By Thomas Doucet

SD57

SD57 names first Indigenous assistant superintendent

Apr 5, 2022 | 11:24 AM

PRINCE GEORGE — School District 57 has named its first Indigenous assistant superintendent.

Pam Spooner was named to the position after spending the previous three years as SD57’s director of the Indigenous Education Department.

“I’ve never heard of anything like it in the province, with an Indigenous superintendent specifically for Indigenous education, reporting right to the district’s superintendent,” said Sharel Warrington, chair of the Board of Trustees. “Pam is a strong, compassionate, and humble Indigenous leader. She is well-positioned to promote the development of policies and programs for Indigenous learners and to collaborate, and build relationships with local, regional, and provincial organizations on education initiatives.”

Spooner is Gitxsan from the wilps Niisto (house of matriarch chief Niisto) of the Laxseel (Frog) Clan. She is also of Wet’suwet’en ancestry. She grew up on a reserve in the Hazelton area (born in Kispiox) before moving to Lheidli territory in 1989 where she embarked on a long path of education and raised her five children. These factors all played a role in the Gitxsan name bestowed to her: Guu si wilaaks’m hlgu ganaa’w which means “she is always teaching – Little Frog Teacher.”

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Spooner has previously worked in several different educational positions including some with large leadership roles. She was a math teacher, an elementary school teacher, a vice-principal in both elementary and secondary schools. Spooner also spent a year in the Okanagan as principal of their Indigenous education system.

“I have never been about hierarchy, it is all about the work,” said Spooner. “This is the work of reconciliation, having a stronger Indigenous voice at all the tables, but it’s important to know that I was already doing that. That work was already underway because School District 57 made Indigenous education outcomes a priority. They are actually proving that they respect that reconciliation needs to happen, and they respect the nations, the rights-holders, because there is still so much farther to go before we can say things are where they should be for Indigenous students and staff. But this district has just demonstrated again that they are committed at the leadership level to the major changes that have to occur.”

Having an Indigenous Assistant Superintendent was one of the suggestions that came out of a Special Advisor’s Report in 2021, commissioned by the Ministry of Education.