It’s a mystery why students are staying away from Richard S. Fowler junior high school but administrators with the school and the Catholic division are making “tons of changes” in the hope of reversing the trend.
The school’s enrolment has dropped by 15.3 per cent in each of the last two years.
The division has reacted by bringing in a principal with a reputation for spearheading change. Incoming principal Shawn Haggarty said his first priority is to ramp up the energy.
“For junior high kids, it has to be active, it has to be vibrant,” he said. “We started working with the staff right in August around that concept.”
Haggarty spent the last four years as principal of Ă©cole Secondaire Sainte Marguerite d’Youville.
At Fowler, Haggarty has already spearheaded the introduction of new extra-curricular programs like a handbell choir and the Canspell program. The school has also just secured a city grant to beautify the front and rear areas of the school. They’re also looking at getting a mural painted.
Haggarty will be working to forge stronger relationships with feeder schools.
“If the focus is on the kids, and we offer an active, vibrant experience for them, the retention rate isn’t going to be a problem,” he said.
He said he doesn’t know why Fowler has slipped in recent years and he hasn’t thought about it. He’s focused on the future.
“It’s a new day, we’re tracking a new vision and we’re going to be successful with it,” he said.
Haggarty has a strong analytical mind that enables him to assess a situation and plan a change in direction, said superintendent David Keohane. The principal also has the communication skills to get others on board.
Keohane is unsure why Fowler enrolment has slipped, as the annual surveys of students, teachers and parents hold no indication that its results are suffering.
“From last year the results were as strong as any place in the division, in some indicators among the highest,” Keohane said.
“There’s still a potential concern that students weren’t being retained. What we do then is simply establish a change in leadership to see if that can make the difference.”
One of his theories is that the message about Fowler’s success just isn’t getting out effectively.
“It is in a competitive environment in getting students. Perhaps it hasn’t let its story be told as meaningfully as it could. It’s making efforts to actually do that,” he said.
Parents are supportive of Haggarty’s vision and are prepared to work with the school to make it happen, said Cathy Stefner, chair of the school’s parent council.
“It’s our community school and we will support it,” she said.
