Palliser Regional Schools celebrated its local, provincial and national award winners and its many staff nominated for their outstanding work and dedication at an annual recognition dinner in Lethbridge Wednesday.
The awards acknowledged a range of achievements from an innovative project to preserve local history, to creating a business centre in a small rural village to several nods recognizing outstanding teaching.
Recognized this year were:
- Principal Mark Lowe of Picture Butte High School, partner in the Coyote Flats Oral History Project, which won a Governor General’s History Award for Excellence in Community Programming. Lowe started a multimedia course at PBHS. Students worked with the Centre for Oral History and Tradition at the University of Lethbridge and documented on video the history of Coyote Flats Pioneer Village.
- Palliser Communications Officer Dawn Sugimoto received the Public School Boards’ Association of Alberta Special Contribution to Public School Education Media Award for her ongoing work to celebrate Palliser and public education.
- Dan Doerksen, Low German Mennonite liaison worker, received the inaugural Palliser Ambassador Award, for his efforts to support LGM families with their educational needs and to access other services the community.
- Board Chair Colleen Deitz and Facilities Services Supervisor Darren Stocker were recognized for their work in partnership with the Milo Agricultural Society Sustainability Committee to create the Milo Business Centre in the school. The project received the Award of Merit from SouthGrow Regional Initiative, an economic development alliance in southern Alberta.
- Jami Wiebe, a teacher at Coalhurst High School, was named Palliser’s nominee for the Edwin Parr Award recognizing outstanding first-year teachers.
- Four teachers were nominated for the Excellence in Teaching Award this year: Emma Lenz and Karen Smith-Myles from Coalhurst Elementary School; Mitchell Van Dyk, from Dorothy Dalgliesh School in Picture Butte; and Diesta McMillan, from Menno Simons Christian School.
- Jeremy Grigor, an apprentice mechanic, placed second in a provincial bus mechanics skills competition this spring.
Each of the honourees were invited to a dinner in Lethbridge with the board and Central Office administrative team and their principal or supervisor.