New staff roles announced for Killarney School
BY KIM LANGEN
As school life becomes more normalized, following the pandemic protocols and restrictions, some staff changes and updates have been taking place at Killarney School and the division itself.
“I am now officially the Superintendent/CEO for the Turtle Mountain School Division (TMSD), and no longer interim,” said Grant Wiesner, who took on the interim position last August. “It’s been good. It was a huge learning curve, and different to what I was doing before. And it’s good to be getting back to how it felt pre-pandemic. We are focusing more now on the general running of the school division, rather than coping and dealing with the constant changes brought on during the pandemic. ”
With the upcoming retirement of long-serving principal of Killarney School, Terry Beazely, who will step down at the end of the year, comes another change.
“Erica Hilhorst will become the new principal, starting this fall,” said Wiesner. “She has served as our vice-principal here for the past three years, and also worked as a principal at Wellwood Colony for eight years. To replace her, our new vice-principal will be Sheri Haney, who was a school administrator on two of our colony schools, for a total of 13 years. Both will be starting their roles in September of 2022.”
In addition, Lisa Blixhavn, who has taught since 2000, and most recently worked as a resource teacher for students in Grade 7 to 12, will see a broader change in her role.
“We have hired Lisa Blixhavn as our new Assistant Superintendent of Student Services, and she will be starting in August, 2022,” said Wiesner. “Two retired resource teachers, Maggie Andres and Terry Simpson, have been filling in as resource teachers on an interim basis, and they will officially retire at the end of June.”
And in another bit of good news, Wiesner added that Killarney and Boissevain Schools had earned the accolade of being named the top two secondary schools for Terry Fox fundraising this year.
OFFICIAL SUPERINTENDENT/CEO FOR THE TMSD – Grant Wiesner, who has been acting as interim Superintendent and CEO for the expansive Turtle Mountain School Division, has been officially promoted from his interim title to an official one. Wiesner (above) was appointed to the job last August, and has successfully steered the school division ship through a challenging year.