He was considered the educator, but the past 35 years have been as much a learning experience for Blaine Veitch as the students he taught and the staff he managed.
Now a career that started in the gymnasium is ending in the administration office. Veitch will retire as superintendent of the Flin Flon School Division effective July 31.
“I will mostly miss the people,” he said. “We have so many great students, staff, parents, trustees and community members that I get to interact with on a regular basis. I still enjoy the challenge of the job. It was never boring and I will miss that.”
Throughout his tenure, Veitch has bore witness to perhaps the most dramatic educational evolution Flin Flon has experienced.
Technology has gained influence, teaching methods have progressed and societal expectations on schools have grown. Those are the obvious changes, but there have been others.
“The division has declined almost 50 per cent in enrollment over the years I have worked here,” Veitch said. “We were forced to reduce the number of schools and look to ways to become more efficient, while still maintaining quality educational services.”
Flin Flon itself has also become more diverse, Veitch observed.
“We were a more homogeneous community when I first moved to town,” he said, “and today we have a much wider range of students coming to school, which has challenged us to adapt.”
Veitch joined the division in 1981 as a phys-ed teacher at Hapnot Collegiate. It was his first teaching gig out of university.
Even though he grew up 600 km away in tiny Rossburn, Manitoba, he was quite familiar with Flin Flon. When he was 12, he had spent part of the summer in the community with the family of Herb and Lucille Whitbread, whom his sister knew from her own teaching days.
“I went home with very fond memories of Flin Flon,” Veitch recalled. “I quickly applied when a job [in Flin Flon] came open when I was graduating from university.”
Upon his return to Flin Flon, he was drawn not only to his new teaching career, but also to the surrounding nature and welcoming people.
If Veitch seemed destined to come to Flin Flon, his career path was not always so clear.
Growing up, his biggest aspiration was to play hockey in the NHL. That never panned out, but as a student who enjoyed sports and school, he found a suitable alternative in teaching.
When Veitch began as a teacher, he had no administrative aspirations.
“I was too busy teaching and coaching,” he said. “In fact, other than knowing [then-]superintendent Syl Didur and a few of the trustees, I never paid any attention to the school board or their business.”
That would change over time.
“At a point, around seven to 10 years into my career, I felt I needed a change in order to keep challenged,” Veitch said.
In and around 1990, Veitch moved on from phys-ed and into guidance counselling at Hapnot. He also taught a variety of classes, including social studies, history, biology and English.
In 1993 he was named principal of the alternative high school Many Faces Education Centre, then located in the lower level of the Friendship Centre.
Veitch moved back to Hapnot the following year as a half-time vice principal. In 1998, now armed with a Master’s degree, he became assistant superintendent of the division.
“I was lucky to be offered an administration position and really enjoyed that work,” he said. “Once I was in school administration, the assistant superintendent position was an opportunity that eventually led to working directly under the school board.”
Veitch climbed one last rung on the division ladder in 2002 when he was named superintendent following Dan Reagan’s retirement.
His tenure would prove eventful. Perhaps the biggest change under his watch came in 2005 when trustees closed Parkdale School due to structural concerns, and then opted to reopen the downsized building as Many Faces.
“It was a wonderful little school,” Veitch said of Parkdale, a K-8 school. “It was a very difficult time for the Parkdale School community and on the division as we went through the process of closing the school. I learned that heartfelt feelings are more important than numbers, and there is often not only one answer to an issue.”
Looking back on his career, Veitch finds it difficult to narrow down his list of favourite memories.
“I fondly remember the years that I coached and was involved in the outdoor education program,” he said. “I was able to spend time outside of the classroom with so many different students [and] I got to know them as people. I have great memories of several teams that excelled and played as well as any other school teams in the province.”
Veitch started to seriously think about retirement last summer. Not only had that option become feasible, but he also yearned to spend more time with his family, including his grandchild.
He was also keen on taking part in more recreational activities, travelling and doing further volunteer work in a community that has become his home.
Trustee Murray Skeavington, chair of the school board, says Veitch will be missed.
“Throughout a 35-year career and for the past 14 years as superintendent, Blaine has provided the Flin Flon School Division with a student-centred, service-oriented leadership style,” Skeavington wrote in a memo to staff. “His many accomplishments, both locally and as a contributing member of the provincial MASS [Manitoba Association of School Superintendents] organization, have helped to strengthen our educational system.”
Veitch said it has been both a privilege and an honour to work in Flin Flon and for the school division.
“The division has provided me with many opportunities, many different roles and many enjoyable challenges,” he said. “I always felt supported and encouraged to become the best educator I could be. I had great mentors and worked with many wonderful, caring educators over my career. I am grateful to these people and I am pleased to know that there are many great staff members working in the school division prepared to continue the good work.”
Based on what Veitch has learned about education these past 35 years, he has predictions on where education is – and is not – headed in the future.
“I believe the basic purpose of schools, to prepare the youth of today with skills and abilities to become contributing global citizens of tomorrow, will remain,” he said. “The exact skills and abilities will continue to evolve, but the root of good education will continue to lie in the strength of the human relationships within schools. Relationships will become even more important in the future as society becomes more individual due to the effects of technology, and fewer face-to-face personal interactions are common.”
Trustees have yet to name a replacement for Veitch, whose retirement became official last Thursday, Jan. 14.
