Rocky View Schools are putting the finishing touches on 3 new schools in Airdrie and Cochrane that are slated to open this fall.

As part of the final planning stages, RVS announced the principals of each school on March 1st.

Todd Hennig will be the principal at Coopers Crossing School which will start out as K-3 for 2016, but will open fully to K-4 in the fall of 2017. 

A Principal with RVS for 10 years, Hennig will be moving from his position at Prince of Peace Lutheran School in Chestermere to head up Coopers Crossing.

"We have 3 main goals. The first is to provide a very active caring environment for the students and the families - meeting their needs in many ways, physical, emotional, relationally, and getting to know each student as who they are as a learner. Secondly, a really intentional instructional approach that meets their needs for basic skills but also does that in a very real world environment so that they can apply what they're learning to their real life outside of the classroom. Finally, we want to be focusing not only on the academics but also on character and leadership so that they can have an impact on the world."

The tag line that Hennig is using to guide their process is, 'Caring to make a difference.'

"We want to care for the students to make a difference in their life but we also want to teach them and aspire them to care about their communities to make a difference there."

The second Airdrie school, Heloise Lorimer, will be a K-8 school in Kings Heights with Brenda Valerio being named principal. 

Valerio has been a principal at Meadowbrook School as well as an assistant principal of Glenbow Elementary School in Cochrane.

Working as a Teacher and principal for 28 years, Valerio brings a vast knowledge of education and enthusiasm to engage students.

In Cochrane, the new K-8 Rancheview School will be headed up by Sharon Cronin.

Cronin was the principal at Ecole Edwards for 6 and a half years and before that she was at Banded Peak School in Bragg Creek for 3 and a half years. 

When looking at the values Cronin will be implementing, her main focus will be on a culture of excellence.

"The values that we will instill at Rancheview will certainly be about a culture of excellence both in teaching and learning, our whole focus will be on building leadership capacity with our students and environmental leaders within the community.

Cronin will be working with her staff to come up with a mission statement but her personal mantra is, 'Leading and Learning together.'

Each new school has been designed with a large learning commons area that will encourage students to not only read but offer research and project based learning opportunities.

"School just needs to be fun, so everything that we do in the building will have that focus."

Leah Crawford - airdrienews@goldenwestradio.com