Lethbridge School Division names Nightingale new superintendent

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on May 24, 2023.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The Lethbridge School Division has announced the appointment of a new superintendent who has over 20 years of experience in various roles within the education system.
Board chair Allison Purcell announced Tuesday that Mike Nightingale has been appointed as superintendent of the Lethbridge School Division. She said the search for a new superintendent started in February when Cheryl Gilmore announced her retirement.
 “Mike has been with the division for a few years in our human resources department as the associate superintendent and after a lengthy search for the last few months, we had great candidates but we needed to find the best fit for our division and we were able to hire Mike to be able to fill that role,” said Purcell.
She said they received applications from all over the province, and even a few from different provinces. In April they had a short list and from there earlier this month they interviewed those candidates and ultimately decided to hire Nightingale for the role.
Purcell said Nightingale brings to the division lots of great knowledge, experience and an ambition to ensure that Indigenous ways of knowing is something that is weaved into their daily life.
“The thing that stood out for us about was him being able to engage with our community in education. There’s often lots of hot topics and he really wanted to look at that empathy piece from our community and ensure that we have impact and transparency,” said Purcell.
Nightingale said his official start date is Aug. 1, but with him being already part of the division, his transition will most likely start right away.
“It’s an incredible honour and I’m humbled by it for sure. I’m incredibly excited. The opportunity to impact the lives of so many students across the city is something that I’m inspired by, and I’m excited by,” said Nightingale.
He said the experience he brings with him include various level of involvement within the education system.
 “I’ve been a classroom teacher, I’ve been associate principal, a principal and then I’ve been a central office administrator for about eight to nine years now. So, over that time I think the foundation always starts with being in the classroom and teaching and in many ways my heart will always be there, I love teaching and love being with kids every single day,” said Nightingale.
 He added all the opportunities he has had through his career, have given him an opportunity to impact more students, and therefore he believes the foundation starts in the classroom.
 “I think that’s critical in an educational organization, and then as you move through into administration, you really get an opportunity to impact more kids and work more closely with staff. So I’ve been very fortunate at broad experiences with three school divisions which I think has helped me prepare for this opportunity,” said Nightingale.
 He said he started his career as a teacher within the Holy Spirit Catholic School Division, then moved to different roles within the Palliser School Division and the Lethbridge School Division.
 Nightingale said he has a few things he wants to accomplish once he takes over his role.
 “First of all, really taking the opportunity to build authentic relationships, and what I mean by authentic relationships is that there’s a genuine care for people, there’s a genuine willingness to listen to their perspective,” said Nightingale.
 He said that doesn’t mean that they will always agree as there are complex issues they will be addressing within education and reasonable people can have different perspectives on those.  
 “It’s really about making sure that you care about what other people say, they understand their perspective, and you’re willing to listen and then from there, it’s absolutely critical we want to make sure that every one of our students has an exceptional learning experience, and specifically a learning experience that meets their unique needs,” said Nightingale.
 He said that even though Gilmore is leaving some big shoes to fill, she is leaving the division in a good place, and it is a matter of building off that and continuing to move forward.
 “I recognize one of the great things about this division is its history. We’ve had great superintendents, great folks come into central office in this division and through administration and our staff. That is really in many ways my inspiration, to meet the standard that’s been set in the Lethbridge School division, so we can positively impact our kids,” said Nightingale.

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