The new Principal at Legacy Park Elementary School, Mrs. Ronda Casavant, has been in education for more than 20 years, and in school administration for 15 years.
"I started my principalship experience in this [Southeast Cornerstone Public] School Division in Ogema, and that was 15 years ago where I had my first principalship position. We had some opportunities for our family to move to Manitoba, so we spent the last 12 years in [Dauphin], Manitoba where I've served as a school principal in a Kindergarten to Grade Six school there."
Casavant said her most recent school, Henderson Elementary School in the Mountain View School Division, has about half of the student population as LPES. She said she is honoured to be taking on this new role in Weyburn's newest, high-capacity learning facility.
"I have had nothing but a warm welcome and I'm very excited to be joining this school community. I absolutely have had nothing but great things to say about Legacy Park."
"The staff has been overwhelmingly supportive. You get an absolute feeling of warmth and inclusion and acceptance in the school," she shared. "I know that there has been a ton of great work done in this building already, and that's evident when you walk through the halls and you see all the great things. So it's definitely a privilege to be moving into Legacy Park as the principal."
"I do want to extend my sincere thanks to the former admin team. They have done incredible work here making sure that everything is running so smooth, and so thank you to Mrs. Dobson and her two former vice principals, Mrs. Neilmeyer and Mr. O'Dell, and I wish them all the best in their new journeys and appreciate all the hard work that they did to make Legacy Park the strong, inclusive school it is today."
She said the LPES staff are working hard to be ready for the first day, and she is honoured to be working alongside of them.
While both of the new Vice Principals at LPES, Ms. Marie Evans and Mrs. Sarah Pierce, have already been working within the SECPSD, Casavant is no stranger to our community.
"When we were living in this part of the province 15 years ago, we did live in Weyburn, so it's very nice to be back to the community. We've had a very warm welcome, and I just look forward to our family becoming part of the community and being involved."
She said her two children will be attending schools in Weyburn, one at Weyburn Comprehensive School and one at LPES. Both are involved in sports, including hockey, gymnastics, and rodeo.