SURREY — Jordan Tinney always knew he wanted to work with numbers and technology. The sense of accomplishment in solving problems and making things work were the driving force in making Tinney who he is today.
Now, as head of the largest and most unique school district in the province, Surrey's new superintendent is looking at a numbers game that involves juggling the needs of over 70,000 students.
But just because there's a new face in charge doesn't mean things are going to shift in a drastically new direction. According to Tinney, he and former superintendent Mike McKay share a very similar vision for the district and there aren't plans to fix what isn't broken at this time.
"I would say that we've had many conversations about where we thought the district might go and what that might look like," said Tinney.
"We had very much a shared vision, we're in a good place and we have things that we need to tune up and refine but overall the same direction and vision, same priorities."
That's not to say that Tinney isn't looking to improve. When asked about key priorities for the next few years, Tinney identified several aspects that he'd like the district to focus on.
"One of the key pieces we want to look at is the success of aboriginal learners," he said. "Right now their graduation rate is about 48 per cent, which I just can't accept as a superintendent. I think we have good people doing good work, but we're just not getting the results we want."
Comparatively, the district's overall success rate is about 86 per cent, but with 3,000 aboriginal students in the district, Tinney says something has to change.
Another priority on Tinney's radar - and one that should come as no surprise to anyone - is capital and infrastructure.
"We have more students in portables than 35 districts have students, so that's just the scale of who we are," he said.
"It's an overwhelming number of portables and that almost gets lost because we're so huge, but we absolutely need a new secondary school in East Clayton, we need a new secondary school in Grandview (Heights) and we need additions to other elementary schools because we're looking at about 6,000 students in portables."
And therein lies perhaps Tinney's biggest challenge as superintendent - keeping up with Surrey's drastic growth.
"It seems every time I drive out to Clayton there's a new set of houses," he laughed. "So our challenge is that we've grown so quickly, how do we set up our infrastructure to support our growth, because we're going to hit 80,000 students in 10 years."
One such solution is looking at concepts that might include partnerships with other community stakeholders, such as the City of Surrey.
"We're currently working with the city on what we might do in Grandview, where the city is building the aquatic centre."
According to Tinney, the school district actually owns all of the property behind the forthcoming South Surrey Aquatic Centre, and with the hopes that a new school in Grandview will be greenlit sooner rather than later, the possibility of facility-sharing to save space is being explored.
"So what we're looking at is what we could do to share our facility with the city and vice versa," he explained.
"So they own the pool and that property, and we own that land right behind them. So that whole block of land could be used as a combined city/school district community hub. So we're trying to see how that might come to fruition and see what can be done.
"What we don't want is a secondary school with two full-size gymnasiums right beside a rec centre that builds two full-size gymnasiums. There's got to be a better way."
Of course, it all comes down to funding, the issue being that the current model used by the Ministry of Education requires school districts to first have an overcapacity of students before capital is made available to build more infrastructure. It's a model that some have criticized as being too passive, but Tinney understands where the caution comes from.
"The ministry will only give you capital if you can prove you have the numbers and the reason for that unfortunately is in the past, there have been situations where schools have been built and the kids didn't arrive," he said.
"In essence, it's fair as I've seen cases where schools have been built and they didn't need to happen, but I know for us it's so clear that we need new buildings. With 6,000 kids in portables it's clear we need more schools."
Looking to the future, Tinney said the district, despite all the growing pains, is still in a very good place.
"To contrast, a district like Vancouver is struggling with decline, so for them, the conversation might be about 'what do we cut?' because when you have fewer children, you have less funding," he said.
"In Surrey, we have more children, so for example, when we roll out iPads and computing hardware, there needs to be a plan with it, it's a package, so our role in the province is we can be a model and be a model for many things."
Another such model is the district's recent move to expand a pilot program to get rid of letter grades in elementary schools and some of the earlier grades in select secondary schools, the goal being to foster more useful feedback. Considering Surrey's size, Tinney said such initiatives are easier for Surrey to try before other district's look at adopting them.
"We have developed a whole set of tools, forms and documents and we can just give them to everyone," he explained.
"You want these? Take them and massage them to your district's use, and in that way, I feel we can be and are a real leader in the district and even the province."
cpoon@thenownewspaper.com