COCHRANE— Rocky View Schools has announced several new leadership appointments at schools across the division, including at Glenbow Elementary School in Cochrane.
Jason Billings has been appointed to the position of principal at Glenbow School, beginning in the 2021-22 school year.
Billings got his start teaching in 1999 with the Calgary Board of Education. In 2003 he taught at the Seoul International School in Korea before moving to Ontario to continue his teaching career in 2005. Billings accepted his first vice-principal position in 2009 in Ontario.
He moved back to Cochrane in 2016 when he accepted the position of assistant principal in Chestermere.
He has been the principal of R.J. Hawkey Elementary School since 2018.
Billings said he was attracted to the profession because of the opportunities to learn and grow professionally.
“I think I’ve always kind of been in leadership types of roles. I love learning most of all, and I think as a teacher I always took advantage of any professional learning or committee work or things like that,” he said. “I think the principals that I worked with kind of recognized that in me and I guess I had some great role models that mentored me and gave me some opportunities. That's kind of what I think has drawn me into that, I really love that part of the job.”
Although he said he loved being a teacher, joining the administrative stream in school has allowed him to expand and grow further as a leader in the academic world.
“I really enjoyed teaching and it [joining administration] gave me an opportunity to step out of the classroom and really look at leading adults,” he said. “It was definitely a big change for me for sure, but I’ve absolutely loved it. It’s definitely a different role when you’re in a school being the administrator, because although you’re not in the classroom with kids, you’re still totally involved with so many aspects of school life.”
Billings said one of the most rewarding parts of being a school administrator is the opportunity to work more directly with families, and helping them create plans to overcome the challenges their youth might face at school.
“The heavy involvement with families, that’s a really rewarding part of the job. I love the problem-solving aspect of working with families and helping them through some of the challenges that they might face at school,” he said.
In his first year as principal at Glenbow Elementary School, Billings said, he plans to follow the direction of some of the leaders in the building to continue the course they have charted, while focusing on building positive relationships with staff, faculty and the students.
“A central part of the job is about building really positive relationships with people. To me that is a huge focus. Moving into a new school, that’s really my primary responsibility for my first year— Getting in there, getting to know people, really establishing good working relationships with everyone, students, staff and parents. That’s going to be my focus for next year, just getting in there and really understanding the school and the community,” he said.
He said he will focus on Rocky View Schools’ priorities as well, which fall under three primary areas— Literacy, numeracy and mental wellness.
“I have a passion for all of those areas so that’s certainly one thing that we’re going to continue to work on,” he said.
Glenbow School has a new assistant principal in Cindy Stefenato as well.
Stefanato is currently an assistant principal with the Calgary Catholic School Board, where she has been an assistant principal and teacher since 2008.
Before that, Stefanato worked as a teacher and educational consultant.
“I’m actually absurdly excited about it. Probably one of the only times that I’ve looked forward to the end of summer,” she joked.
Stefanato was first attracted to the profession because of the teachers she had when she was growing up.
“I was really fortunate to have been taught by incredible teachers while I was growing up. I had educators who showed me how much of an impact they could have on a student by creating exciting and engaging experiences and opportunities,” she said. “I love to see that happening for students. It really motivated me to want to be the person who could provide those opportunities, and make kids excited about learning and have learning.”
She added that she wanted to recreate those feelings she had when she was young, and now as an educator, she understands how rewarding it is as an educator to be in that role.
Stefanato said she was motivated to become a school administrator because she wanted to be in a leadership role and a mentor to other teachers.
“I had been a consultant, which meant that I was mentoring teachers throughout the whole district that I was working in. I started to think that it would be really cool to work in one building where I could have those skills and do what I could to mentor teachers and help them grow in their roles, so I could, year after year, sort of see the growth that hopefully would happen because of that,” she said.
She added she also missed working in a school environment with kids while she was a learning leader, which was another motivating factor to get back into a more direct school-based role.
Stefanato said she wants to spend her first year, “Learning about the community that I’m serving. Learning about the students and their families and the community members. Learning what I can do to serve them. Learning what needs they have and how I might be able to help fill them.”
The new administrative staff begin their new roles this year in the 2021-22 school year at Glenbow Elementary School.
