Border school Trinity Anglican College will soon start the search for a new principal after its head announced his resignation.
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Steven O’Connor will end seven years in the job at the end of term one in 2016 to take up a role at Bathurst.
He has been chosen as head of All Saints College.
Mr O’Connor’s resignation was announced by Trinity council chairman Dr Ron Bailey in an email sent out to the school community late on Tuesday morning.
“I’m very excited about it, but it’s mixed feelings really,” Mr O’Connor said on Wednesday.
“There’s so much I’ve loved about what I’ve been doing at Trinity and in the community.”
The school – with a main campus at Thurgoona of almost 900 students and a smaller campus at Baranduda of about 120 – has undergone enormous growth under Mr O’Connor.
It has waiting lists for prospective students right across its kindergarten to year 12 program.
The school has also spent about $20 million on facilities, including a $7 million senior school expected to open in early 2016.
The senior buildings at Thurgoona were to have been completed in two stages, but were able to be done as a single project as a result of the school being acquired by the Anglican Schools Commission of Western Australia in 2014.
Dr Bailey said Mr O’Connor had done a “remarkable” job as principal since he began in January, 2009.
“The college was a very different place then and we are grateful that Steven’s leadership skills, vision and determination have led to transformational change across the all-important areas of teaching and learning, co-curricular offerings, pastoral care, the finances of the college and of course, significant capital developments,” he said.
Mr O’Connor said he was going to miss what Trinity stood for “and what we’ve done”.
“At the end of the day we’re all about the kids. We’ve got some fantastic students out there, and that’s what schools should be about,” he said.
“But after seven years it’s a great opportunity to go to another school that also has a strong sense of community.”
Mr O’Connor and his wife, Trudy, also a Trinity teacher, have both taught previously at Bathurst, where he began his teaching career 27 years ago.
“Whoever is appointed the new principal at Trinity I believe will be taking on a school that is going places, that has a great sense of community and is very strong financially,” he said.
“It’s a good thing for any school to have a fresh set of eyes and a fresh set of ideas.”
