The incoming director of education for the Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board is looking forward to implementing the new multi-year strategic plan.
It was announced earlier this week that Carey Smith-Dewey will be the board’s first female director, replacing David DeSantis who will retire on January 30.
Smith-Dewey is a graduate of Nicholson Catholic College, who has worked within the Catholic school board as a teacher, principal and vice-principal and for the last several years as a superintendent.
The new multi-year strategic plan was approved earlier this fall and will guide the board over the next five years using four key priorities: faith, equity and well-being, formation and achievement, and stewardship of resources.
Smith-Dewey was involved in the planning committee.
“We had students and trustees, parents, staff and community all involved in helping us develop our next five years and really look at what our priorities should be. So, I think the most important thing that I can do is support the system in moving that plan forward and listening to the voices of the system and responding to those important priorities that we’ve outlined in that multi-year strategic plan.”
Technology plays an important role in the strategic plan.
Smith-Dewey says students are often way ahead in their understanding of rapidly changing technology.
“I think it’s a combined effort by the board, staff and students to really move together in a direction that is safe, and it’s measured and it really reflects how this, kind of, change in technology is a tool that we all use in a way, like we have as every change that we’ve faced as a system.”
Having been a part of the ALCDSB since her youth, Smith-Dewey says she truly understands the home-school-parish relationship and that it will have a major impact on how she will lead.
“Knowing what it was like to be a student in Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board, it formed me into the person that I am today. And then all of the opportunities that I’ve had to lead in the system, both as an educator in elementary and secondary and then for six years as a superintendent, has formed me into the leader that I am today.”
Smith-Dewey will commence her role as director of education on February 2.
