Sid Jawanda, the Principal of Duchess Park Secondary School, has been elected as the President-elect of the BC Principals and Vice Principals Association.

By Tommy Osborne

BC Association of Principals

Duchess Park Principal takes on provincial role

May 29, 2025 | 5:58 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Sid Jawanda, the Principal of Duchess Park Secondary School, has been elected as the President-elect of the BC Principals and Vice Principals Association.

“I’ve been on the board for the last five years, elected by my colleagues, and I was really honoured recently to have been elected as the President-elect,” he said.

As the President-elect, Jawanda will spend a year learning what the role entails before stepping into the position himself in July, 2026. He explained the Association’s focus is on making things better for principals and vice principals across the province, and by doing so, improve the educational experience for students.

“We try and make things better for principals, vice principals, by providing opportunity for them to learn, to grow, by providing support, by providing advocacy at the provincial level for our work, to make sure that people have time and resources to do the job that they want to do, which is improve learning and make life better for kids,” he said.

He explains that he ran on advocacy, so as the soon-to-be President of the Association he definitely plans on bringing a lot of advocacy. While a lot of this will be to the provincial government regarding resources, he says he also wants to advocate for the work of principals and vice principals to make sure everyone understands the work they do.

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“Everybody has the same goals. We all have the goal of improving schools for our kids and our families and our communities. So I believe that I can sit at those tables and work for the benefit of our members,” he said.

Jawanda, of course, live in Northern B.C., and he adds he’s looking forward to bringing a northern perspective to a provincial association.

“I do understand the issues that are going on in places like Metro-Vancouver and Surrey, where they’re struggling for space and their schools are overcrowded. And then we have the opposite problem in some of our rural centres where we’re struggling to fill our classrooms, and sometimes districts have to make tough decisions whether or not they can keep schools open. How do we provide all the courses we need when student populations are low, and things like that in rural areas. Different challenges in different areas, and I have a good perspective on the whole picture,” he said.

While he will officially become the President in July, 2026, he will step into his role as the President-elect in July, 2025.

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