Saddle Lake member appointed to head new high school

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Dr. Phyllis Cardinal, an educator with 23 years' experience, has been appointed to lead an ambitious project that will see an Aboriginal secondary school start up in Edmonton by autumn of 2000. Whether this means culturally based studies offered at that level in existing institutions or their own school site has yet to be determined through research and consultation with all stakeholders, Dr. Cardinal said.

Her one-year contract for the position of administrator was effective Oct. 1 and was announced last month by Dr. Emery Dosdall, superintendent of the Edmonton Public School Board.

"We firmly believe that the success of this secondary school is wholly dependent on our connection with the Aboriginal community. It will be Dr. Cardinal's role to guide us in the right direction and to build those necessary links," Dr. Dosdall said.

He said their priority is to ease students' transition from elementary to high school, so they won't drop out during the critical Grade 9 and 10 years.

"How do we demonstrate to them that this [going to school] is relevant?" he asks.

Dr. Cardinal's role will be to look at two things: how will they develop a world-class school, and by what means will they enlist the help of communities and Elders in developing the concept, Dr. Dosdall said.

Dr. Cardinal said that as an Aboriginal person who has lived in "both worlds," she understands that students need strong family support to get ahead.

"The value systems of our people are important," Dr. Cardinal said, and she stressed the importance of keeping their Native languages.

"I survived in the city; I had the gift of determination not to give up," she said. Now she says she has a unique opportunity to help develop a high school that "lends to excellence and shows students they [too] are capable of learning," she said.

On the topic of developing a secondary school program, she added, "My vision is to involve the Aboriginal community. I'm looking at the parents and the students and the Elders, [and] Aboriginal businesses as a partnership to become vested interest groups into its development and implementation."

She said the opportunity occurs now, in part, because there are 5,000 Aboriginal students in the Edmonton public school system; the numbers are sufficient to justify their own high school. But more than that, Dr. Cardinal said, "There is a move in education to be accountable for our role in education." She acknowledges educators know "our success rate has not been good," in terms of keeping Native students in school. The answer, she said, lies in "partnering with Aboriginal communities in working toward those successes."

Working out of the board office, her immediate plans are to research statistics by which they can measure their progress. Consultation with various parties will be ongoing; she will look at some facilities once she has some facts in hand. An actual high school building to accommodate Grades 10 to 12 in one year's time "is possible," Dr. Cardinal said.

"Part of the reason [a building has not] been earmarked is because we don't want to do this in isolation of the Aboriginal community, and part of the reason Phyllis is on board is to make the recommendations relative to the establishment of a facility," said Victor Tanti, marketing services manager with the board. "Two years ago, we opened up a junior high program at Sherbrooke School; that's the extension of the Awasis program. There are services at that site for Aboriginal kids, so the natural progression, of course, is that we establish some high school program. But what that means or how we're going to do that is yet to be determined."

Dr. Cardinal's career has spanned the divide between teacher's aide and consultant. In the 1980-81 school year, she was director of her own Saddle Lake band's cultural education program. Between Saddle Lake School and the Edmonton Catholic school system, she served as a teacher, Native education consultant, then department head and vice prncipal in the Ben Calf Robe program. From 1989 to 1993, she was principal of Saddle Lake Education Authority's K4 to Grade 12 school.

As director of education at the Kitaskinow Education Centre, she negotiated with federal authorities for the resources to help set up Enoch First Nation's school system in 1993 to 1995. Still attached to Kitaskinow, she provided similar services as principal/administrator in 1995 and 1996 for Louis Bull First Nation.

From 1996 to 1998 her company, Cardinal & Associates, offered consultative educational services to First Nations. These included curriculum workshops, board training, school evaluations, policy development and review, and teacher training in cultural sensitivity.

In the year following, Dr. Cardinal was superintendent of the Frog Lake Education Board and was involved in overhauling the educational program of Frog Lake First Nation.

Since then and up to the present, Dr. Cardinal's role has been that of co-ordinator of curriculum and instruction for the Tribal Chiefs Institute. She obtained her Master of Arts in Education degree from San Diego State University in 1995, majoring in administration and supervision, and in 1998 acquired her doctorate in Leadership Studies from the University of San Diego in California.