The search is over for a new leader at the helm for the St. Clair Catholic District School Board.
Trustees selected Dan Parr, currently superintendent of education with the Huron-Perth Catholic District School Board, as the new director of education. He will assume his new positions effective Dec. 1.
“I am thrilled to be chosen to lead the St. Clair Catholic District School Board, a board with a provincial reputation for excellence in Catholic education,” Parr stated. “It will be an honour to work with such fine people, trustees, the senior administration team, educators and support staff.”
Carol Bryden, chair of the board, said Parr was the perfect fit.
“He’s going to be an excellent leader,” she said. “Dan has a very strong reputation around the province, he has a strong reputation in curriculum and in leading many groups. He’s been the leader of the executive group of the Catholic Curriculum Co-operative, which is an amalgamation of 17 different Catholic boards, including the biggest boards in the province – Toronto and Durham, Dufferin-Peel – he’s been able to lead that group.”
Bryden said Parr works in a board similar to St. Clair.
“He understands the kind of problems that we have, he understands the culture that we have, having one urban centre in their board, with a lot of smaller rural communities, which is very much like Lambton County and Kent County,” she said.
Bryden said a number of candidates applied to the position, and they short-listed the group to four before Parr was selected.
Parr began his career as a teacher with the former Elgin County Board of Education in 1986. He became a Catholic leader in 1995 as vice-principal of St. Michael Catholic Secondary School in Stratford and later served as its principal.
In 2004 he became assistant to the superintendent and one year later was promoted to superintendent of education.
Parr takes over for Paul Wubben, who retired this past summer.
