As the new administrative leader of St. Timothy Catholic School for the next school year, arriving principal David Gowans would like to properly introduce himself to the Cochrane community and discuss the plans for St. Tim’s in the coming future.
Gowans is a proud father, devoted husband, and an avid lover of the outdoors. With his arrival at St. Tim’s quickly approaching, he would like to extend a greeting to the community.
“I’m blessed to share this community with you, with the great views, to walk this land alongside you, and you’ve probably already seen me before because I’ve been fly-fishing on the Bow River in this area many times in the 20-plus years I’ve been out here in the Cochrane area,” Gowans said.
Prior to his arrival at St. Tim’s, Gowans spent 25 years working with the Calgary Catholic School District (CCSD) in several roles including a background as a high school science teacher and coordinating teacher for the science department. He also had the opportunity to mentor other educators, and spent four years as the overall science consultant for CSSD.
“I travelled to every high school and junior high school in the district and I would mentor teachers to both improve their pedagogy and assessment, and really make science come alive in the classroom,” Gowans said. “That was a fantastic role.”
Moving into more of an administrative role, he later spent four years as vice-principal at some of the most challenging high schools with different needs in CCSD, and more recently spent four years as principal of St. Jean Brebeuf School.
“I really put the emphasis on my staff as a team,” Gowans said. “And as a team, when we know we are supported and nurtured, then that energy transfers to our students and parent community, and if you walk through the halls of St. Jean Brebeuf right now, you have no doubt that this is a place of kindness, respect, and spirituality.
“And that’s what I plan to bring to St. Tim’s: a continuance of what they have, and to really emphasize that this will be a place of high expectations, great respect, and we are going to allow our students to flourish and become future leaders in a very safe environment we create together.”
Gowans is well aware that St. Tim’s is currently the smallest high school in Cochrane, even with classes in grades 7 and 8. He wants to change the negative lens of attending a smaller high school compared to the other, larger institutions in town.
“And this is no knock to Bow Valley or Cochrane High – they are doing phenomenal things. But at a smaller high school we are going to emphasize that we get to know your child, [and] every staff member will know which students are walking down the hall,” he said.
By having that stronger connection in a smaller, tighter-knit school, Gowans believes it will help build better relationships between students and staff.
In addition, he is also looking at the Cochrane community for students who are interested in actively participating in St. Tim's fine arts and sports teams.
“Our individual sports right now are second to none,” Gowans said. “We are number-one in wrestling, we are winning gold in track and field, we are winning medals in cross-country, but want to attract student-athletes that want the opportunity to flourish.”
“Again, no knock to Cochrane High – they’re an incredible school, but you have a much better chance of making our school team and becoming a leader, captain, or having a leadership role, than you can possibly have at a bigger high school.”
Overall, Gowans said he is simply excited to embark on the challenge of taking on the principalship of St. Tim’s.
“I’m taking a school that has so many good things going on right now, but our need is to have a student base that is going to grow in the future so that we can, what I like to call, offer an authentic high school experience,” Gowans said. “We are a Calgary Catholic high school and we want to put faith at the forefront.
“We call it ‘Living and Learning in our Catholic Faith,’ and that is a lens we are going to have at St. Tim’s.”
Gowans said he would also like to congratulate current principal, Marilyn Nasse, for her new position as a principal for a school in Calgary. Gowans would also like to thank the community for their parent feedback.
“If there are people in the community who want to share their secret fishing spots, I’m all for it,” he said.
