EAST CENTRAL — Don Rempel, the North East School Division’s director of education, accepted a year-long contract extension due to the pandemic.
Rempel previously planned for a retirement at the end of the 2020-21 academic year. The new contract has him working for the division until June 30, 2022.
“With everything that’s happening right now with the pandemic I decided to make myself available until such time as they’re able to attend to the succession planning of a new director,” Rempel said.
If it wasn’t for the virus, he said that the board would be currently doing succession planning and selecting a recruiting firm.
“Currently the education system is in quite a bit of a flux and so to go through that process to try to recruit a director, it might be better suited to a year or 18 months when we’re going toward a more typical operational stance.”
Rempel said that the current situation has been unprecedented for the education sector.
“So if we can keep our team together and keep following our roles and responsibilities and we’re familiar with each other – in the short term I think that adds some stability to our system. That’s where the board and myself got to as far as agreeing to have some continuity.”
