Swan Valley School Division (SVSD) Superintendent Cam Mateika announced his official retirement to take effect at the end of this school year. Mateika has spent almost his entire working career in the field of education and got his start in teaching close to the Valley.
“I’ve spent 48 years working in education,” said Mateika. “My first three years as an educator were in Camperville before I came to Swan Valley School Division (SVSD).”
Mateika has seen a lot of changes in education since he first started. Technology has had the biggest role in this and will continue to in the future.
“Because of communication styles today, our kids are just being bombarded with information,” said Mateika. “They told us 40 years ago that we were going to enter the information age, and we didn’t know what that really meant. When you look at it now, there’s such an increase in information for students and it’s giving them many more opportunities than we had as young people. It’s opening up a whole different world to the kids who are cognisant of what is going on around them. Kids have a lot of good opportunities, as a result of this.
“I’ve seen some very young kids using artificial intelligence (AI), and some people get alarmed by that, but it will just be part of their arsenal of tools in the future. They will use AI in their workplace and in schooling in the future. That’s all coming. It’s not all good and it’s not all bad either, but it’s going to be a change.”
Looking back on his time in education, Mateika had a fondness for the time he spent teaching grade 5. He found that age group very enjoyable to work with, for they were leaders in the elementary side of things, and beginners starting into junior high. For him, it was a fun age group to work with and teach.
“I spent 10 years teaching grade 5 in Birch River and teaching that grade was really not like a job because that age group is a great one to teach,” said Mateika. “That hasn’t really changed much. They are just at that right age. By grade 6, the students are getting to that junior high age and are developing their uniqueness as individuals. The grade 5 stage was a really enjoyable one for me because that age is like where they are like miniature adults when it comes to their learning.”
During Mateika’s time with SVSD, he has seen a lot of change and progression that the division has embarked on. It has helped give students much more adverse skills for the future.
“I think we did embrace technology and were usually on the cutting edge of many technologies over the years,” said Mateika. “I think we took the opportunity to deliver new ways of programming. We were always very open to partnerships, and those brought things to our school that we would have never had otherwise. Over the years, we have done hundreds of tours and people can’t believe what we have here in Swan River. That’s credit to the people who have contributed and we tried to keep it going. I’m hopeful that will continue on into the future.”
One thing Mateika never expected during his tenure was to experience working in education during a pandemic. There has been much negative feedback about what the pandemic did to learning and socialization for students, but Mateika has found some positives that have derived from doing things a different way than normal.
“I came in as superintendent as we began to see the light at the end of the tunnel, in terms of the pandemic,” said Mateika. “Previous superintendent, Jon Zilkey, laid down a lot of the groundwork in getting us through that. I can say having to change as a result of the pandemic did lead to some good things.
“For example, we lobbied very hard for the University of Brandon to give us an after-degree. We have teachers with degrees, but we wanted to help them get their Bachelor of Education as an after-degree. After the pandemic, and I had one student come up to me and tell me how thankful they were because Brandon University offered their teaching degree by distance, and they were able to get a year and a half done before that offer was cancelled due to us coming out of the pandemic.
“I mentioned that to the Dean, about how someone was thankful for the pandemic because the university made that adjustment and delivered a program that individual was able to take,” said Mateika. “That program could still be delivered that way. There is a shortage of teachers and we needed to recognize that this option could allow us to do it in a different way.
“We’re making headway, but it’s so much slower than I thought it would come. They have very pedagogic reasons why it shouldn’t be done that way, but we know we have to do it. We have to grow our own teachers and it’s something we have to do in the future. That doesn’t mean we don’t bring in teachers from outside.
“The ones that want to come back to the Valley, stay and get their education here, we need to help them as well,” said Mateika. “If you are an adult and have a family, it’s not easy to go to the city for two years to get a Bachelor of Education. In fact, it can be impossible for some.
“We did make headway with the University of Winnipeg and next year we have some EAs starting a five-year program and they will be a teacher at the end of it.”
Mateika will miss the daily interactions with staff and students but is also looking forward to partaking in a passion of his.
“I will miss the interaction with the people the most,” said Mateika. “As for my retirement, well, I have had a bad habit of farming for over 40 years, and I’m looking forward to doing it all day long.”