Principal hits ground running

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/01/2021 (1983 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Following months of delays, Maryland Park School opened its doors to students for the very first time on Monday.

Even though the leadup to this event was stressful, principal Barbara Miller told the Sun on Tuesday that all the planning her staff and the Brandon School Division have done throughout the last year has definitely paid off.

“Certainly there wasn’t a lot of sleep the night before … but when those kids walked through the doors, it was a feeling like no other,” she said. “The energy is positive, the kids are positive, they’re very excited. It was definitely worth the work for sure.”

Maryland Park was originally scheduled to open in September 2020, with student overpopulation in local schools prompting the need for an additional K-8 facility in Brandon.

However, construction on the 65,700-square-foot building was halted in March 2020 after its original general contractor, Fresh Projects Builders, went bankrupt.

Aviva Insurance, the bondholder for the build, eventually hired Penn-Co Construction to take over the project and work got back on track in May.

Despite having to endure an awkward limbo period, Miller said staff and students remained active the entire time.

Not only were they able to complete their fall studies at separate schools, but Miller revealed she has been working with the broader community in the background to make the winter transition as smooth as possible.

“Even though the school wasn’t built yet, our parent group has been meeting for a year,” she said. “We started meeting last January, and they have maintained their momentum and their enthusiasm and their positive attitude, and it really has been a community effort.”

Miller said the next big step moving forward, outside of ensuring the safety of all students, is to try to build a tangible sense of community at Maryland Park.

While this is no simple task, the principal said some of the pieces are already in place, with students having already helped design the school’s official mascot and colours alongside their peers at Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School.

Still, Miller admits that this kind of community building will be a lot easier said than done at the beginning of 2021.

Not only are students rigidly divided into cohorts because of the ongoing the COVID-19 pandemic, but their Grade 7-8 pupils will be learning from home until Jan. 15 to help reduce possible transmission of the virus.

Thankfully, Miller said her staff have already gone through this process in March 2020, when the initial emergence of COVID-19 prompted schools to close across the province.

As such, she said her staff are now much better equipped to teach from afar and keep students engaged through digital means.

“Today, I saw a teacher taking her laptop through the hallway to do a virtual tour with them,” she said on Tuesday. “It’s always disappointing when you don’t have all of your students in at one time. But we’ll get to have that same excitement again January 15 when we welcome all of our students back.”

On a personal level, Miller said she is more than happy to spearhead such a complicated initiative.

Despite being a Brandon School Division educator since 1994, and taking on the role of principal at multiple institutions, Miller has never had the chance to develop something like this at the ground level, which is why she applied for this position a year and a half ago.

“I’ve had the opportunity, when I was at Alexander (School), to work with our community and our teachers to implement an arts-infused program, and that was super exciting,” she said. “So I just saw this as another opportunity to try something a little different.”

And while the path ahead won’t be easy, Miller is emboldened by the actions of her experienced teaching staff, who are definitely up to the task of shaping minds under such unique circumstances.

“We all know how to educate kids, we all know how learning takes place, so all of that I’m not nervous about at all,” she said.

As of this week, the Brandon School Division now has 24 active schools under its jurisdiction, 19 of which service K-8 students.

Maryland Park School’s student population is currently hovering around 440 children.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson