Mombourquette chosen as chair for Catholic school board
By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - LETHBRIDGE HERALD on November 9, 2021.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com Lethbridge trustee for the Holy Spirit Catholic School Division, Carmen Mombourquette, has been elected board chair.He is bringing his experience of 12 years as principal of Catholic Central High School and 12 years as an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Lethbridge to his new position on the board.
“First of all, I am very honoured that the Catholic electors of Lethbridge would elect me to the school board as it is an important position within the whole overall education system, you know school boards pass policy, they adhere to the mission and vision of the organization and they try to make sure that budgets are spent in such a way that the mission and vision of the organization are actually fulfilled. So the fact that they had confidence in me to help achieve that I am humbled and honoured by it,” said Mombourquette.
He added that for his colleagues who are part of the school board itself, for the trustees to show confidence in him to actually chair the organization, is something that means the world to him.
“I am truly appreciative of the confidence that they have shown in me,” said Mombourquette.
When Mombourquette originally ran in the trustee election, he ran with three elements that he would fight for, one of which was to continue to build and work for greater parent, community and parish involvement within the education system.
“It is collectively their children that attend our schools, the children, the parents of course are primary, but it is also the children of this community and the children of our Catholic parishes in southwestern Alberta. So the school division historically has done a good job in involving those three elements of the community in decisions and I want to continue to build upon that work,” said Mombourquette.
The second element was to acknowledge, admire and applaud the work of the teachers throughout this COVID pandemic period.
“It has been emotionally and I would also argue physically taxing on all of them. And we are going to have to make sure as a corporate board to support their good works as we move forward, because this pandemic is not about to end and even as we come out of it, we are going to have to work very closely with the teachers of Holy Spirit School Division to ensure that world-class education continues to be delivered to this children,” said Mombourquette.
And the third element was principles. As he was a principal with Holy Spirit many years ago, his job at the University of Lethbridge helped him to lead a masters degree in educational leadership.
“I know first hand but I also know from all of the theory of what is necessary to keep great schools being great, and to help good schools to become great and that is the act of leadership. I want to see if I can move the board towards having a greater flexibility and ability of principles to be able to lead their school communities in such a way that optimum learning for all children is achieved,” said Mombourquette.
Mombourquette added that together we need to do better when it comes to Indigenous people.
“In this day and age everything that we now know as Canadian citizens of what we did that was harmful and what we didn’t do that we should have with the First Nations, Inuit and Metis people, the Indigenous people of our land, we have got to do a much better job. But we do a much better job by acknowledging parents, teachers, principles, community and they are a vital part of the Catholic community of southwestern Alberta and everything I said about the general school population applies doubly for our Indigenous members of our community, we’ve got to do a much better job as we move forward in ensuring that we are looking after the children of that community in a way that the people in that community would like us to,” said Mombourquette. Follow @APulidoHerald on Twitter 4
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