Naryn Searcy will take over as principal at Similkameen Elmentary Secondary School this fall.
The announcement was made in a press release from the school board Tuesday afternoon. Current principal Cate Turner is retiring.
The new vice principal for the school will be Tom Eccleston, who comes from School District No. 62 (Sooke) a suburb of Victoria.
Searcy cut her teeth as a vice principal at SESS coming to the school in September 2017. Prior to that she worked for Okanagan-Skaha board where she was lead teacher for the Indigenous education team focussing on Indigenous Perspectives in the K-12 curriculum. She previously held the position of district helping teacher for Aboriginal Education, English teacher and First Peoples English teacher
at Princess Margaret Secondary School. She also taught English 9-12, English Literature 12 and was the teacher-librarian at Princess Margaret Secondary School in Penticton.
Eccleston holds a Master of Education degree in Leadership. He also holds a Special Education Specialist Diploma (with honours), and an Honours Music Specialist diploma and Bachelor of Education in Music. Eccleston is currently a Special Education/Inclusion and Behaviour Program teacher and a Computer Science Teacher in his current school. He has previously taught music, band, Learning Assistance, Math and Computers.
“The Board of Education congratulates Ms. Searcy on her appointment to the principal position of Similkameen Elementary-Secondary School in Keremeos and wishes outgoing principal, Cate Turner the best in her retirement. The Board would also like to thank Ms. Turner for her years of service to the District,” the press release stated.
