The Manuel de Salas Experimental Lyceum of the University of Chile (LMS) began a new stage in its history after the Philosophy professor, Marcela Isabel Bornand Araya, took over as director of this emblematic educational institution, reported Casa de Bello.
The milestone, which was celebrated this Monday, March 4, through a Handover Ceremony, was attended by Rector Rosa Devés Alessandri; the vice-rector for Academic Affairs, Claudio Pastenes Villareal, as well as various academics from the University of Chile.
In this activity, the teacher, who has a Master’s degree in Education from the University of Chile and vast experience in school communities, initial training and gender, took the position conferred on her by the Liceo teaching staff in the vote held in December 2023.
In this way, she became the first elected woman to be invested as the highest authority of this establishment.
Bornand had the support of the community after presenting a programmatic proposal for his period in which the challenge was raised to strengthen the Institutional Educational Project, forged by the community and validated by the establishments in 2017. To do so, he will mainly seek to “promote comprehensive learning , promoting an inclusive school culture of well-being, based on collaboration and professional development, that allows for institutionalizing community learning and systematically advancing pedagogical experimentalism,” as expressed in the guiding objective of its plan.
The highest authority of the University of Chile, Rector Rosa Devés Alessandri, highlighted the similarities between the program of the new director of the LMS and that of the Rector’s Office, including comprehensive training, community well-being, equity, gender equality and sustainability.
“The fact that they are similar programs gives us the opportunity to work together, to understand each other and to walk together on this path, which is difficult in such a complex social moment,” he noted.
“My commitment is to put my abilities at the service of this community”
The Transfer Ceremony took place in the Central Hall of the Pedro Torres Palace. In it, the attendees had the opportunity to listen to the first official speech of the new director of the LMS, who expressed her gratitude and sealed her commitment to put her “capabilities at the service of this community and its Educational Project.”
“In this high school I met an educational community that marks, roots and reflects collectively and professionally,” said the authority, who stated that “here I understood that affection is the driving force of education and that a school can and should be a living community.” , open, with memory and with projects.” Taking charge of the nine decades of institutional history and the role that this space had in national pedagogical transformations, he pointed out that the LMS is “the child of a pedagogical movement of teachers who sought to promote, through experimentation, an educational program that responded to democratic needs.”
“In this origin, we find the strength and conviction of great Chilean educators who promoted the formation of our Lyceum to strengthen experimentation in Chile,” she said, to emphasize the role of women in the formation and maintenance of the Lyceum, which was reinforced in her speech with mentions of important educators such as Amanda Labarca, Irma Salas, Gabriela Mistral, Olga Poblete, Florencia Barrios, Viola Soto and Nolfa Ibáñez.
The student body, represented by Eloísa Aravena Biotti from Séptimo Básico, gave a significant speech in which she conveyed her dreams for the Manuel de Salas High School. “My dream is for the Lyceum to be public again, without fees as it was before the dictatorship, where we meet boys and girls from different social sectors. “I dream of a united high school, that is, an education that is increasingly more respectful.”
There will be five strategic axes on which the new director’s administration will work: Community, Coexistence and Comprehensive Well-being, Pedagogical Project and Experimentality; Educational Transversalities for Comprehensive Training; Financial balance and administration; and Participatory Management and Pedagogical Leadership.
The Management Team that will accompany this new leadership is made up of the Chemistry professor, Luis Romanque Ulloa, who takes over as deputy director of the institution, and the History and Social Sciences professor, Eduardo Cepeda Suárez, who will head the Technical Pedagogical Unit, a body that It will also be strengthened with a team to attend to the multiple areas that will be surveyed in this period. The Administration and Finance Directorate, meanwhile, will continue to be under the responsibility of Dionel Suazo Hidalgo and the teachers Natalia Cruz, María Angélica Godoy, Valeria Macías and the educator Mónica Chaña, who will be in charge of the Cycle Headquarters.
During the ceremony, the incoming team took the opportunity to thank the work of the outgoing authorities, represented by Professor Tamara Maureira Mercandino, who professionally supported the transition process.