A NEW LEADER AT RIVERVIEW

Enter Deborah Gross, who before her last two postings worked at the Ministry of Education for 12 years in the English section and was part of the pilot project for the CLC program so it is reasonable to assume that she will know who to call if need be.

Deborah Gross, who’s an avid gardener, runner and environmentalist, is looking forward to her new job and despite her youthful look, comes to Riverview with 30 years of experience in the educational field. Before her stint at the MEQ, she was a high school teacher at the old South Shore Board for 12 years and the last 6 years has split her time between Wilder Penfield and Charles Kirkland.

Following a long line of popular principals, in an exclusive interview with the Messenger, Miss Gross said she is well aware of her new job. “It’s always a challenge following someone who made positive changes and I know Miss Rabbat has had a huge impact on the school both in terms of getting resources from the school board and it getting involved in the CLC. A new Principal in her first year usually doesn’t make too many changes, you have to sit back and get comfortable and let people get comfortable with you.”

We touched on the issue of school fees, always a sore point with some parents with some not ever paying thus putting the squeeze on schools to cut back on some programs thus affecting all students. Miss Gross continues, “The amount of money that schools receive per capita from the Ministry is not enough, so fees are important, and I believe that schools are the great equalizer, and there has to be equal opportunity in all our schools across the province, and school fees enter into that, and in terms of a right to a quality education, sometimes you need to contribute to that quality, and helping people to set up plans to pay for those fees are important.”

It would seem that Miss Gross is not a big fan of dress codes for elementary schools. Even though the goal of a dress code is for all the kids to look the same, she believes it takes away the responsibility of home to school, as for a child to dress appropriately to school, she feels those decisions should be made at home and with a code, the staff spends a lot of time enforcing the code instead of spending time on more important issues.

Deborah Gross also spoke about cyber-bullying which has reached the upper grades of many elementary schools and she says it’s another area for school and home to work together. “If we were to take kids on a field trip and dropping them off at St. Catherine and Peel and saying we’ll be back in 2 hours, it’s really similar to allowing your child in their bedroom by themselves alone on the computer for 2 hours in an unsupervised way, so we have to help parents to be more aware of what they’re looking for,” says the new principal.

It would seem with some different ideas, her “with it” thinking, and her experience at the Education Ministry, Riverview has another winner. We welcome Deborah Gross to Riverview and to the Verdun community.