Murray Wood: Of Easter bunny bells and Juicy Fruit gum
For Murray Wood, Easter brings to mind grandma's practical advice about repurposing, and some of life's little lessons.
The Regina Catholic School Division is introducing a new director of education to replace Rob Currie who is moving over to a position with the government.
Dominic Scuglia started teaching elementary school 34 years ago in Ontario, from there he moved on to his dream job as a high school physical education teacher and coach before becoming a principal. He moved to Saskatchewan to take on the job of director with the Regina Catholic School Division.
“The topics are eerily the same, the acronyms that are used are different, but the topics and the issues are all the same and certainly what students have to do to achieve success is all the same,” he said, when asked about any differences he notices in Saskatchewan education compared to Ontario.
Some of the major issues he named are workload issues, trying to balance addressing student needs with teacher and support staff workload. Student achievement is also top of his priority list.
Shortly after his arrival, the provincial government announced school boards will be part of the discussion around transformational change in the budget. Scuglia noted that he has certainly heard a lot about that topic in conversations with people in the school division.
One of the ideas being floated around on how to save money is to amalgamate school boards. Scuglia remembers going through the amalgamation process 17 years ago in Ontario. He noted that the government has a fiscal responsibility to look at how they manage taxpayers’ money.
“Maybe amalgamation of boards is one of those things that needs to be considered in that cost-saving agenda,” Scuglia commented. “It is a challenge, there’s no doubt about it. In doing so it’s definitely going to mean that there’s going to be fewer jobs for people in terms of senior administration, but at the end of the day, we’ll see how it unfolds.”
During his official introduction Scuglia highlighted the warm welcome he and his wife have received in their move to Regina. He also explained with a laugh and a wink that he is not an Argonauts fan, and looks forward to cheering on the Roughriders in their first pre-season game this weekend.
