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
Jun 28
“Celebrate the Present, Remember the Past” – Graduation Address for St. Mary’s Taber 2019
Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen, honoured Guests and a warm welcome to our St. Mary’s Graduates of 2019. It is always a pleasure to attend your graduation ceremonies and bring greetings on behalf of the entire school division. Many celebrities are often told to never forget where they came from. In other words, don’t become …
Jun 24
From the Desk of the Superintendent- 2018-19 Year End Message
It is hard to believe that we are in the last week of the 2018-19 school year. June seemed to sneak up on me and for some reason, this June appeared to be busier than previous from the perspective of many of our schools. There might be many internal reasons but certainly with the provincial …
May 31
From the Desk of the Superintendent- June 2019
June is here and two common statements that you’ll often here in the education world are, “It has finally arrived” or “I can’t believe it is June already!” Regardless, we are about to enter into the last month of the 2018-19 school year. It will be a busy month but then again, so have the …
May 15
Developing Strong Resilient Kids
The following article was written for the Lethbridge Herald and published on May 15, 2019. During my career in education, and especially these past ten years as Superintendent of Schools, I’ve witnessed an almost epidemic rise in student anxiety. School systems continue to support the hiring of more counselling staff and offer programs to build …
May 11
“Shine your Light! Follow your Path!”- Graduation Address for St. Michael’s Pincher Creek 2019
Oki! Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen. It is always a pleasure to come to Pincher Creek and celebrate the graduation of our students from St. Michael’s. Congratulations to our St. Michael’s Graduates of 2019. What a great theme you have chosen for your graduation this year, “Shine your Light; Follow your Path.” I want to …
May 11
“Place I Belong”- Graduation Address for Catholic Central High School 2019
Oki! Bonjour Mesdames et Monsieurs and Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen and a warm welcome to the stars of the weekend, our 2019 Graduating Class of Catholic Central High School. I want to begin by thanking the grads for choosing a song, Take Me Home Country Roads by John Denver, that I can play on …
May 06
From the Desk of the Superintendent- Catholic Education Week
Good morning, Today we begin celebrating Catholic Education Week throughout Canada. Later this month, on May 30th, we will also recognize World Catholic Education Day. I’m also pleased today to release a video on Catholic Education in Holy Spirit. This video was a joint project of the Holy Spirit ATA Local and the Board of …
May 02
From the Desk of the Superintendent- May 2019
I’m a day late in sending my monthly message out but I did this purposely, since I wanted to complete our Team Continuous Improvement Plan Reviews first to able to share some of my perspective. Over the last two days, teams of three schools came to the St. Basil Catholic Education Centre to provide year-end …
Apr 28
Enhancing leadership capacity
One of my core beliefs as a superintendent is to provide support and build the capacity of our school leaders. While somewhat of an over exaggeration, in many cases, “how goes the principal is how goes the school.” This doesn’t mean that everything good or bad needs to be laid on the lap of the …
Apr 03
Shifting our Focus
The following blog post was written for the Lethbridge Herald, April 03, 3019. Sometimes it is very difficult to let go of the past. It is comfortable, even though we know that it is likely remembered far better than it was actually lived. Similarly, we often hold on to our traditional beliefs about schooling and …