After about a year and a half serving as the Hanover School Division’s interim superintendent and CEO, Shelley Amos has at last been appointed to the position on a permanent basis.

Amos brings 28 years of administrative and instructional experience to the role. She was initially appointed interim superintendent in August 2020, having been the assistant superintendent for the two years prior.

Prior to joining the HSD’s senior administration, she worked at Woodlawn Early Years School, first as vice principal from 2009–2011, and then as principal from 2011–2018.

Even earlier in her career, she taught in the former Transcona-Springfield school division.

“Since Shelley’s appointment to the Interim Superintendent position, she has demonstrated strong leadership through an unprecedented two-year pandemic that has been both challenging and turbulent for school divisions,” says Ron Falk, HSD board chair. “As a board, we are delighted that she has accepted this permanent position, and we fully support her vision for education moving forward.”

The decision to appoint Amos as an interim superintendent instead of a permanent one was only ever a by-product of cost-cutting mandates by the provincial government.

According to Rick Peters, who served as board chair at the time of Amos’s initial hiring, Manitoba Education and the province had been in the midst of a fiscal workface sustainability review that mandated a reduction of 15 percent in all divisional administration costs.

Peters explained at the time that the province had also stipulated that any new management or administrative hires during the pandemic be interim positions.

“We couldn’t hire anything permanent in any of the management positions, nor could any other school division,” Peters said.

With those mandates now in the rear-view mirror, including some associated with the aborted education law Bill 64, the way has been cleared to make interim positions permanent.

“With the demise of Bill 64, we are now able to move forward in a strong position and officially appoint Shelley as Superintendent/CEO of the Hanover School Division,” says Falk.