OACS News Service

Advancement programs, staff contracts and student achievement key for Christian education movement
Three areas important for schools during next five years: Guldemond
Monday January 11, 2010 -- Jennifer Higgs
Adrian Guldemond says there are three areas schools should be paying attention to in the next five years, which are advancement programs, staff contracts and measuring student achievement.

During his last week in the Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools (OACS) office as executive director, Guldemond told the OACS News these three areas are on the Christian education landscape, with broader issues such as technology on the future horizon.

Guldemond delivered speeches on these three areas in the fall of 2009 at the OACS advancement conference, a principal’s conference and the OACS governance conference.

At the advancement conference, Guldemond said Christian schools need to develop their own marketing and recruitment programs.

“A formal marketing advancement program is a must in the schools today and it should be properly resourced by the school board in terms of money and staffing,” Guldemond previously told the OACS News.

“The key reason why we want to concentrate on advancement is not just to protect ourselves . . . but because we have such a wonderful calling and because Christian education is such a wonderful thing we need to share it with others and be a blessing to them,” he said.

“For that to happen we are going to make changes.”

Guldemond says contracts and schedules need to be revised to make it easier for schools to change staff members. The rules around hiring and firing are tough and have the most impact on teachers, he notes.

“Here’s the question that’s going to be facing a lot of schools in the future — to get beyond the regular norms it’s going to be not the question of having teachers, it’s the question of having the right teachers in the right classrooms in the school,” said Guldemond at the Nov. 7 governance conference.

“That is the direction the education sector is moving in, so we’ll need to rethink some of our assumptions about employer and employee relationships and I am sure we are up to the task,” he said.

He says he is encouraged by the discussions that are going on with the Ontario Christian Schools Teachers Association (OCSTA).

“I think that’s moving forward,” says Guldemond, adding it is important to keep these discussions moving.

The third area is improving student achievement, which includes diversifying how achievement is measured. Guldemond says more types of assessment tools are needed, as well as working with statistical information.

After 30 years as executive director, Guldemond retired at the end of 2009, and is now taking a year off to study.

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