• Explore the theories of change, as well as the nature of change and the role of change agents
• Develop an awareness of the strengths of bottom-up and top down approaches to change; examine the need for incremental, transformational and radical change; appreciate the possible targets of change.
• Focus on the question: How to lead planned change.
• Reflect on personal influence strategies, recognize resistance and learn the ways to overcome it.

A helpful metaphor for visualizing the complexity of CAIS schools is to imagine a series of interlocking gears. The academic program is located at the center of this ‘machine’ with direct connections to school purpose, leadership, enrolment management, human resources, and facilities. Our schools are first and foremost learning institutions, and all leaders within CAIS benefit from understanding the challenges and opportunities within academic programming.

This module provides an overview of essential topics facing academic leaders in CAIS schools and how wider school structures connect with and impact the education program. While academic mandates and curricula differ by province, this module will identify the effective foundational traits in educational programming.

Learning Intentions
Participants will:

• Discuss the role of educational programs in school equity, diversity, and inclusion work
• Understand different models of division heads, department heads, and instructional leaders
• Learn how research can best inform professional learning for faculty
• Look at how educational leaders initiate, support, evaluate and sustain change in schools
• Discuss effective practices to support academic integrity
• Review the elements of proactive and effective faculty growth and development programs
• Understand the business pressures, hard constraints, and soft constraints in timetabling
• Appreciate the challenges of teacher training and retention within the independent school landscape in Canada
• Share ideas on the academic structures that support student mental health and wellness
• Consider how the science of the developing brain informs educational programming

CAIS 2021 National Standard Alignment
Close alignment will be made with the following CAIS 2021 National Standards:
Standard 4 - Education Program Foundation
Standard 5 - Learning and Teaching

Direct connections will also be made to CAIS 2021 National Standards:
Standard 1 - School Purpose (e.g. academic mission and vision)
Standard 2 - School Leadership (e.g. academic leadership structures)
Standard 6 - Student Well-Being and Support (e.g. faculty involvement in academic and student support)
Standard 10 - Human Resources (e.g. professional development for teachers)

Facilitator Biography: Myke Healy
Myke Healy serves as Assistant Head of Senior School - Teaching & Learning at Trinity College School (TCS) in Port Hope, Ontario. He is an incoming doctoral student at the University of Calgary and completed his MEd and Concurrent Education degrees at Queen’s University. Myke joined the faculty of TCS in 2004 and has served in a number of academic leadership roles. In his current leadership portfolio, he is responsible for faculty professional development, hiring/supervising new teachers, facilitating Ministry inspections, overseeing summer academy, teaching the Advanced Placement Capstone Diploma, managing academic budgets, running the School’s online program, and the myriad of other day-to-day adventures that educational leaders face in CAIS schools.

In his volunteer life, Myke serves as chair of the board of Camp Kawartha and chair of the board of eLearning Consortium Canada. In November, Myke received the Ontario Volunteer Service Award from the Ministry of Citizenship and Multiculturalism. He lives in the forest outside of Lakefield, Ontario, where he and his wife built a timberframe home in 2003. As one of the great privileges of being an educator, his son (15) attends his place of daily employment (his daughter having graduated from TCS in 2022).

The Finance module is designed to provide participants with information and experience in receiving and interpreting financial data within the school environment. We will explore the ethics and law around financial decision making, benchmarking of independent schools, financial sustainability and governance, internal financial reporting and reviewing financial statements. A budget exercise that participants undertake in small groups is a tool used to understand the major drivers of a school's finances. The module is participatory and aimed at the non-financial manager.

Learning Intentions:

• Gain an awareness of the financial documents used by independent schools
• Develop an understanding of the major drivers of a school budget
• Examine issues of financial sustainability and risks associated with enrolment fluctuations
• Develop an understanding of the "business" of running a school - insurance, planning, revenues and expenses.
• Connections to the 2021 National Standards will be made.

Facilitator Biography

Sanjay Chauhan, CPA, CGA
Director of Finance, St. George’s School

A CPA with 27 years of experience working in banking, tech, retail, warehousing, construction and now at St. George’s School for the last 6 years. Sanjay has specialized in treasury, hedging, strategic planning, data analytics and reporting in both public and privately held organizations with local and international operations.

Outside of school, Sanjay has been married for 25 years with a son that graduated from St. George’s School and a daughter that graduated from Stratford Hall. Sanjay was born and raised in Vancouver and had spent 14 years living in the Okanagan.

Effective governance is critical to the long-term success of Independent Schools. Effective Boards steward and safeguard the health of their Schools for future generations. The Board ensures the School has a clear strategic direction, provides appropriate risk oversight, ensures the School has leadership capacity and resources and effectively manages Board performance. Governance relies on both “science and art”! This module aims to demystify some of the core elements of governance of independent schools.

Learning Intentions:

• Overview of Governance: Why it Matters, Board Basics
• Characteristics of Effective Boards and the new CAIS Standard on Governance (Standard 3)
• Understanding the Roles of the Board and Management
• The Pivotal Relationship: The Chair and the Head
• Building a Better Board: Board Profile, Diversity, Selection and Development
• Optimizing Board Performance: Structure, Meetings, Information, Generative Thinking, Culture and Evaluation
• Tips on Working with Boards (for Staff Leaders)
• Hot Governance Topics and Tricky Issues

Connections to the CAIS 2021 National Standards will be included.

Facilitator Biography
Susan Wright has provided strategy, governance and organizational development services for not-for-profit and public sector clients. She has been in consulting for over 35 years and has undertaken projects for many educational institutions including approximately 30 independent schools in Canada.

Susan has actively supported the work of CAIS (Canadian Accredited Independent Schools) related to enhancing governance effectiveness, and she teaches a course at the University of Toronto on Non-Profit Leadership, Strategy and Change. Susan’s past volunteer governance roles have included Chair of the Conference of Independent Schools of Ontario (CIS Ontario) and a variety of volunteer roles at Havergal College including serving as Chair of the Board of Governors. From 2019 to present, Susan has been sitting as an external member on the Board of Lakefield College School.

A look at the Human Resources function in Schools and its critical role as a strategic partner in driving organizational outcomes. Reviewing current and best HR practices within the context of an educational/school setting and exploring how to implement and make changes.

A comprehensive review of the various areas of discipline in HR, including: recruitment, performance management, employee relations, compensation and policy management and how to ensure practices are anchored in a talent strategy framework.

This program will provide the opportunity for participants to gain a greater understanding of Human Resources Management and its impact in achieving the goals, mission and vision of an organization.

Alignment will be made to the CAIS National Standards.

Learning Intentions:

• Examine some of the current and emerging trends and practices visible today in the changing world of work
• Explore the challenges in implementing effective HR practices and processes and responding to employment market changes
• Review the key elements of a positive employee experience and how HR practices affect the employee lifecycle within an organization

Facilitator Biography

An innovative leader with over 25 years of experience in Human Resources, Talent and Operational Strategy, Val has worked with organizations ranging from 100 to over 10,000 employees across Canada. She brings deep expertise in the strategic alignment of people programs to the vision of organizations. Passionate about talent strategy, her knowledge in the areas of Employee Engagement, Organizational Design, Performance and Succession Planning focuses on ensuring the successful achievement of enterprise-wide initiatives.

Immediately prior to launching Teal & Co. Inc. in 2017, Val spent more than 14 years at Appleby College where she established and led the HR Department and eventually led the operations side of the School as Vice-Principal & Chief Operations Officer. During her time at Appleby, she successfully developed and implemented various people programs school wide including a highly recognized mutual respect program to support diversity and inclusion, performance management program, mentorship program and centralized professional development program.

Among her many successes is her leadership in Appleby College being recognized as a Top 100 Employer in Canada in 2007 and 2008, the first time for an Independent School in Canada.

She has extensive experience in Board and Governance relations, having served on several not-for-profit boards and is currently on the Board of Action Against Hunger as Vice-Chair.

Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) are mainstay words that have become synonymous with excellence in education. Having an acute awareness and a critical consciousness of DEIB is an absolute necessity and moral obligation for all educators. As a school leader, people will turn to you for vision and to provide guidance in this critical aspect of school practice and culture.

Pluralism is the culmination of meaningful DEIB. It is a state when more than one culture/race/identity is acknowledged and coexists in harmony with others. It is first cultivated through recognizing and amplifying historically marginalized voices and identities. It is then achieved by centering these voices in the daily decisions taken by students, staff, parents, and volunteers to ultimately value and leverage human difference. Pluralism is ultimately attained through the interweaving of distinct cultures and identities into a harmonized whole. To help build a foundation, this module will explore what pluralism means to each participant in their respective communities.

The subject matter can be deeply personal, responses are often emotional, and there is work to be done in reflection and self-analysis. It will challenge participants to lean into their discomfort and examine their own explicit and implicit biases, as well as to explore and dismantle the contributing systemic structures that may be at play in schools. Topics of race and ethnicity; socioeconomic status; indigenous peoples reconciliation; gender identity and expression; physical ability; and learning differences are all on the table.

Learning Intentions
Participants will learn how:

• School Leadership Teams can be effective in realizing a pluralistic community.
• The Board’s composition, nomination and development processes can be effective in ensuring the diversity needed to support the Board’s effectiveness, the School’s mission and strategy and sustained Board leadership.
• The School can be effective in establishing relationships as foundational to the learning experience and personalize the learning experience in a way that supports student engagement.
• The School can effectively develop students’ understanding and valuing of pluralism.
• The School can actively accept responsibility to meet the diverse needs of all students accepted for admission.
• The School can effectively establish equity as a driver for all Human Resource related practices across the School.

Connections to the CAIS 2021 National Standards will be made.

Facilitator Biography

Genny Lee

Genny Lee is a second-generation settler and a Korean-Canadian born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. She is the Vice Principal, Student Life and Belonging at the Bishop Strachan School, and former diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) curriculum specialist. In both roles, she champions diversity, equity and belonging within all aspects of school life. She is currently a PhD student in Education Policy and Leadership at the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. With over 20 years of teaching, coaching and leadership experience, she is passionate about the confluence of neuroscience, implicit bias and equity. She has had a breadth of diverse teaching experiences including teaching in London, England; Regent Park, Toronto; Capetown, South Africa; and Seoul, South Korea. Genny leads equity workshops on topics such as culturally responsive pedagogy and anti-racist practice. She is also co-founder and current lead of the Conference of Independent Schools Ontario (CISOntario) People of Colour affinity network. She loves reading, hiking with her dog Biscuit and baking healthy-ish treats.

The Faculty and Staff Culture module is designed to provide participants with information concerning the complexities of creating, managing, and leading a vibrant, effective faculty culture within an educational setting. Participants will review basic management theory, discuss the difference between leadership and management, begin the process of developing their own management philosophy and will be given an exposure to the controversies and issues facing a current educational manager/leader. All of this will apply directly to the overall concept of Faculty and Staff Culture.

Connections to the CAIS 2021 National Standards will be made.

Learning Intentions

Participants will:

• understand the meaning and complexities of faculty and staff culture.
• start thinking about one’s own management/leadership style.
• expose participants to a wide variety of management theories and styles.
• clearly define faculty and staff culture and understand its relevance in an independent school environment.

Facilitator Biography

Jason Rogers is currently the Head of School of Rundle College Society (Rundle) in Calgary, Alberta. Rundleis a preK-12 coeducational day school system that boasts over 1150 students and 200 staff and faculty. Rundle is recognized as one of the top private schools in Alberta and is unique as it has one specialized campus named Rundle Academy which is solely for students with learning disabilities. In 2021, Rundle opened Canada’s first virtual school for students with learning disabilities, Rundle Studio. The Studio supports students in Alberta and around the world.
Prior to taking on the headship at Rundle, Jason has served as classroom teacher, head of admissions, assistant principal and principal within the Rundle College community. He has also chaired Rundle’s steering committees for technology and professional development. Jason has a Masters and Doctoral degrees in educational leadership from the University of Calgary and has received his Diploma in Independent School Leadership from CAIS.

Outside of school, Jason has a love of family, travel, writing and the outdoors. Jason has published articles and a book on topics such as leadership principles, universal design for learning, creative study skills and the art of public speaking. Jason has had the opportunity to present to teachers, administration and parents in most Canadian provinces. Finally, in spite of growing up in Saskatchewan and cheering for the Roughriders his whole life, Jason and his wife now have made Calgary home.

You can read Jason's blog at www.drjbrogers.com and you can follow him on twitter @jasonbrogers.

In recent years, JK-12 education systems have experienced an almost seismic shift in thinking about purpose and mission.  Seemingly more than ever, concepts such as well-being, social emotional learning and thriving - for both student and adult - have dominated the school agenda.  They crowd the workshop offerings of educational conferences and webinars, and have spawned an entire industry of research and educational products.  

School leaders can be excused for feeling somewhat overwhelmed with where to begin and how to implement well-being strategies into their learning communities.  How do we balance yet another imperative with other pressing agendas?  How do school communities create sustainable cultural change in support of well-being?

This module is intended to provide an overview of the wellbeing landscape for aspiring school leaders, and an opportunity to learn about systems change and the art of influencing school culture.  Along the way, participants will be exposed to current and emerging theory, promising practices and relevant resources to help them build their well-being literacy and leadership philosophy.

Connections will be made to the 2021 CAIS National Standards.

Learning Intentions 
Participants will:  

• Develop a compelling justification for the primacy of well-being in schools

• Survey wellbeing strategies and programmes used in school communities.

• Build an understanding of how to effect whole school culture change. 

• Conceptualize what a whole school culture of well-being could look like.

• Learn how the school can effectively develop students’ understanding and valuing of well-being and flourishing 

• Learn how the school can effectively develop employee understanding and practices of well-being in the workplace

• Build a library of resources and promising practices 

Facilitator Biographies

HANNA KIDD  

Hanna Redpath Kidd (BA, BPHE, BEd, MSc, MEd, RP, CAPP, PECT2) is a teacher, positive education trainer, registered psychotherapist and school counsellor with two decades of experience. She has spent her career developing well being in others – social, emotional and physical. She specializes in international education and has worked in Korea, China and Canada. Her current school, Ridley College, aims to ‘inspire flourishing lives’ in children from across Canada and from 60 nations around the world.  

Creating personal connections and supporting students and families through life’s challenges has placed Hanna on a path to earning a Doctorate in Counselling and Psychotherapy. Working as a psychotherapist in private practice as well as a school counsellor, Hanna looks to support children, teens and adults, no matter where they are on the wellbeing continuum.  

Hanna is the Director of Wellbeing at Ridley College, North America’s first Visible Well-being School to partner with Professor Lea Waters, President of IPPA. In this role, Hanna is responsible for leading and implementing the science and research of wellbeing to all students, faculty and staff in the school. In her role as Lower School Counsellor at Ridley College, she teaches the habits of well-being including mindfulness, gratitude, savouring, emotional management, and conflict resolution. She enjoys leading parenting workshops that inspire parents to use strength-based techniques to enhance their family relationships.  

Her passion for well-being led her to complete a Certificate in Positive Psychology, level 2 Positive Education Trainer and trained Visible Well-being facilitator. Hanna has been a workshop presenter at the Canadian Positive Psychology Conference, the International Positive Education Network’s World Positive Education Accelerator and the International Positive Psychology Association World Congress.  

ED KIDD 

Ed Kidd is the Headmaster of Ridley College, a JK-12 co-ed boarding and day school in St. Catharines, Ontario.  Ed is honoured to lead this 134-year-old Canadian institution whose vision is to “inspire flourishing lives to transform our globe.”  With the intent to live our vision everyday, Ridley has become a North American pioneer in the practice of Visible Well-being and positive education and boldly states that the primary purpose of education is to cultivate flourishing in individuals and communities.

Since 2012, Ed has served as Ridley’s 10th Headmaster.  Prior to repatriating to Canada, he enjoyed a 16-year career in international education, serving most recently as the high school principal at Shanghai American School.

As a former IB English teacher, coach and advisor, he is committed to the virtues of a liberal arts education, the values of a boarding school experience and the belief we can teach young people to build the foundations for a flourishing life.  Ed is the current chair of the Canadian Boarding Collaborative (CBC) and has volunteered on a number of boards including the United Way of Niagara, The Association of Boarding Schools (TABs) and CIS Ontario (Conference of Independent Schools).  

Ed and his wife Hanna have three children - Jaden and Mia are “Old Ridleians” and Ashton is in the Class of 2026.  Together, they enjoy travel, Niagara wine and community service.

Leadership Institute Module: Women and Leadership

There is considerable research on women and leadership but little on women in leadership in independent schools and the particular challenges and opportunities of this environment. This module will offer a series of interactive exercises, discussions and reflections examining contemporary leadership theory, focusing on self-development, leadership learning, career patterns, and succession planning within the context of independent school leadership.

Learning Intentions: Participants will:

• Cultivate greater self-awareness of leadership traits and skills
• Examine past and present career points to envision future directions
• Develop an understanding of how to build a culture of leadership development for women in schools
• Think critically about career patterns, supports and obstacles through fictional and non-fictional narratives.
• Connect with colleagues from across Canada
• Have fun!

CAIS 2021 National Standards Alignment:

• Connections to the CAIS 2021 National Standards:
• Leadership Standards: 2.3, 2.7, 2.8
• Human Resource Standards: 10.1. 10.3, 10.5, 10 6, 10.7. 10.8.

Facilitator Biography

Claire Kelly serves as Assistant Head of School: Student Life, at Appleby College in Oakville, Ontario. She teaches AP Capstone Research, senior English, and coaches student leaders. Claire earned her PhD from OISE/UT (’19) in Leadership, Higher, and Adult Education, with a dissertation exploring organization change, in particular, career patterns of women and gender representation in independent school headships in Canada. She has presented her research in various contexts, including the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS).

Claire has been a CAIS LI Women and Leadership module facilitator twice before and is delighted to be returning to this role. She lives with her husband and two sons on campus, and loves to travel, run, paddle, and play guitar.