A major staffing shuffle is taking place at the Revelstoke School District this year, the result of retirements and internal promotions.
The moves see new principals at each of Revelstoke’s three elementary schools and a new vice-principal at Revelstoke Secondary School, along with new people at the school board office.
First up is James Richards, who was hired to take over from Bruce Tisdale as the district’s secretary treasurer. He comes to Revelstoke from Chilliwack, where he was the director of finance for school district 33 for the past three years. He was also the director of finance for Palliser Regional Schools in Alberta for six years and holds a degree in Management and a Chartered Accountant designation.
Ariel McDowell, the principal of Columbia Park Elementary, is moving to the board office, where she will take over as the District Principal of Support Services. She replaces Nian Zhu, who is retiring. McDowell has been the principal of CPE since 2011 and the district principal for aboriginal education since 2014.
Retiring alongside Nian Zhu is his wife Yanping Wang, the principal of Begbie View Elementary. She will be replaced by Todd Hicks, who has been the principal of Arrow Heights Elementary for the past eight years. Hicks has been an educator in Revelstoke for more than 30 years since starting as a teacher in 1985. He spent seven years as vice-principal of RSS before moving on to AHE, where he’s been for eight years.
Taking over from Hicks at AHE is Rita Tedesco, who used to teach in Revelstoke before moving to Vernon, where she was both a teacher and vice-principal for the past 10 years.
Andy Pfeiffer, the vice-principal of RSS, will be taking over as principal of Columbia Park Elementary. He has been at the high school for 25 years, including the past eight as vice principal.
Finally, Jodi Wallach is the new vice-principal at RSS. Wallach has been at RSS since 1995, when she taught math, and began working as a student counsellor starting in 1998. She has a Masters in Education in Counselling from the University of Victoria. The district credits her with helping to create RSS’s outstanding school environment.