Last day on job for Terry Sullivan

NEWS/ SCHOOLS — Superintendent of schools Terry Sullivan is working his last official day today but he has a few things to get done before he can look forward to skiing and golf.

Sullivan is retiring after a 40-year career in education that has spanned several provinces but he’ll spend a few days at home finishing up some reports for the Kamloops-Thompson school board before beginning vacation for a few weeks. After that he’ll be doing some work for Thompson Rivers University and the Ministry of Education.

The last 15 years of his working life were spent in Kamloops and he intends to continue living here.

While Sullivan is credited for being a progressive educator and administrator, he gives much of the credit for the Kamloops-Thompson School District’s successes to other administrators, such as Ross Dickson, Ross Spina and Greg Howard.

Among recent accomplishments are changes in the school calendar, construction of the trades centre and the Day of Sucwentwecw, a day honouring Aboriginal peoples.

Sullivan said he’s seen many changes in the school system since his early days as a teacher in Halifax. The “good old days” of education weren’t as great as people sometimes think, he said.

At Sullivan’s last school board meeting in early July, Trustee John Harwood called Sullivan a “fabulous leader, that rock of foundation that has helped this board become what it’s become. No matter what the problem, Dr. Sullivan would always deal with it in a respectful and meaningful way. You don’t get much of that in today’s society.”

Karl deBruijn now moves up from assistant superintendent to fill Sullivan’s spot as superintendent.