Roxanne Saunders: Sharbot Lake
High School's new principal

by Jeff Green

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As the result of the retirements of Ed Yanch at North Addington Education Centre in Cloyne, Tom Taylor at Sharbot Lake High School, and Bruce Marchen at Sydenham High School, all of the local high schools will have new leadership this fall.

School is starting up again in a couple of weeks, and the new principals are already in place, helping staff plan for the coming school year.

Sharbot Lake High School will be the first placement as Principal for Roxanne Saunders after filling administrative roles at Kingston High Schools for nine years, the past four as vice principal at the Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute, (KCVI).

But, she does not come to Sharbot Lake as an urban transplant. She lives on 80 acres on Railton Road north of Sydenham, which she shares with her husband, an officer with the Kingston Police Force. Although she won’t be taking time off in early November to hunt, she might come to school a bit bleary-eyed during maple syrup season.

Principal Saunders went to primary school in Harrowsmith and attended Sydenham High School , before studying Education at Queen’s and embarking on a teaching career as a science and math teacher with the Limestone Board.

“The first thing people want to know is when I am going to get the school board to build a new gym here,” she said during an interview at her new office last week.

A school principal has little control over major building projects, however, and Roxanne Saunders said her role as principal is more one of curriculum leadership than construction, and her perspective on the current state of Sharbot Lake High School is positive.

“We have a tremendous, experienced office staff here at Sharbot Lake , and a lot of continuity among the teaching staff. There is a school improvement team here as well, which all schools have, which met earlier, and set some goals and a tentative plan for this coming year. I am just now looking at their findings,” she said.

She does not see her role as that of a leader who will direct the efforts of others. “I like to facilitate in a school,” she said.

Sharbot Lake High School is one of the smallest schools in the board, and for that reason does not offer the broad range of programs offered elsewhere, but according to Saunders there are options for students to make up for this. “We do offer e-learning for courses where we don’t have enough enrolment to fill a class, and the board has a variety of focus programs, which are available to students as well, giving them more options, although they do involve travel. But there are advantages to a rural setting as well. I get a sense that the community here is focussed on education for their kids.”

Roxanne Saunders said she does not evaluate the performance of a school strictly according to the grade average of the students. She talked about gathering more anecdotal information from people within the school and without, to determine what they think about how the school is working as a community institution.

Roxanne Saunders will be joined by a new vice-principal at Sharbot Lake this year, Janet Sanderson.