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
Oct 12
FNMI Success
Last week, I had the privilege of attending the 1st annual First Nations, Metis & Inuit Education Symposium in Edmonton. The conference theme was Listening, Understanding and Moving Forward Together. Our Division sent a team of 10 including two of our highly respected elders. It should come as no surprise that a central theme to the symposium was …
Oct 04
Edcamp: A conversation on learning
A couple of weekends ago, I had the pleasure of opening #edcampPSD at Greystone Centennial Middle School in Spruce Grove. While those who know me, understand it is easy for me to talk in front of groups, it was a little intimidating speaking in the infamous George Couros territory and having Discover Education guru Dean …
Oct 04
From the Desk of the Superintendent- October 2015
We are now into the month of October and the season of fall, but I want to take you back to my opening comments as a reminder of why we exist, where do we go and what do we do. We are unique because we are a Catholic school division and it is because of …
Sep 20
Innovation: Let’s make it simple!
I just read the report on Innovation from the Conference Board of Canada which ranks Alberta as 15th overall. Given that Alberta is one of the top educational jurisdictions in the world, the stat is a little disconcerting. Innovation is defined by The Conference Board, “As a process through which economic or social value is …
Sep 11
Moving forward with Student Learning Assessments
Last week, Holy Spirit decided to participate in the Student Learning Assessment pilot. The choice of all or none implementation was certainly not preferred but in discussing with many of our administrators and grade 3 teachers who participated last year, ALL was better than NONE! Enclosed is the message sent to all of our grade …
Sep 06
National Principals Leadership Institute- Designing Schools for the Future
This past summer, I was invited as a member of C21 Canada to attend the National Principals Leadership Institute in New York. The invitation provided for a presentation on the work of C21 Canada as well as an opportunity to serve as a leadership consultant to school and system leaders from across North America. The …
Aug 31
From the Desk of the Superintendent- Opening Message to Staff
Today in my opening comments I want to speak only about faith, not innovation or creativity, not common assessments or transformation. There will be other times for that but right now… simply faith. The reason I want to focus on faith is that it is our mission… that is what makes us unique. All school …
Jul 12
Leadership is not about pleasing everyone!
Last week, I received a scathing comment to my blog Giving up control. While I didn’t agree with the comment, I allowed it to be published and thanked the individual for his opinion. Earlier in my leadership, I may have engaged in an argument with the individual trying to convince him that I was right …
Jun 22
From the Desk of the Superintendent- 2015 Year End Message
This past weekend I was in Red Deer with my family, celebrating the marriage of our daughter, Jamieson. It seems like only yesterday when she was a little girl and I was the only man in her life but time does seem to fly by whether we want it to or not. She is now …
Jun 03
Leadership Counts
The following article was provided to the Lethbridge Herald and published on June 03, 2015. Last week, one of my esteemed superintendent colleagues wrote about the importance of teacher quality on student learning. The research on this is very clear and so divisions invest heavily in providing opportunities for teachers to engage in high quality …