St. James-Assiniboia superintendent appointed

St. James-ASSINIBOIA

Assiniboia

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This article was published 07/06/2023 (1070 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jenness Moffatt has the office of a teacher.

Books stacked one very shelf, plants galore, and, displayed next to her monitor, a mug she used during her first year of teaching. The cup is, of course, in the form of an apple, and has been cracked and glued back together “a million times.”

She’s not quite a teacher anymore, though — Moffatt was appointed superintendent of the St. James-Assiniboia School Division on May 23, after being acting superintendent since August 2022. She’s handling the removal of the ‘acting’ tag with an air of “pride and inspiration.”

A mother herself, Moffatt said she looks at everything through an educational lens. When asked if she thinks that it benefits her, she replied that she can’t be too sure, it’s just the way that her brain’s always functioned.

“I always see myself as a teacher,” she said. “It’s my roots and my purpose and what I bring to every job…I do see my relationships with students and families and staff through that experience.

“It’s just the way that I see the world.”

Moffatt has been working in education for 27 years. She began her endeavour as an early education teacher, but worked her way up to principal before moving into administration with SJASD.

She said that, throughout it all, she’s learned that she not only enjoys working with just the students, but the faculty who are alongside her.

“I feel like I’ve had experiences from kindergarten to Grade 12,” she said. “But my heart has always found its way back to just working collaboratively. It doesn’t matter what job it is.”

Moffatt says that, now, as superintendent, she’s aiming to help put a window into classrooms. They look different today than they did when she was a teacher, never mind when she and most parents were still in school, she said.

She also aims to address the issue of the “scarcity model” present in Manitoban education today.

“We are looking for more funding,” Moffatt explained. “We’re looking for more resources, and while I think that can be true, I also think we can celebrate what’s going well…We’ve had such significant opportunities to celebrate not only what we’ve been through, but what we’ve learned.”

There are very complex needs in every classroom, she said, and schools are currently faced with the challenge of meeting those needs with limited resources.

“We’re working to be really creative and think of new ways to meet student needs,” she said, vocalizing her pride of how faculty in the division has faced that challenge in the past year.

“‘Student needs’ doesn’t just mean students who are struggling, (it) means students who are ready for enrichment.”

Finally, when asked about what makes SJASD particularly special to her, Moffatt acknowledged the closeness of it all. She said that she finds a lot of value in being able to recognize students she knew at a young age up until high-school graduation. Everybody knows each other’s name.

Moffatt said that, overall, she just aims to strengthen what skills she has and look for any new experiences that come her way in the future. And if there are any opportunities for her to sit in on a classroom, she’ll take them.