The current vice-principal of Bowden Grandview School, Margo Nygard, will take over as the principal of …cole Olds Elementary School, effective this fall.
Nygard has been working within the Chinook's Edge School Division for the past 20 years. She moved to Olds when she was a teenager and graduated from the old junior-senior high school, before finishing an education degree in Calgary, and a master's degree from Royal Roads University.
She was a teacher at the Midway School near Carstairs, as well as an administrator for the school board and has served as vice-principal of the Bowden school for the past five years.
Nygard said she is looking forward to continuing the great work that is happening in Olds. In addition, she said, coming from a single-school town, the prospect of being in a community with multiple schools is exciting, because it allows for collaboration opportunities.
Nygard said that while literacy is already a big focus for the school division, …OES is planning to be ahead of the game when it comes to numeracy and challenge the widespread acceptance that math skills are an inborn talent.
ìIn our world it's OK to say that we're not good at math," she said. ìNo one ever says ëwe can't read.' But (they say) ëoh, I suck at math.'
ì(We are) trying to change some of that mind frame,î said Nygard. ìEveryone can be successful in reading and in math ñ you're not born with or without it.î
While she hasn't previously taught at or administered a French immersion school, one of her portfolios at the school division was French as a Second Language, and she said she is looking forward to the opportunities it presents.
ìI think it will be exciting to have two different streams going on together,î Nygard said, ìand how we can get English and French immersion both highlighted in the community.î
Nygard's tenure will officially start in August, but she will spend June meeting with …OES teachers, learning the culture and talking about what's working and what's not.
ìI am not going to walk in and change everything,î she said. ìThey do some great stuff, so we will see how we can improve on that.î
"I am not going to walk in and change everything," she said. "They do some great stuff, so we will see how we can improve on that."MARGO NYGARDNEW PRINCIPAL 'ECOLE OLDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
