Andrew Burton knows there are no guarantees he will win the election lottery Saturday when voters go to the polls to choose the new District 57 school board.
What he does know is that people have a responsibility to take an interest in choosing the trustees who will sit on the board for the next three years, whether they have children in the system or not.
"We need to find a way to communicate better with the population because people don't see the impact of what the school board does and don't understand a lot of the issues because it's not widely discussed," Burton said.
"We're talking about a school board that has an annual budget higher than the city's, and yet people aren't all that concerned about a school board election. Most of the focus is on the civic election. The school board addresses the well-being of our children and what our children will be doing and the skills that they will have in the future. That's going to be a strong influence on our economy, our culture and on our entire province."
Burton says the fact there are 14 candidates campaigning for the seven available seats on the board, as opposed to the 2008 election, when just eight candidates let their names stand, shows there are people who do care about the future of our schools.
Burton has a professional background as a youth counselor and drug prevention co-ordinator for Northern Health. As part of the Youth Around Prince Resource Centre, he helped found the Street Spirits Theatre program to raise awareness of social problems. He's worked closely with Prince George high schools and community groups to organize weekly support groups for students and teacher workshops focused on bullying, family violence, substance use and racism.
He looks forward to the challenge of implementing the province's 21st century learning initiatives plan to reshape the way education is delivered.
"One of the things we have to do is get away from the arguments that are all about money but are divisive," said Burton. "The discussion has been dominated by people either saying the schools or the board aren't being responsible for their spending, or the province is being cheap and what we have to do is get away from that.
"We have to be able to say, this is what we need, where are we going to get the money to do it. We need to have conversations that aren't adversarial with the government and the teachers federation and we need to reach a consensus with community and parents and put that consensus into action. It's very hard for a government to say no if they're facing a united voice from an entire region."
Now that Mackenzie's economy has started to recover, Burton said the new board faces the real possibility of trying to finding a way to reopen Mackenzie elementary school to deal with an increasing population.
He recognizes the isolation rural communities like Mackenzie face when all of the policies and decisions that affect their schools are made by people who live 186 kilometres down the highway.
"That's very frustrating to the people of Mackenzie and we need to find a way for the outlying communities that are represented by this school board to have a voice," said Burton.
