How can school leaders ensure that every transition becomes an opportunity for Indigenous students to experience greater belonging, connection, and success? This session examines the role of educational leaders in supporting Indigenous students through critical transitions across their educational journeys. Relevant for aspiring and current leaders in both provincial and First Nations school systems, the session is grounded in the commitment to Indigenous student success, relationship-building, and reconciliation. Participants will explore leadership practices that foster culturally responsive learning environments, strengthen partnerships with families, communities, and Indigenous Nations, and create supportive pathways for Indigenous learners. Through practical examples, reflection, and discussion, participants will consider how intentional leadership can improve transition experiences and outcomes for Indigenous students in diverse educational contexts.

Marnie Ross

Marnie Ross is a member of Red Earth Cree Nation, with family and community connections to Timber Bay, and Chakastaypasin First Nation. She currently serves as Superintendent of Education with Saskatoon Public Schools and has held a variety of leadership and teaching roles throughout her career, including Collegiate Principal, Vice Principal, Educational Consultant with the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Education Unit, and middle years and secondary teacher. Marnie began her teaching career on Thunderchild First Nation and has dedicated more than 20 years to public education.

A passionate advocate for Indigenous education, Marnie is committed to advancing student success and bringing Indigenous perspectives into all aspects of educational leadership and learning. She is particularly passionate about supporting educational leaders in creating inclusive, relationship-centred learning environments where all students can thrive. Marnie is a proud ITEP graduate, holds a Master of Education in Educational Administration from the University of Saskatchewan, and is currently a doctoral student in the EdD program at the University of Saskatchewan.

This is Marnie’s second year facilitating the Principals’ Short Course, and she is excited to continue learning alongside and supporting educational leaders from across the province. Outside of her professional role, Marnie is a proud mom of two wonderful adult daughters and loves sharing in their adventures as they pursue their dreams across Canada.

What if, instead of trying to catch AI, we designed assessment where catching it is beside the point? In this session, we will take apart a real example: a working review game built in about ten minutes from a single Saskatchewan curriculum outcome and nothing else. I will walk through the build step by step, from the position of a teacher with no background in the content, showing how quickly AI can help create something more engaging than a traditional review lesson, and often a stronger formative or summative experience. Grounding the work in Dr. Sarah Eaton's (University of Calgary) principle that we can relinquish control without relinquishing responsibility, and using Dr. Ruben Puentedura's SAMR model as our map, we will push past simple substitution toward modification and redefinition, where the real transformation lives. Participants will leave understanding how to build a tool like this themselves, and with the language to open the same creative conversation with their own staff: one about possibility rather than policing.

Dr. Marc Gobeil

Marc Gobeil has spent his career in Saskatchewan education, starting with a decade as a tech and shop teacher before stepping into leadership. He has eight years in administrative roles: five as a Coordinator of Learning Services with Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools and three as a principal with the Saskatchewan Distance Learning Centre. Alongside this work, he has spent twelve years as a sessional lecturer in the College of Education at the University of Saskatchewan, teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses, and is a regular guest lecturer in Engineering. Marc completed all of his degrees at the U of S: a B.Ed in Practical and Applied Arts, an M.Ed in Educational Technology and Design (ETAD), and a PhD focused on experiential learning theory, assessment, and design in K-12 education. 

Outside of school, Marc spends his time on a steady rotation of restoration projects and the ongoing work of keeping his two kids alive, with backup from his wife and their German Short-haired Pointer.

It’s a common practice for most of us to predict what may happen in the future or continue to live with what happened in the past. This can show up as anxiety, depression, or stress. Really, what we’re doing is creating false assumptions about our current life. Understanding how our emotions affect our mental health and well-being provides us with the tools we need to self-regulate and handle challenging situations in the best way possible. 

In this thought-provoking session, participants will learn the four pillars of resiliency to identify stressors, strengthen resilience, and decrease stress levels. These pillars that have been proven to be successful in youth, young adults, teachers, and administrators. 

Dr. Elaina Guilmette 

Dr. Elaina Guilmette has extensive experience teaching and designing curriculum at the primary, secondary, undergraduate, and graduate level. She holds a PhD in Curriculum Studies and her dissertation focused on designing curricula to improve mental health literacy, destigmatize mental health, and enhance resiliency and emotional intelligence in remote, isolated, Northern, and Indigenous communities. Her Master of Education in Curriculum Studies centered on designing inclusive curricula for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In 2020, she was hired by the University of Saskatchewan to re-design the Masters of Sustainability in Energy Security program. During her time, she implemented a Two-Eyed Approach to braid together both Indigenous and Western worldviews and engage Indigenous students and communities in higher education and create clean and renewable energy solutions. She led the creation of an advisory council composed of Indigenous, utility, industry, and academic representatives, and worked with them to ensure the Energy Security program not only improved access to quality online education for Indigenous students but centered their voices in its courses. Currently, Elaina is an Assistant Professor in SENS, teaching courses in the Master of Sustainability degree program in both Energy Security and Regenerative Sustainability streams.

This session supports school leaders in moving beyond one-off initiatives toward meaningful, sustainable improvement. Grounded in a systems approach, participants will explore how lasting change comes from shifts in culture, leadership, structures, feedback systems, and relationships. Through a real-world example and practical tools, participants will leave with clear, actionable strategies to lead change in complex school environments.

Cassandra Neufeld is an Instructional Coach with Horizon School Division. She has 11 years experience as a school principal and over a decade of experience in division and provincial level instructional leadership. She has recently completed her Human Resources Management certificate from Saskatchewan Polytechnic and holds a Master of Educational Administration and Bachelor of Education degrees from the University of Saskatchewan.

Angela Yeaman is a School-Based Administrator with Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Division.  She has 7 years experience as a school-based administrator and over 12 years of experience in division and provincial instructional leadership.  She completed her Additional Qualifications Certificate in Special Education through the University of Saskatchewan and holds her Masters of Education from the University of Phoenix and Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Alberta.

In what is now Canada, Treaties #1-11 began to be negotiated and entered into, starting in 1871.  Treaties were to ensure peaceful relations and continued livelihood of both parties (Indigenous people and the Newcomers).  They are the foundational building blocks of Canada. Each nation has a responsibility to uphold the terms of Treaty. 

The Office of the Treaty Commissioner (OTC) promotes respect and understanding of Treaties and supports Treaty parties in maintaining and enhancing the Treaty relationship with the people in Canada.  This workshop will outline what OTC is and does, goals for Treaty education in Saskatchewan and reinvigorating the Ministry of Education's 2007 Treaty Education mandate.  We will also discuss current barriers to learning and understanding Treaty; the current state of Treaty Education in Saskatchewan; the Steering Committee on the State of Treaty Education; and how we can achieve true reconciliation in today’s society.  You will be introduced to OTC’s most popular program, the Treaty Learning Journey – Let's Talk Truth (TLJ); and part 2 – The Treaty Learning Journey: Living Our Treaties.  Participants will also receive new digital resources that OTC has created within the past year.

Elaine Sutherland

Elaine Sutherland is a proud Willow Cree woman, from the Beardy’s & Okemasis First Nation in Treaty 6 territory.

She graduated from University of Saskatchewan – ITEP, and was a professional educator for 24 years before joining the OTC team. During that time, Elaine worked for First Nation Schools as well as urban non-First Nation schools across Saskatchewan. She whole-heartedly loved teaching and molding the future minds of tomorrow.

Elaine joined the OTC as the Director of Treaty Education in the spring of 2022 and loves everything about her role and all it entails. She is passionate about Treaty Education and wants to ensure all Treaty people have the opportunity to learn about their rights and obligations. She absolutely loves learning the oral history from Elders and knowledge keepers throughout the Treaty territories.

Elaine attributes her success to her parents and her two amazing sons. She lives in Saskatoon with her family, enjoys all kinds of puzzles, sewing, and spending time with the ones she loves.

Participants are invited to hear a short background of lived and learned understandings of leading learning, assessment, and attendance expectations that align with the Provincial Educational Plan.  

Learned: What is the Provincial Educational Plan asking us to do? Focus area: Assessment

Lived: How does leading learning, assessment, and attendance interface in the context of our schools? 

Please note that this will be an interactive workshop where participants will be asked to bring their knowledge and insights from their communities and interrogate what is meaningful to them.  An adaptable framework for applying this knowledge to their work is the broad learning outcome for this session.  

Dr. Katrina Sawchuk

I began a role as a Researcher Officer in Family Medicine in 2024 after retiring from school-based leadership in Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools. I am interested in anything to do with education, building community, and the social determinants of health. I am a social justice theorist and a mixed methodologist. I completed my master’s with a thesis in Curriculum Studies at the U of S and a Ph D in Health Sciences from the College of Medicine. I also sessional lecture graduate classes in Educational Administration, Curriculum Studies, and the Health Sciences Master’s Degree. My husband Barry and I have five daughters in a blended family, a grandson, and I can’t forget our dog, Daisy!

Dr. Karen Mapp’s Dual Capacity-Building Framework is a powerful approach to strengthening family engagement in education. Grounded in the belief that both educators and families require ongoing opportunities to build knowledge, skills, and confidence, the framework emphasizes relational trust, cultural responsiveness, and collaborative partnership to support student success. We will examine how systemic conditions, such as leadership, policy alignment, and professional learning, can either support or hinder meaningful engagement, and will explore practical strategies for co-developing initiatives with families. Participants will hear about how our division is embracing a dual capacity-building approach leads to more equitable, sustainable, and impactful family-school partnerships that should ultimately improve student outcomes.

Garette Tebay

I have the privilege of being a Superintendent of Schools with Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Division.  In this role I get to support our school-based leadership teams here in our division as well as develop community engagement and communications at the division level.  I have spent most of my career in education in Alberta having taught and been a school-based administrator in two divisions there. I have a passion for creating compassionate learning communities in the spaces I serve and completed my Doctoral research in this topic using Integral Theory.   I moved to Prince Albert in 2022 to join the incredible work being done in Sask Rivers and to be able to live and play in both the prairies and the forest. 

This session shares the story of a student whose complex needs led our team to reconsider everything from classroom expectations to communication with families and staff. Rather than focusing on compliance, we learned to prioritize connection, flexibility, and individualized pathways to success. The result wasn't a perfect journey—but it was a transformative one.

Participants will hear how our school navigated behaviours that significantly impacted learning, safety, and school culture while remaining committed to supporting the student with dignity and care. We will explore the leadership decisions, difficult conversations, and team processes that helped create consistency among staff, respond to parent concerns, and maintain trust in the face of differing perspectives.

Amy Orth

Amy is in her 20^th year as an educator in Saskatchewan with 12 years as an administrator, working in a variety of rural schools in Prairie Spirit and Sun West School Divisions.  She is passionate about supporting teachers, school improvement, and female leadership. Amy currently sits on the STF Provincial Executive and is particularly interested in representing principals within the federation as they navigate their roles as supervisors and colleagues. She is also a long-time facilitator with STF Professional Learning (STFPL), with a focus on school leadership.   Amy has two small-ish kids, one husband and a dog and spends most weekends and weeknights at ball fields or hockey rinks giving people snacks. 

Indigenous languages carry identity, culture, relationships, and knowledge of the land. This session will explore why Indigenous language and land-based learning matter within schools and how administrators and educational leaders can meaningfully support this work.

Participants will leave with practical ideas for strengthening community relationships, supporting Indigenous knowledge keepers, and creating school environments where Indigenous languages and ways of learning can grow.

Kato Carriere is a maskego-ininiw (Swampy Cree) educator, consultant, and founder of the non-profit Kitaskinaw Learning. Through his work, he develops Indigenous language, land-based, cultural, and youth leadership programming with schools and First Nations communities. He is also a Juris Doctor student at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law.

 Join Kim and Stacy for a practical session focused on strengthening engagement through actionable skills and strategies. Kim will share insights from Saskatchewan’s SHARE Framework and the work of meaningful parent and caregiver engagement, highlighting approaches that help schools build authentic partnerships with families. Stacy will explore student engagement, drawing on current research and field experiences to discuss practical strategies that strengthen relationships, belonging, intellectual challenge, and student agency. This session will support school leaders with concrete tools, examples, and approaches that can be applied with families, staff and in classrooms to enhance engagement with both students and families.

Kim Fick	Stacy Lair