After nearly a 35 year career in education, I retired as the Superintendent of Schools in January 2020. While in the role as superintendent, I sat on two national committees, ERDI and C21 and also was an adjunct professor for Gonzaga University. I now work as a leadership consultant supporting the work of school boards, system and school leaders.
Chris Smeaton
Author's posts
Dec 01
From the Desk of the Superintendent- Advent 2016
November has come and gone and now we enter the Advent season. On Monday at our opening prayer at St. Basil Catholic Education Centre, I began with this message from Creighton University Online Ministries: As we begin Advent, we light one candle in the midst of all the darkness in our lives and in the …
Nov 30
Why Change Curriculum?
The following blog post was published in the Lethbridge Herald on November 30, 2016. Alberta Education is undergoing the aggressive task of updating the curriculum currently being taught in our schools. While it may seem that curriculum changes are always occurring, the truth is that Alberta’s curriculum actually ranges in age from eight to thirty …
Nov 27
TRUST
Last week, my good friend and colleague Michael Chechile, Director General for Lester B. Pearson School Board sent out a tweet that asked Michael Fullan to summarize his day/ presentation/ approach/ strategy/ deep learning/ in one word to make it happen. It really should come as no surprise that Fullan’s one word was TRUST. One word, …
Nov 12
Alignment counts!
This week our senior administration completed our school continuous improvement plan reviews with all of our school leaders. The process is fairly simple in that each school administration team comes into the board office and shares their plan with our senior education leaders. While I understand that it can a little intimidating for our newer leaders, it is meant …
Nov 06
From the Desk of the Superintendent- Catholic Education Sunday 2016
The following message will be read at all parishes within the boundary of Holy Spirit Catholic School Division. during the weekend of November 5 and 6 to celebrate Catholic Education Sunday! Holy Spirit is a regional division that serves students in Bow Island, Coaldale, Lethbridge, Picture Butte, Pincher Creek, Taber, and surrounding communities. Today, we …
Oct 31
From the Desk of the Superintendent- November 2016
Two months into the school year already and what an eventful two months! I want to begin with a bit of a reflection on our Division Wide Professional Day. Our school leaders would be the first to admit that I “got” literacy and numeracy at the elementary level, but was less confident about how they …
Oct 23
Issue + Gift = Change
The following article was published in the Lethbridge Herald on October 19, 2016. Last week I attended the Education Research Development and Innovation (ERDI) Conference in Banff. ERDI, on a semi-annual basis, brings together 50 Canadian superintendents to discuss educational trends with corporate partners from across North America. As part of the conference, a plenary …
Oct 21
From the Desk of the Superintendent- Opening Comments for our Literacy & Numeracy Day
Good Morning. I’m always grateful for our Division PD days where we all come together as one Catholic School Division to learn. But I know that we don’t have days like this without some tremendous work in the background. And so I would like to thank our Director Learning, Lorelie Lenaour and her support at …
Oct 05
World Teachers Day 2016
When I speak to our new teachers, I often make the following comment with my palms held out, “We hold the future of our students in the palms of our hands, what a great responsibility and what a great honour.” I think that most teachers get this statement very well. But as we celebrate World …
Sep 30
From the Desk of the Superintendent- October 2016
It is hard to imagine that September is about to be seen in the rear view mirror. What a quick month, busy and exciting! We opened our new school St. Teresa of Calcutta and welcomed close to 100 new students into the system. With today being the final count day, it would appear that we …