Students are officially finished for the year at Lake Cowichan Secondary School (LCSS), but before they were completely done with last minute assignments, exams, and of course the grad ceremony, students and teachers learned that their new principal, taking over in September, has been chosen.
Nicole Boucher is currently the vice principal at George Bonner Middle School in Mill Bay, but come September she will be commuting from her home in Duncan to Lake Cowichan.
Boucher already has a history at LCSS as she was vice principal at the school from September 2003 to June 2006, and says she already has a great working relationship with the teachers and staff at the school.
“I feel connected to that staff. They are a lovely group of teachers.” She adds that she thinks there is only one teacher she does not know and with whom she will have to get acquainted.
Dani Garner, the current vice principal, and Boucher have worked together in the past, and Boucher says “we have an excellent working relationship and I feel we will be a strong team.”
As far as making any changes or adjusting any objectives the school may have, Boucher says she has ideas but she does not want to charge ahead. “Any ideas I have I would have to present to the staff first. Certainly before dreaming up things, I would have to find my place.”
She plans on maintaining Peter Jory’s (the current principal) Plan 100 initiative that focusses on the successful graduation of all LCSS students.
Jory says that Boucher is a thoughtful educator who understands the history of the school and the community.
“She is universally well liked by the teachers and the kids,” he says and adds that he thinks that Boucher and Garner will make a great team.
“It’s a great opportunity for Nicole and I think she will be well received. Since she was last here she has had several posts and I think she is completely ready to take it on.”
Boucher, who has three sons and who, with her husband, manages to juggle career and family says she is very excited to be back in the Lake Cowichan community.
She was even in attendance at this year’s graduation ceremony which took place on June 23.