Maverick School celebrates 30 years of innovation and dedication to student success
For three decades the unique learning environment at Maverick School has been providing students with empowering opportunities on their educational journey.
A 30th anniversary event was held at Maverick School on Oct. 12 to celebrate its success since opening in Swift Current on this same day in 1993.
There were tours of the school facility, a formal program of celebration with dignitary speeches and musical performances, and time to visit and catch up with former students and staff.
Jayne Nicholson, who has been the principal at Maverick School since 2004, reflected on the celebration in an interview a few days afterwards.
“The day was absolutely wonderful,” she said. “We had a great crowd and many alumni here, which we hadn’t seen for a long time. So it was wonderful to catch up with them. I felt all of our speakers did a tremendous job honouring the legacy of the school.”
Three of the four previous school principals were able to attend the celebration, including founding principal Steve Small. Nicholson noted that Small created a strong legacy with his very forward-looking vision for a student-driven school that gives students a voice and a say in creating their school environment.
“That is still central to Maverick and what makes it work,” she said. “They’re part and parcel of helping us make the school. So that legacy that Steve left us and just his mindset towards how we interact with our students and how we view them, I still feel that is the biggest legacy of all.”
Small’s speech at the 25th anniversary celebration was read at this year’s celebration event by current teacher Scott Hunter. It highlighted the origins of the school and how the innovative learning approach started.
The school began with no rules and anyone could suggest a rule. It was then discussed and voted on to come to a decision. Freedom = Responsibility is another guiding principle of the school that was established in those early years. It resulted in the creation of policies and procedures that reflect direct student input.
“That’s a responsibility that is placed on them to create policies that will lead to their success,” Nicholson noted. “Every student in this building wants to graduate. So the policies they create then have to work for them. They have to be the policies that they will find motivating. The consequences that they build into their policies are ones that they believe will help to deter them from engaging in absences or not working or things that would lead to less course completion. A lot of thought goes into policy and a lot of discussion.”
School staff will provide input during these discussions and they also have a vote, but in the end the outcome is a result of a straightforward vote.
“We speak our piece at those meetings as well, and we can be sort of the voice of experience,” she said about the contribution of staff. “Sometimes ideas come out that we’ve tried in the past and we can explain whether or not they worked, why they did or didn’t. But ultimately, it is up to the students to make those final decisions. And it’s just a majority vote. It’s simple. It’s discussion, vote, and then away we go.”
The school has experienced a variety of change and challenges over the years, but its core principles have endured along with the adoption of other principles. Control theory became part of the educational approach and all staff are trained in its principles.
“Any of our staff members would tell you it’s the most life-changing professional development they’ve ever had in their life,” she said. “You have to recognize that the only person you can control in this world is you. You control your responses, your choices, your behaviours, and you have to recognize that you cannot control anyone else. So when we look at our students, we know that we can’t make them do schoolwork. We can’t make them want to change behaviours. It has to come from them. All we can ever give them is information.”
The role of teachers at the school have changed over the years. It evolved from primarily providing tutorial support while using courses from a former provincial correspondence school to taking on a wider set of responsibilities, including creating, grading and delivering most the courses. It required an increase in the number of staff and she appreciates the support from the Chinook School Division for the school.
“We have an incredible staff team,” she said. “They make sure that the students remain the priority in the building.”
Enrolment has increased over the years along with a growing awareness about the school. There used to be a 45seat
cap, but it has been removed. There are currently around 75 students, including 13 part-time learners. There are around 45 students on any given day in the building.
The school opened 30 years ago with 12 students in vacated offices at a downtown plaza. From 1995 to 2016 the school was located in a building at the corner of 4th Avenue NW and Chaplin Street West. It found a permanent home in 2016 in a modern facility created through the renovation of a school building located next to the former Oman School.
Maverick School provides regular academic courses, but they are delivered differently to accommodate the needs of students looking for an alternative to the regular school system. An important motivation for staff is knowledge students have the opportunity to reach success.
“When I bring a student in, I know that probably what will happen is they will start to enjoy coming to school, because we see that often,” she said. “So then attendance issues go away. As well, for many students the anxiety and stress level are reduced, they can manage their own time with the support of the teacher, their marks tend to go up, and they really are doing better academic work.”
The school’s outdoor education, visual arts and music programs, including the annual Through Our Eyes coffeehouse and art auction, are important components of an approach aimed at creating a conducive learning environment for students.
Speakers at the 30th anniversary celebration paid tribute to the school’s significant legacy. Chinook Board of Education trustee Ken Duncalfe said his involvement with the school as a trustee has opened his eyes to what the school is all about and how it is changing lives.
Chinook Superintendent of Schools Angela Hermanson said Maverick is a perfect name for the school, because the word is associated with qualities such as courage, authenticity, originality, one who blazes their own trail, innovative, influential and daring.
Harv Martinez, who was school principal from 1994 to 1997, said he is thankful for the opportunity to have been a part of the school’s rich history. The school overcame doubt and scepticism while continuing to flourish and grow.
“What has remained constant is that this school and this school division continue to provide a product in a community that other schools cannot,” he said. “It’s meeting the needs of students that need it done just a bit differently than tradition would define. It continues to produce young adults who move forward and have a better chance of achieving their individual goals, because of the skills they acquire while being here at Maverick.”