Clearview school division superintendent John Bailey will remain a member of the “Clearview family” for only four more months.
“He’s done great, he’s been a great superintendent,” said board chair Ken Checkel. “We wish him well as he moves on to Foothills.”
Bailey, who has been the Clearview superintendent for the last six years, starts as superintendent of Foothills school division (which includes Okotoks, High River, and Longview) at the beginning of August.
“My brain enjoys thinking about lots of different things at the same time, so that’s what I like about the superintendent’s job…I really enjoy new challenges, so that will be interesting,” Bailey said.
Foothills school division covers a smaller area than Clearview, but has three times the student population. Bailey is looking forward to the new challenges that difference brings.
“Their problems are finding space for kids and trying to control the growth in an organized fashion, whereas here, we’re always dealing with the declining population,” Bailey said. “It’ll be really interesting to see that end of the spectrum.”
After high school graduation, Bailey didn’t immediately go into education. He had been working for several years, and soon got tired of going from job to job. He started thinking about what he liked to do and how he could turn that into a career.
“I like helping people, and I like teaching people stuff,” Bailey said. “I like being with people, so that’s what kind of motivated me to go to university and get my teaching degree in the first place.”
After that, he got his Master’s and eventually worked his way up in his first superintendent job at Clearview. He was well-equipped for the job as he had been an assistant and deputy superintendent, so he said there were no surprises.
However, he added that going from being a principal to working in a central office was quite a change for him.
The superintendent’s job mostly consists of helping people solve problems, working with principals, coming up with strategic plans, working with the board, and gathering information.
“As a former teacher, the best part of my job has always been being able to interact with the students,” Bailey said. “What I like about Clearview being small is that I had lots of opportunity to be in schools and for kids to get to know me and me get to know them a bit.”
The biggest change that Bailey has seen over six years with Clearview is the division working better together, and he hopes to see that continue after he’s gone.
Some of his proudest achievements at Clearview are working with others in the division to help student scores improve, and working to unite Clearview into “a school division, and not a division of schools.”
“I don’t take full credit for that … but those are a couple things where I look back and say that I made a positive difference there,” Bailey said.
Checkel said that Bailey’s strengths as a superintendent are being very principled and steady in how he handles difficult situations.
“I think he has a real good feeling for the students, for our staff and parents,” he said. “He’s a very good person with people in a quiet, understated way.”
But no matter where Bailey is, he’ll be doing what he loves.
“In general, my favourite part about working in education is helping kids be successful. That’s what I enjoy.”