Verdun would be the icing on the cake.

Enter David Chisholm, who’s a current VP at Beaconsfield High, and is from the LaSalle area and still lives there. So it was an easy question to answer when offered the job and the chance to come back to the East End of the Board, and we recently sat down for a chat with the new VE Principal to talk about his new tenure.

David knows the area well. Before his 3-year tenure at Beaconsfield, he was a teacher for 12 years at LCCHS. “I grew up in LaSalle, went to that same high school, and grew up playing hockey in LaSalle with guys from Verdun, mentions Mr. Chisholm.

David Chisholm, is coming to a school, where in the current Major School Change documents available online at the Board site, has a projection of 208 students in the 2010-2011 school year down from 313 three years ago, and has no illusions, but will do his best for new programs. Mr. Chisholm continues, “It’s always the intention to keep the numbers up and do whatever you can, to my knowledge there are a lot of positive programs here already, so I will learn what I can about those, and do what I can to help improve them, and if I have any ideas for new programs and see what I can do to implement them to help stabilize or increase the student population.”

We also touched on the question of school fees which is a problem in the eastern sector, which sees an element of parents holding the fort for other parents who don’t pay. “Again, first thing, the fees are there for a reason, and they are important and if at all possible to collect them as quickly as possible, but certainly there have been initiatives in the past to either give incentives to pay them off sooner and if not possible, to help out when not possible, and I’ll assess the situation to see if I have any ideas as well, stated Mr. Chisholm.

We inquired about some of those ideas, as we mentioned to him that in some schools, that kids whose parents don’t pay up might get separated at lunch hour and one example which doesn’t affect the child directly, is parents paying for those precious school pictures sees the money getting applied to delinquent fees, Mr. Chisholm continues, “yes, that was something that was mentioned and that’s the type of thing that as I work here longer, I’ll look into that, and see what was done in the past, and see what works here and apply any ideas I might have with the staff’s blessing and with success.”

The question of discipline and bullying came up and Mr. Chisholm struck a delicate balance and wanting to find out what happened and why. “Bullying is one of the issues you get with discipline, and more often than not, one of the things that has worked for me is that I do spend time with students and speak to them and try and figure out why things are going the way they’re going, and try and help the student grow from the mistakes that they’ve made. My first reaction is you try and speak to the child, understand them, and at the same time, there’s definitely accountability , and consequences for negative behavior, but you can’t apply consequences without having a conversation with the student to make the student feel that they have been heard first,” states Mr. Chisholm.

In ending, Mr. Chisholm had a positive message for his new community, and at Beaconsfield, he was told that it’s great community to work in, which he already knew, and David Chisholm ends our converse by saying, “The staff is great and dedicated and compassionate, so I am really excited to be working with these people.” So don’t worry, be happy!