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Written by: Madeleine Homer and Zara Ahluwalia
Photos by: Mr. Alchesi
This year, we have the pleasure of welcoming our new principal, Mr. Dawson, and vice principal, Ms. Sagar, into the TAB community. Both have graciously volunteered their time for an interview to get to know them better.
You may have seen Mr. Dawson outside holding the door, but he is more than just a smiling face. After going through intense training with the RCMP, he decided to turn his focus to educating youth. As different opportunities arose, he found himself opening Garth Webb, and eventually becoming a principal for the first time here at TAB.
INTERVIEWER: How are you finding the school spirit at TAB?
MR. DAWSON: I’m finding everyone really really welcoming, lots of smiling faces from staff and students. People are super polite; very very helpful in terms of questions that I have about the school or student leadership. So far, it’s been a really warm welcome for me here at Blakelock.
INTERVIEWER: That’s so good to hear. What inspired you to go into education?
MR. DAWSON: That’s a great question. Prior to being a teacher, I worked in the military with the cadet program. While I was doing that, I also went through the recruitment process to be a police officer with the RCMP. I went through training for that, and it just wasn’t for me, or I wasn’t for it. When I resigned from that, I thought, ‘You know, I really like working with youth in a really positive way.’ Then, I decided maybe teaching is what I should do.
INTERVIEWER: Did you originally plan to be a principal when you started out?
MR. DAWSON: Nope. I just kind of thought, ‘I’ll get into the classroom, figure out if I can do this really well, and if I enjoy it, I’ll just take this one step at a time.’ Then, opportunities came up, and different experiences happened, and I found myself as a principal.
INTERVIEWER: What other schools have you worked in?
MR. DAWSON: I’ve worked at Syl Apps School; I’ve worked at M.M. Robinson; I was part of the team that opened Garth Webb. Then I went to White Oaks, that was my first school as a VP [vice principal], and then I went to Aldershot as a VP, and now I’m here at Blakelock as a principal.
INTERVIEWER: What motivates you at work?
MR. DAWSON: Working with young people. It’s an easy job to wake up for each day because you get to see a lot of smiling faces, you get to work with young people, you get to work with great staff. I enjoy the problem solving…there’s a lot of things that impact a student’s ability to do really well in school beyond just the curriculum. Curriculum is really important. I enjoy the conversations about what makes a whole person, and how I can contribute to helping a student not just earn their diploma, which is really important…but also just to grow as a human being. That’s what motivates me each day.
INTERVIEWER: What initiatives do you plan to take to improve our school?
MR. DAWSON: Well some are coming to us already. I wouldn’t say necessarily improve, but let’s say change and grow. From an improvement perspective, there’s going to be a lot of renovations happening. This building is gonna look different in a few years time from when I started here, and that’s great. Lots of renovations and updates to the building, so that’ll be nice. There’s different programming coming, but this school is already doing a lot of really great things, so it’s more…adding to all the great things that are already happening at Blakelock. We have the I-STEM program that’s coming, that’s gonna start next year. We already have some fantastic athletics, and our arts programming. We have our CPP program here and those students doing fantastic things in the community. The ball is rolling in a really great direction here at Blakelock and I’m just excited to be part of some of the changes that are coming.
INTERVIEWER: We couldn’t agree more.
Ms. Sagar, our new VP, is an educator who has experience in more than just the regular schooling system. She has taught students in the jail system and worked as a consultant for Indigenous students and their justice. After a few transitions between schools, Ms. Sagar went on to Aldershot and is now Vice Principal at our school.
INTERVIEWER: What other roles have you had in schools?
MS. SAGAR: Well this is my first time being a vice principal, but I’ve been teaching for 25 years. I started off in the jail system when I first started teaching, and that was in the Belleville area. That was when I moved to Halton, maybe 20 years ago, so I taught at Lord Elgin, which closed, and then it became Robert Bateman. I taught at Burlington Central, and then I went to the board office, and I worked as the Indigenous Education and Equity Consultant at the board. Then I was at Aldershot, after that, and now I’m here at Blakelock, and I could not be happier.
INTERVIEWER: That’s incredible. How did you find teaching in the jail system?
MS. SAGAR: I loved every second of it. It was students that had pretty large criminal records, for many different things, including murder. But I loved them, I got to teach them all day long for 3 years, so I knew those students really well. And the ones that got out of jail, they even came to my wedding. They were great.
INTERVIEWER: How are you liking our school, and the atmosphere?
MS. SAGAR: I love it! I could not be happier being here. I think the students are fantastic, like I feel like you enter the building and there’s a…really joyful energy, which I think is really refreshing, cause sometimes you go to schools and you can feel an energy of like, I don’t know if I like my learning. I think most students are really happy to be here, loving being in school, and the teaching staff could not be nicer. They’ve been so welcoming, so I'm thrilled to be here.
INTERVIEWER: What are your main goals as vice principal [of TAB]?
MS. SAGAR: My main goal is to never diminish hope. So I hope all students have hope in whatever pathway they want to be in. I believe deeply in equity and inclusion, so I want all students to see themselves represented, not just in the hallways, but in their classrooms, in their curriculum, in what they’re learning. I hope students know more about Truth and Reconciliation while I’m here, because I’m an Eagle Feather carrier, I’ve been gifted that by an Elder, and so with that comes a lot of responsibility to teach truth and work towards reconciliation. Those would be some of my goals for sure.
INTERVIEWER: Going off of that point, how do you find being an Indigenous ambassador?
MS. SAGAR: Well, it’s not as much as an ambassador, but an ally to Indigenous issues. That’s my university degree, Indigenous issues, and I went to university in Thailand, working with Hilltribe communities, which are Indigenous communities. I was working with them after the Vietnam War, a lot of the Indigenous communities were displaced because of the Vietnam War, so I worked with them to help repatriate them into their communities.
INTERVIEWER: So, how would you describe your current position at the school?
MS. SAGAR: You know, it’s a totally different world, and the one thing I’m struggling with is as a teacher, you have a pretty good reputation, so the kids all know you, and so they know what you stand for, but here, because I’m new, and I don’t have my own classes, it’s hard for kids to know who I am and what I stand for. So that’s been a challenge for me to get out there and so I’m trying to be in the halls, and in the cafeteria, and joining meetings if I can…I’ve been trying to meet students that way, and just pop into classes, and get to know people. It’s [being a VP] a different role.
As you can see, our new administration members are not only exceptionally qualified, they are both motivated, caring, and interesting people. They each have compelling stories to tell about their experiences prior to working at Blakelock.
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