Chris van der Mark, superintendent of the Cariboo-Chilcotin School District 27 (SD27), has been recognized provincially for his district leadership.
Van der mark was one of 34 education professionals from British Columbia who received the Premier’s Awards for Excellence in Education. He was specifically recognized for his district leadership.
“What he has done in this district since he arrived has been nothing short of phenomenal,” said SD27 Board of Education chair Ceil Patenaude in a district video regarding van der Mark’s leadership and award.
“He pushes change, but in a really meaningful way with incredible vision.”
van der Mark said the award is a recognition of all the hard work going on at all levels of the district.
“Everyone has been working really hard to move the teaching and learning environment forward,” said van der Mark. “But we’re not done yet. There’s still a lot of work to do but we can clearly see we are on the right path and we are moving forward.”
van der Mark noted one of the areas they havefocused on in the district growth and leadership, regardless of anyone’s role, as well as governance.
“Good governance is important. Educators have a hard job, it’s challenging work and it can be even harder if the conditions around them are more chaotic than they need to be so a lot of our work has been trying to remove that.”
Van der Mark was selected for the superintendent position for SD27 in March of 2019 following several tumultuous years at the district office which included a vote of non-confidence against the previous board and management levied twice by the Cariboo Chilcotin Teachers Association. The province had appointed a special advisor prior to van der Mark taking the top job.
“It’s hard to make hard decisions, even if they are the right decisions,” van der Mark said. “If there are issues that are part of the system, any effort to up-end that or change that is going to cause push-back, discomfort and all those kind of things.”
The award recipients were celebrated at a ceremony at Government House in Victoria on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. Each recipient received a $2,000 personal bursary for professional learning, a $1,000 contribution to their school for professional learning, and a commemorative trophy.
Launched in 2018, the awards honour public, independent and First Nations school teachers, support staff, principals, vice-principals, as well as school and district leaders, who all go above and beyond to make life better for K-12 students throughout the province.
