CAP President

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"An Association of School Leaders "

Eric Estabrooks , CAP President 2009-2010

President's Message

Welcome to the website of the Canadian Association of Principals. I am honored to be serving you as the CAP president for 2009-2010. I salute the dedicated school administrators in this nation as they serve the best interests of their students, staff and communities in their quest for school improvement.

This website was developed to assist you, the member, by providing you with information on how the national association operates on your behalf. This website chronicles information on national programs, professional statements, awards programs, conferences, sponsors and partnerships. One of our goals this year is to improve and redevelop this website. We would appreciate input through your provincial or territorial CAP representative.

CAP has a long and positive history. We are a national organization representing the interests of provincial and territorial school leaders. We have attracted some very important partners to further our goal of assisting students and administrators. Our mission statement from our strategic plan gives us clear direction.

The mission of the Canadian Association of Principals is to represent the professional perspectives of principals and vice-principals at the national level and to provide the leadership necessary to ensure quality educational opportunities for Canadian students.

Fundamental to the CAP mission is the effective representation of students’ interests at all tables where educational policy is being discussed.

The first issue of our CAP Journal profiles how CAP serves its members as a national organization. This issue – “Who We Are and What We Do” features the good work done in each of our affiliates, noting their history, their leaders, their governance structure, and their key issues. Our Journal is a first class professional periodical controlled by one of our CAP Committees and published under the jurisdiction of Marie Schutt, our executive assistant. CAP will publish two editions of the Journal this year, supplemented by electronic newsletters which we are in the process of developing with our national sponsor – School Specialty. We hope that you enjoy the two editions this year and share them with your staff and emerging leaders.

Our strategic plan reflects our current goals. Our Code of Ethics and Conflict of Interest Policy serves as a model for Canadian principals. Last year’s annual conference in Winnipeg was a resounding success – professionally fulfilling for our membership and financially profitable for our organization. Over 500 delegates attended Pillars of Leadership last year. Please consult this website for information on this year’s conference – Against the Grain -in Regina, Saskatchewan from April 22 – April 24, 2010. CAP continues to honor our many national and international partnerships and is consulted on a regular basis for our input.

Under the guidance of our past president, Terry Young, CAP has dealt with a current challenge posed by the withdrawal of both Ontario Principal’s Organizations – the CPCO and the OPC. We regret this action because CAP will be deprived of Ontario’s perceptive point of view at our Board Meetings. But CAP remains strong, representing the interests of school administrators from 9 provinces and 3 territories. We invite our Ontario colleagues to maintain an affiliation with CAP by purchasing Associate Memberships.

Over the next year we will continue to develop a statement on the ‘Role of the Principal’, and examine affiliate services we hope to provide to all members. As always, we will consult extensively with the affiliates and with academics to provide our members with the best guidance that we possibly can.

Recognition of leadership and distinction within its ranks and in our schools is a high priority for CAP. We are in the process of reviewing applications for the CAP Principal of the Year Award, and the CAP Vice-Principal of the Year Award. The Student Leadership Awards will be dealt with in the New Year. These recognitions illustrate commitment to the promotion of excellence.

The true strength of CAP is the sharing and diversity at our board CAP table. Although we are represented by affiliates of different sizes and different cultural contexts – we share the same challenges. We enrich one another’s lives by often offering one another new solutions and approaches to similar problems. There is a real partnership among the affiliates at the table and we work together as a CAP family.

We thank our sponsors whose support allows us to continue to work on your behalf. We are especially grateful for continued sponsorship from School Specialty, Lifetouch, Jostens, McDonald’s and Herff Jones. We thank each organization for their continued support.

In closing, I wish you all the best for a successful year. I encourage you to share and distribute your leadership. We can do so much more working together than we can when working alone. Make the most of leadership opportunities and finish each week by being able to list something that you have done for yourself that week. If we don’t take care of ourselves, we will be less able to take care of our buildings.

Respectfully Submitted,
Eric Estabrooks