Duchscherer announced as principal of SCHS and OPS

Beginning in the fall of 2022, both South Central High School (SCHS) and Oyen Public School (OPS) will have a new Principal at their helm. Prairie Rose Public Schools has announced that Jason Duchscherer will assume the role as principal of both schools, following the retirement of Jean Kimber, principal at SCHS, at the end of the current school year.

“Combining the leadership roles allows the two schools in Oyen to continue forward on the path towards a future of one amazing K-12 school,” Duchscherer said. “Both OPS and SCHS have already made steps to connect and build programming that enables a smooth transition for students as they move from elementary to junior high and on to high school, so this further supports that work.”

The move towards a unified school community is something both OPS and SCHS have been working towards for the past few years. Following a community consultation in 2019, the Board of Trustees added a new K-12 school in Oyen to the Prairie Rose Public Schools Capital Plan. Last spring, both schools collaborated on their school rebranding projects and established a single vision statement of developing confident, engaged and caring citizens. Both schools have also focused on building opportunities where students are learning alongside each other through programming such as the South Alberta Hockey Academy and the Badlands Junior Badgers program.

Superintendent Weeks expressed gratitude to Jean Kimber on her retirement. “I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to Jean Kimber, who has contributed tremendously to the education of countless students and wish her well in her next adventures.”

She continued to express confidence in Jason Duchscherer assuming his new role as principal. “Jason Duchscherer takes on this newly structured role with a breadth of experience and a passion for rural education. We have other schools in the division that operate under a similar model and it has worked very successfully in building a community of one school, despite being in different buildings.”

Duchscherer will officially assume the role of principal of both OPS and SCHS at the start of the 2022-2023 school year.