During his four-and-a-half years at the helm of one of the province’s largest school boards, Campbell has led the organization through a challenging period, said chair Diane Firman.
She said Campbell has worked with trustees to improve student achievement, while at the same time working with less money as the number of students in the system dropped.
“When you have declining enrolment, you have to deal with declining funding,” she said.
She said some of the initiatives Campbell introduced to the board, such as the K-12 family school model, have leapfrogged the board ahead of others when it comes to integration.
“Gord was very forward thinking. He’s always been one step ahead,” said Firman.
The K-12 model is meant to increase teamwork and communication between principals at secondary schools and the elementary schools that feed into them.
“To make (a student’s) transition from Grade 8 to Grade 9, it’s important to have the principals on the same level,” Campbell said.
Campbell’s thoughts and ideas on education have been the result of nearly four decades in the education system. He worked for more than three decades for the Halton and York school boards before moving to the Simcoe board.
He noted both of those boards made the transition from being largely rural to largely urban – a challenge he expects the Simcoe board could face in the coming decades.
During his time at Halton, Campbell learned the importance of leadership development. He said that board invested in building its leaders, and it’s no coincidence that many of the top school administrators in the province got their start in Halton.
“Leadership development is really important,” said Campbell “I’d say the biggest challenge is supporting the development (and) ... building the people. Whenever you are building for the future, it’s based on the people. You’ve got to invest in the people.”
Campbell said the success of many school board initiatives starts at the top, and it takes strong leaders to develop teamwork and to initiate grand plans in a board the size of Simcoe.
One important leadership quality is a strong sense of ideals, said Campbell, and he isn’t afraid to let people know. In fact, the personalized licence plate for his car is IDEALS. It came as a suggestion from his staff during one of his first principal positions in Halton.
One of the main roles of leadership is decision making. Campbell said relying on ideals is the best way to ensure you can sleep comfortably when making tough decisions.
“If you’re wise, you base (decisions) on ideals. You’re not going to please everyone all of the time,” he said.
While Campbell’s last day was June 30, he isn’t planning on removing himself completely from the Simcoe board. Although he lives in Newmarket, he said he is going to keep a close eye on what is happening to the north.
He said most directors don’t spend more than 10 years on the job, and very few of them are at the job long enough to see their plans come to fruition. Instead, it is up to successors to carry the torch, and Campbell said he is confident the Simcoe board has quality leaders that can do just that.
An example of Simcoe’s own leadership development is Kathi Wallace, the new director, who has spent her entire career with the board.
“You plant the seed, you nurture the field, you don’t see the tree in the first five years, but you do set the root structure. I expect it to be a beautiful tree in the future,” Campbell said.
kelsner@simcoe.com
