School principal’s legacy lives on through literacy
Lori Burley was a special principal during her 12 years at Tillicum Elementary.
So when she died this past summer after an illness, school staff decided something should be done to honour her memory.
That led to a plan to rename the school library the Lori Burley Learning Commons, a move approved by the Greater Victoria school board.
Acting principal Brent Kelly said Burley, who was 61 when she died, was a big supporter of the library. “She did an amazing job of having a focus on literacy here at the school.”
The school held a memorial event in the library for Burley this fall, Kelly said.
“We didn’t do any official renaming of the library at the time,” he said. “Her family, her husband and daughters were there, and extended family. It was really, really very touching.”
School board vice-chairman Tom Ferris said Burley was “a wonderful, wonderful person” with a far-reaching reputation.
“She was the kind of principal where people wanted to work in her school,” Ferris said. “People would be looking for a vacancy in that school so they could go and work with her.”
He said Burley was very firm in her beliefs, “but she was also somebody who just bonded easily with children.”
Teacher Jodi Dagg said Burley helped to establish breakfast and lunch programs at the school and encouraged students to learn art techniques presented by visitors from outside the school.
Sports and technology were also important to her, Dagg said. “Everybody will tell you that she supported whatever program that they were involved in, and did all those extra things.”
Kelly said Burley was dedicated to enhancing the school.
“She was very hands-on and very involved with the community, and looking for ways that she could bring programs into the school,” he said. “The library was one of her passions, but certainly another of her passions was to have programming for before and after school.”
That led to partnerships with organizations like the Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence and the Burnside Gorge Community Association, Kelly said.
Kelly has taken over as principal on a temporary basis and said his mandate is clear: “It’s to make sure that her programs and her legacy are looked after in the short term, and to pass that baton on to whoever’s next.”
Burley’s career in education included stints as vice-principal at Victoria West and Campus View elementaries, and as a teacher at several Greater Victoria school district sites. She graduated from the University of Victoria and took her first teaching job in Tofino in 1977.