The Citizen asked all 16 school board trustees to fill out a questionnaire on who they are and what they wish for the future of education.
I am a husband and father who conducted extensive work in, and with, First Nation communities. I have a son aged 11 years who is an honour roll student attending Pinewood Elementary School.
My past work has provided me with much relevant knowledge and skills that I would bring to a school trustee position including; strategic planning, policy development, program planning, human resource management, proposal development, project budgeting and management / reporting. I have also sat on a number of boards including the Prince George Native Friendship Centre and the Prince George YMCA. I have also chaired numerous committees.
There is much committee level discussion taking place at school board meetings. To reduce committee level discussion, I would open up the committee meetings to the general public including other Trustees.
Confidential subjects, or information, should be identified and vetted for in-camera discussion. The previous school board's view was that Committees of The Whole should be used restrictively because it would give appearance that meetings and decisions were being made behind closed doors.
I say open those doors and have committees conducted business in the public domain.
Most all areas of school district operations are already streamlined and have achieved efficiencies through layoffs and restructuring. Existing funding cannot be significantly better spent, rather existing funding is not enough to meet the in-class public education needs of our children.
We need to think smarter, and leverage funding from other sources because we know we will not be getting additional sustained funding from this provincial government.
The most pressing issue before the school board right now would be teacher job action. This school board needs to direct the BC Public School Employers Association (BCPSEA), who bargains on behalf of school boards, to negotiate with the BCTF in good faith.
Last year a two per cent increase in teacher wages and benefits was negotiated. The province insisted that school districts pay for those increases out of their existing operating budgets, taking money out of the classrooms.
There was public outcry about this and the province backed off and paid for the increases they had negotiated. This year the BCPSEA is negotiating with the BCTF based on a "net zero" wage increase position. If teachers want an increase in wages and/or benefits that money would have to come from?
You guessed it; the classrooms. The same approach as last year, just differently packaged by the BCPSEA.
