WEYBURN - Lynn Little has seen it all when it comes to provincial educational frontlines.
But now she is putting a finishing touch to a 35-year career and admits doing so was one of the most difficult decisions she has made. That is saying a lot upon reflection of what has transpired on the education circuit she has been involved with since the mid-1980s.
While speaking to the board of trustees of the South East Cornerstone Public School Division on June 15, Little admitted that retiring means she is leaving a host of wonderful friends from the work sites, but she also has stashed away a good bundle of memories.
In a farewell address to the board, Little paid special tribute to board chairwoman Audrey Trombley, who was unable to be in attendance but joined the meeting online.
Little said Trombley has lent passion, commitment and knowledge to the governance bodies over the years that Little had come to appreciate over and over again.
“She is one of a kind,” Little said.
Vice-chairwoman Carol Flynn said the board owed Little a huge thank you in return, saying “we have benefitted from your knowledge of the school division system.”
“Did I plan a career goal? I didn’t, but I was raised by parents who had a service mentality,” Little said. That meant it was expected that she would step up when a call came and after five years on the teaching schedules, she accepted leadership roles and discovered opportunities and engagement at all levels and, for that she was thankful.
Asked later what elements of the director’s job she felt were most challenging, she replied that naturally, most recently, it has been the navigation of the pandemic problems on several levels, “but we worked our way through it,” she said.
With 8,300 students and 1,100 employees spread out across a wide geographic area, the desire to forge close relationships with all posed another unique challenge.
“We had to do it with finite resources so that meant a lot of implications that not everyone can understand all the time,” she said.
Another ongoing dilemma facing SECPSD and others has been the budget challenges they have faced beginning in 2016 and continuing to this day.
“Maintaining full services and support and having to cut continually has been a challenge and we understand the province’s challenges as well, but when resources are finite and we still need to meet the needs across a vast system, it’s tough,” she said, especially when the goal is to allow for achievement and success for each school, large or small, and each student.
When she took on head office duties, she said she definitely missed being in the schools as teacher and/or principal, and now she said, “I’ll miss them the most and sometimes I think this retirement thing is not real, but it is.”
Little, by being married to Mike, also a well-known educator/administrator, has helped her navigate various situations throughout the years as well. He too, will be pulling the pin on a lengthy and satisfying career as both teacher and administrator.
Little said she began her career out of university with an internship at Maryfield School and then accepted a teaching position in Craik in 1986. Over six years she handled every level of class from Grade 3-7. After her tenure in Craik, Little moved to a principal-teacher position in Hawarden, a small village and school near Kenaston.
The two met and married during this period and decided to complete a masters’ degree in Idaho together.
“We couldn’t work there, we were on a student card, so we took extra classes beyond our master requirements,” she said with a chuckle. Upon their return to Saskatchewan, she moved to Carievale School in 1993 as teacher and principal, with Mike taking on a principalship at Gordon F. Kells High School in Carlyle.
The next major rung in the ladder brought Lynn Little to Estevan as principal at the Estevan Junior High School while Mike taught and led in Carlyle.
A major step up was taken in early 2000s when she accepted a system administration post in Weyburn as superintendent of education for two years before returning to Estevan to accept the principalship at Pleasantdale School in 2003, a post she held for seven years.
“It was the right time to do that. We had young children, a growing family. Being home more often was important. It was an exciting time,” she added.
But by 2009, the kids were old enough to do some forging on their own and Lynn returned to the administrative role of superintendent of learning co-ordination with the now South East Cornerstone division. A short-lived term as deputy director of education ended when she was offered the job as director of education upon the departure of then-director Marc Casavant.
That script is being followed again with current deputy director Keith Keating being elevated to the director’s role this summer.
With their children now all grown and living and working in and around Saskatoon, the senior Littles are taking up residence a little closer to them in east central Saskatchewan.
The children, Kelci, Kale and Shae, are enjoying careers in teaching, property management and commercial piloting lessons, respectively.
“It’s time to unwind a bit, refocus, reflect and enjoy,” she said.
Not to say she wasn’t enjoying what she was doing up until now.
“After I made the decision, I had some doubts. I love it so much, but I’m starting to get my head around the new situation,” she said.
There are more personal goals to reach for, and maybe there will be a consultancy or intermittent administrative roles to play in the future, but for now, that’s not on the table.
Dealing with the general public, as well as students and parents over the years, has left Little with a clear perspective.
“We learn what a person can or cannot do. It’s difficult to understand until you’ve walked in their shoes. Everyone’s gone to school and has an opinion on schooling and it’s difficult sometimes to convey why we did what we did and did what we had to do,” she said.
But with the board’s leadership and backing, her role as the Buck Stops Here person was made a bit easier on numerous occasions.
“It’s a tough job building connection and trust, but we must, and shrinking the system, this large geographic system, it was a challenge to make it an intimate situation.”
She tried to do that and considered it a pleasure and privilege.
Final query: Would she be watching the live streaming of the September 21 SECPSD board meeting at 1 p.m.?
“Probably,” she said with a big laugh.
