Lyle Chapman recently started work as the new vice principal at Osoyoos Secondary School. He comes from an 18-year teaching background in Salmon Arm, where he has done career and guidance counselling, taught athletics and fitness as well as some teaching of social studies, English, math and science. He replaces Shannon Miller, who has become the principal at Cawston Primary School. (Richard McGuire photo)
When Osoyoos Secondary School (OSS) opened for the new school year on Tuesday, students were introduced to a new vice principal and several new teachers.
Lyle Chapman moved to Osoyoos from Salmon Arm barely a week before school started, stepping into the vice principal post vacated by Shannon Miller.
Miller assumes her new job as principal at Cawston Primary School.
Several new teachers also join the staff at OSS this year.
Sara Illingworth, who comes from Princeton Secondary School, will become the new counsellor at OSS. She’ll also teach some English and psychology.
“I’m really happy to have her,” said Principal Mike Safek. “She’s got a really strong skill set in counselling and in teaching and I think she’s going to be a strong addition to the school.”
Safek is also happy to welcome Cameron Adam, who previously taught at Similkameen Elementary Secondary School in Keremeos and will teach math, science and math support.
Last week he also hired Jennifer MacNeil, who is part-time and will be teaching French and drama.
“We’re really pleased with people that we’ve been able to bring on board to our school,” said Safek. “I think they’ll be really good for our students and for our school and I’m looking forward to getting going.”
Safek is also happy to be at school full time for the start of classes. Last year his involvement at the start of the school season was limited as he recovered from a heart attack he experienced earlier that summer.
Chapman, 43, said he’s looking forward to the new challenge and to living in Osoyoos.
Although he has done some administrative work on a relief basis, this is his first job in school administration.
Chapman grew up in what was then known as the Queen Charlotte Islands and is now Haida Gwaii. He moved to Vancouver Island to complete his high schooling and attend university.
When he graduated from University of Victoria, he went straight to Salmon Arm, where he has worked 18 years – starting at Shuswap Junior Secondary, which was later split into separate middle and high schools. He then worked at the high school.
His specialities are teaching athletics and fitness and doing career and guidance counselling, but he has also taught social studies, English and some math and science.
Chapman has never lived or worked in the Okanagan before, but he has vacationed here.
“I was looking for a bit of a change in my career and looking for communities that I would be excited to go to,” he said. “The Osoyoos job came up, so I threw my application in and everything worked out.”
The move will split his family at least in the immediate future. His wife and youngest daughter are remaining in Salmon Arm, where his wife owns and runs a large daycare centre. The older of his two daughters has left home to study dance in Vancouver.
Chapman describes his teaching philosophy as “all student first.”
“I look to see what is best for that individual student and their individual challenges or strengths,” he said. “I don’t believe any student fits into a mould. I believe they are all individuals and we can’t look at our education system as something that they have to fit into. We have to look at our education system as something that has to mould to what the students need.”
Among the other changes at OSS, the YouLearn distance education arm of School District 53 has relocated to OSS, where it will operate as a separate entity under former OSS Principal Glen Heinrichs.
While YouLearn will continue to offer the same education services that it previously offered from its downtown Osoyoos location, Safek said there will be crossover opportunities with YouLearn now being based at OSS.
“We’ve had students taking YouLearn courses for as long as YouLearn has been in existence,” said Safek. “But this way they don’t have to go downtown. They can just walk across to the other building and access the teacher there. We also will have a stronger connection in terms of monitoring student progress and working with them, so I think it will be a positive.”
YouLearn is located in the Tech Ed building across from the metal workshop.
Safek said OSS is also evaluating the idea of an “open timetable,” a system used at some other high schools in the province, which provides more flexibility for the individual learner.
The system is used at A.L. Fortune Secondary School in Enderby, which OSS has looked at.
Under this system, students have to make choices each day about what they will study. They must attend a certain number of mandatory classes, but they also have a block of time where they can choose the classes that will best supplement their learning.
“If I’m struggling in math, I can go back and have a second math,” said Safek as an example. “It gives the kids a little more choice.”
This year the school is doing consultations on the idea involving staff, students and parents, with some teams visiting schools where it is used.
By spring break, OSS should have enough information to decide whether to go forward with it in the 2016-17 school year, Safek said.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
