Jul 08, 2020


There are always a lot of unknowns for school boards each year, as they navigate the narrow space between Ministry of Education directives, their contractual relationship with teachers, educational assistants and support staff, and the needs and talents of the students in the schools.

This year, however, there are a whole other set of unknowns. Will classes run as normal in the 2020-21 school year? Will they be virtual as they were from after spring break to the end of the school year that just ended? Or will it be a hybrid?

The Limestone District School Board operates 7 elementary schools, two educational centres (kindergarten to grade 12), and one secondary school in Frontenac County and Addington Highlands. The current director of education and secretary to the board, Debra Rantz, anounced her pending retirement early in the year.

On Monday night (July 6) Krishna Burra was confirmed as Rantz’s replacement by the Board’s trustees, at a special meeting. Burra was an internal candidate for the position. He was chosen after a consulting company was hired in May to look broadly for candidates and provide a list to the hiring committee of the board, who made the final decision.

Burra has a long association with the board since he is a native Kingstonian, who graduated from Loyalist High School and then completed his Bachelor of Arts (Honours) and bachelor of Education degrees at Queen’s University. The only job he has ever held outside of the City of Kingston was at Sydenham High School (SHS) where he taught history, philosophy and math before entering the administrative pool as a Vice Principal, also at SHS. In 2007, he became Vice Principal at Lasalle, and in 2010 he took on his first role at the Board office on Portsmouth Avenue in Kingston.

At the board, he has served as assistant to the director and supervisor of safe and caring schools before taking on his current role as superintendent of schools, program, and information technology services. During his tenure with Limestone, Mr. Burra’s portfolio has included a range of responsibilities focused on secondary curriculum, professional learning, Indigenous education, equity and inclusion, international education, outdoor education, e-learning, and supervision of the Kingston Collegiate & Vocational Institute/Kingston Secondary School family of schools.

“On behalf of the trustees of the Limestone District School Board, I am pleased to welcome Mr. Burra as our new director of education,” said Limestone District School Board Chair Suzanne Ruttan in making the announcement.

“Mr. Burra has always demonstrated a passion for and commitment to student achievement and well-being during his more than two decades of progressive and collaborative leadership in Limestone. We are thrilled to work with him over the coming years to promote our strategic priorities of wellness, innovation and collaboration as we continue to address the needs of every student within our district.”

“I am both honoured and excited for this new opportunity to support the students, families and staff of the Limestone District School Board,” says Mr. Burra. “I look forward to collaborating with trustees, staff, students, families, community partners, and all members of our school communities to enhance the good work already taking place in our schools across the district.”

In a phone interview with the News on the day after the announcement, Superintendent Burra (he will take over as director in early August) acknowledged that the board is facing significant challenges because of COVID-19.

He is familiar with the impacts of the distanced education that was in place between March 17 and the end of the school year, not only from the perspective of working remotely in his role, but also because his wife is a teacher with the board and was teaching online for three months, and from the perspective of their three children who are students at LDSB schools in Kingston.

But it is a particular set of students who he feels are the most impacted by virtual learning.

“I certainly feel for those families with special needs children. It has been an extremely challenging circumstance for them” he said.

He will take on his new role at about the same time that the Province of Ontario is set to announce the protocols for the delivery of education starting in September.

“We are preparing for different possible models now. We also know, from what happened in Melbourne, Australia this week, that we may start the year with students in the schools, and then have to switch to a remote learning model during the school year,” he said. “In August as we get ready for the school year, we will communicate what we can in a timely fashion. These are extremely disruptive times.”

One of the benefits of being a local hire for the lead role in the LDSB is the “established relationships that I have in the community, having worked and lived my entire career here. I feel the weight of responsibility as the incoming director of education to move forward as best we can.”

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