All-Candidates' Meeting

Tonight the children and I attended our local all-candidates meeting for the upcoming local elections this weekend. The six candidates for School Board Trustee were in attendance (of which there are three vacancies), as well as the two candidates vying for a spot on our local Land Use Committee, and the two candidates aspiring to become our Regional Director. It was very informative, and to be honest, although I've been voting in elections since I first became eligible when I was 18 years old, this is the first time I have ever attended an all-candidates meeting.

Although we homeschool, that does not in any way mean that I am not concerned about the issues facing the local School District. Our wider community has more families than the provincial average who live in poverty; we have more at-risk students than average. We have a very rural background, despite being relatively close to an urban centre in our province. Our community has doubled its population since we moved here 14 years ago, and it is forecast to grow exponentially over the next decade. Three hundred new students are expected to join the district each year for the next several years, and no new schools will be built within the next 3 years. The issues are never clear cut, never easy to solve. Issues that were brought up - low-income rural families having to pay for bus service to get their children to and from school, and the humiliation of the associated subsidy process, the appropriate use of wireless technology in the classroom, the availability of EAs (educational assistants) in the system to work with identified special needs students, especially those without a diagnosis in the medical system, and more. Certainly the successful candidates will have their hands and heads full as they become aware of the myriad issues.

Clearly, there are many pressing issues facing all the candidates, not just for School Board Trustee, but also the Regional Directorship and the LUC. I think the important thing is to get informed and educated on what's at stake, and then get out there and vote on Saturday.