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August 27, 2004
New principals' positive outlook
Gifted and special needs students, tikkun olam, music on TTES
agenda.
KYLE BERGER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
They consider themselves to be the perfect team. And as Cathy Lowenstein
and Donna Palmer-Dodds take on the 2004/2005 school year as the
acting principals of Vancouver Talmud Torah elementary school (TTES),
they will use that teamwork to achieve success.
Lowenstein and Palmer-Dodds spent the last school year working together
a co-vice-principals. This year, they have been promoted to acting
principals, a title that will be re-evaluated once a permanent head
of Judaic studies has been hired. But regardless of title, Lowenstein
and Palmer-Dodds are the leaders of TTES, a responsibility they
are very excited about.
"As soon as the opportunity arose, 20 million ideas came into
my head," Palmer-Dodds said. "When you've been a teacher
so long, you look at it from that perspective and say, 'Why doesn't
administration do this? Or why doesn't administration do that?'
So now it's time we can do it."
"We had taken on a lot of responsibilities as vice-principals
and started a lot of initiatives that we wanted to see through,"
added Lowenstein. "Many people in the community have worked
with Donna and me in the past year and have seen what we're capable
of doing."
The principals came to TTES in very different ways. Lowenstein,
who had been a teacher in the Vancouver public school system for
more than 20 years, had moved back to Vancouver in 2002 after teaching
at a Jewish day school in Toronto for a few years. She got herself
onto the TTES board as the education chair and then applied for
the vice-principal position.
Palmer-Dodds had taught in the Vancouver public and private school
system for many years before following her husband to India and
Ottawa for almost a decade. After he was transferred back to Vancouver,
she ended up spending four months in the spring of 2003 teaching
at TTES as a maternity leave fill-in. She then applied for the vice-principal
position.
The two were offered the job as a team and they quickly became TTES's
dynamic duo.
"I think the reason Cathy and I compliment each other so well
is because Cathy's background has always been in elementary school
and mine has always been in high school," Palmer-Dodds said.
"Also, she came in [to TTES] from an administrative perspective
and I came in from the teacher's perspective. So we each could see
how the school was run on both levels and we can look at things
from both sides of the coin."
"It's been somewhat like a marriage," Lowenstein continued.
"It's not very often that you find someone that you can work
with so well."
Lowenstein and Palmer-Dodds know that they have their work cut out
for them this year, but they are very excited about the chance to
implement some of the new programs they have created.
Some of those initiatives are a program for gifted students, a tikkun
olam (repairing the world) leadership program for the Grade
6 and 7 students and a new music program that will include guitar
lessons and a major musical production. The school will also feature
a resource room for special needs students where they can get the
extra help they need.
"We're striving for excellence in all ways and we're trying
to build a learning community," Palmer-Dodds said.
Lowenstein added: "It will be very evident that Talmud Torah
is on a turnaround because we are keeping our students and student
learning at the forefront."
The school's positive outlook for the future comes in the wake of
the controversial departure of former head of school Eyal Daniel.
Responding to queries about the situation, Talmud Torah board chair
David Kauffman said the board "has been concerned with the
turnover of senior administration staff in the school over the years
and we're working hard to put in the policies in human resources
practices to ensure the school recruits and keeps the long-term
leadership that we all desire."
Kauffman said a replacement for Daniel is already being sought.
"We didn't expect to be able to put somebody in until next
September because of the hiring cycle [but] the search committee
has already started up," said Kauffman. "In the interim,
Cathy [Lowenstein] and Donna [Palmer-Dodds] will be acting co-principals
with assistance from other professionals in the community."
In terms of Judaics, longtime TTES teacher Myra Michaelson will
serve as the Judaics co-ordinator until a full-time professional
is hired. The school will also work with various rabbis in the community
to ensure they maintain a high standard of Jewish content.
Lowenstein and Palmer-Dodds encourage all parents in the community
to set an appointment to tour the school or ask any questions concerning
the school's programming or future.
For more information about TTES, call 604-736-7307.
Kyle Berger is a freelance journalist and graphic designer
living in Richmond.
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