Page 22 - The Brandon Sun - 2017 Community Leader Awards

22 • COMMUNITY LEADER AWARDS THE BRANDON SUN • THURSDAY, JUNE 22, 2017

» TEACHER AWARD

Chad Stiles, who is the prin-
cipal at Forrest Elementary
School, was named the win-
ner of The Brandon Sun’s
Community Leader Award in
the teacher category.
(Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun)

Stiles credits success to ‘amazing’ staff and kids

BY ERIN DEBOOY Teachers’ Society and the Council of School Leaders, and more so rewarding…that’s work we do day to day, and it can be really
than 30 years sitting on various horse industry and advisory tough and sometimes long, but when you get there, it’s amazing.
Chad Stiles’s personal life and professional one not only run boards, such as the Manitoba Rodeo Cowboys Association, the It’s amazing to see kids do well.”
parallel to each other — his strengths in both interchange Canadian Cowboys Association, and the Provincial Exhibition
frequently, working hard to help those around him achieve their of Manitoba. » edebooy@brandonsun.com
goals. » Twitter: @erindebooy
“I love the volunteer work I do,” Stiles said. “It’s about the
Professionally, Stiles is the principal at Forrest Elementary welfare of an organization and the people in it, and working
School — leading a team of exceptional teachers who work toward improvement or making changes to make things better.”
with, as Stiles describes, an amazing group of kids.
Stiles is modest about his successes, not seeing it as going
Stiles has also personally been involved with horses all his above and beyond for his students, but rather a result of wanting
life, riding for 40 years with a discipline in rodeo, and more to do his best work and having a great team.
recently focusing on developing young horses and coaching
young and beginning riders. “Nothing is easy, it’s all hard work. Whether it is on the horse
side or the professional side for me — you’re as successful as
“Whether you’re supporting kids or supporting riders … at the people working around you,” Stiles said. “We are successful
the end of the day, for me, it’s all about people, and working because we have amazing staff and amazing kids … Forrest is
with people to achieve goals,” Stiles said. “You look for common a great success because of great teachers, great kids and great
principles to apply, whether it’s for technical instruction or families. I’ve also got really great people who ride here with me
general development … certainly there are differences, but when all the time. Coaching is continuous, improvement is continuous,
we talk about development and instruction in a general way learning is ongoing, so you’re never done.”
there are many commonalities.”
And what Stiles finds most fulfilling, he said, is watching his
In what spare time he has, Stiles also enjoys volunteering. students achieve their goals.
He’s spent more than 20 years working with the Manitoba
“Watching kids improve and watching them make gains is

Expectations are a powerful tool for Ferguson

BY ERIN DEBOOY Jim Ferguson said he tries to live by the philosophy: “to
whom much is given, much is expected.” That philosophy
Jim Ferguson tries to live by the philosophy, “to whom much is has led to him being named a finalist in the teacher cate-
given, much is expected,” and as he approaches retirement on June gory of the Community Leader Awards. (File)
30, it’s safe to say he has been successful in living up to the motto.

As a teacher and then a counsellor, Ferguson’s main goal was to
help students succeed.

“I wanted to help people get back on track or just provide some
guidance for their future,” Ferguson said. “Unfortunately what ends
up happening is you’re also involved in kids who are leaving school,
and it always used to bother me that when a student was either
withdrawn (from school) or withdrew themselves … that there just
wasn’t anything within the division that we offered to stay in touch.”

So Ferguson and a group of coworkers started doing research,
planned and proposed a solution to the division — and so Neelin
High School Off-Campus was born.

“Or very first day we had zero students, and just through word
of mouth by the end of September we had about 79 to 80 students,”
Ferguson said.

“We sort of started from scratch, and believe me, we started from
scratch … honestly we were flying by the seat of our pants. We’d
investigated different schools across Canada but when you’re starting
a program, it’s a lot of trial and error … But it was a lot of fun. I
think we envisioned this, but when we hit on it, we were like, man,
this is it.”

Celebrating it’s tenth year, Neelin Off-Campus has helped
approximately 800 students graduate who otherwise wouldn’t have,
and Ferguson has been there every step of the way.

“I get really excited about it, because these are the greatest kids.
In so many ways, they just didn’t fit inside the box — for some of
them it was personal, for others, sitting in a class just didn’t work
for them..but when they get to us … our approach is to work hard
to connect with them… Our unwritten motto is opening closed
doors,” said Ferguson. “It’s been really neat, it’s a blast…the last
10 years have not been a job, it’s been an experience. A really great
experience.”

And each student has a special place in Ferguson’s heart — the
military kid from Shilo who dreamed of being a mountie but didn’t
have his Grade 12, the young man who left high school only needing
Grade 12 English to finish and came back with gusto to finish, the
young mothers who would come in with their babies just to get
their schooling done.

“You have to have a heart for the kids, and we’ve got a lot of
people down there who love those kids,” Ferguson said. “For me,
the reward is being able to see the kids come into something that
they’ve never really had a lot of success in, and start to gain a vision
of what they want for their future … start to see that they can do
it, and make it through.”

Even in retirement, Ferguson plans to continue helping and
supporting kids. He’s asked to stay on as a substitute at Neelin Off-
Campus and is eager to see what else the future might hold.

“It’s been 10 years, and I’m leaving and this place still going. In
another 10 years, they might be like, ‘Who is Jim Ferguson?’ but it
doesn’t matter, because that school will still be there.”

» edebooy@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @erindebooy