The Revelstoke School District has hired a husband-wife team to be the principal of Begbie View Elementary and District Principal of Support Services.
Yanping Wang will start as principal of Begbie View Elementary at the beginning of August. She will take over the position from Shan Jorgensen-Adam, who left the school at the end of 2012 due to a family illness. Jane Morris and Derek Woodhurt have served as acting-principal since the start of the 2013.
Wang comes to Begbie View with more than a decade of experience as an elementary school principal. Since 2001, she has been principal at three different elementary schools in Surrey, B.C., including four years at a level one inner city school. Before that, she spent six years as principal at two different elementary schools in the Boundary/Kettle Valley area.
Wang’s hiring came after her husband Nian Zhu was selected to the district principal of support services, replacing Trish Smilie, who left late last year. The two made a visit to Revelstoke together when Zhu was interviewed for his job and at that point Wang decided to apply for the BVE position, said superintendent Mike Hooker.
“We are very pleased she did,” he said. “Colleagues and parents who have worked with Mrs. Wang describe her as student-centered, thoughtful, honest, highly principled and intelligent. Her commitment to ensuring that students are connected with school, and her track record of respecting individuals while working to build a school identity came through clearly in the selection process.”
The hiring was done with a committee of representatives from CUPE, the Revelstoke Teachers’ Association, the Board of Education, the school’s Parents Advisory Council, and school district staff.
