A local school board has turned to one of its own as its new director of education.
The Windsor Essex Catholic District School Board chose Terry Lyons as the successor to outgoing education director Paul Picard. Lyons was voted in unanimously in closed session and his appointment was announced at a special board meeting Tuesday night.
Lyons has been with the Catholic board the last two years, first as executive superintendent of human resources, then as associate director. Before joining the Catholic board, Lyons was a superintendent with the Greater Essex County District School Board and had been a principal and vice-principal for that board.
Picard announced earlier this year that he would retire from the board after a 41-year career.
Lyons says Picard will be a tough act to follow and he's grateful for the work previous administration had done.
"We look forward to doing a good job moving forward, but we recognize our past," says Lyons. "We salute all the work that they've done during the tough times that they've had to go through as well."
Lyons is about to oversee a board that has faced declining enrollment and aging buildings, but he is confident that the board will continue to evolve and remain strong. He says finding new income sources will be a priority.
"You're always going to have fiscal changes in education, that's always going to be the challenge you try to face," says Lyons. "Part of what we try to do instead of worrying about where we're going to make cuts, we continue to develop other streams of revenue."
Lyons says he's anxious to work on what projects the Catholic board is putting in place.
"We're going to continue to move forward with the innovative program that we have," says Lyons. "We've got a number of exciting things going on. We're going to expand our international students, we're going to drive innovation forward. We have a number of things on the iron, we just have to make them play out soon."
Lyons' tenure as director of education is effective October 31, upon Picard's official retirement.
Incoming education director Terry Lyons (left) of the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board with board chairperson Barbara Holland and retiring education director Paul Picard on September 12, 2017. Photo by Mark Brown/Blackburn News.