Re-election Press Release

I have great expectations for our school district. I want more transparency and accountability from senior management. I want more follow-through and boldness from trustees. I want more celebration and voice for the work of teachers. I want more awareness of what our support staff do to improve schools and learning. I want more engagement of parents and students as stakeholders in public education. I want the provincial government to acknowledge that we have unmet needs in our students due to underfunding, understaffing, and aging infrastructure that needs investment. I do not believe that these expectations are out of reach for the Board of Education. I do believe these are goals that we can achieve if we work together.

My record:

• Asked for a Restoration Budget to be submitted along with our balanced budget in order to show the provincial government and the public what a fully-funded education system looks like.
• Supported a stand-alone LGBTQ anti-bullying policy from the start of my term. While initially alone, thankfully other trustees came around to this position when it came up last year.
• Challenged each and every budget and district report when it did not meet high standards for inclusion of partner group input, unanswered questions about money or direction, slippery statistics, or clearness of expression.
• Successfully won the release of information from our district that should be public such as enrollment and demographic data, class composition reports, and school transfer information.
• Pushed for more of our committee meetings to lift partner group gag orders and for stakeholders to be part of budget consultations.
• Advocated for less restrictions on technology and innovation, and for paying attention to the impact that new technology has on the time and work of staff, like new student information systems.

What I am not:
A politician, polished public speaker, or someone who only speaks up when the wind is blowing in that direction. I do not vote with the majority just because I am expected to, I treat each motion on its own and vote to represent all stakeholders, not just management recommendation.

What I am: 
Someone who will ask tough questions, follow through on issues, and advocate for well-funded, caring, and effective schools for our staff and students.  I will listen to what all parties say and ensure their voices do not get lost in procedures and closed-door meetings.

What to expect from me next:

I do not ride the fence on issues (I'm sorry to say this has been a bog issue for our current board), and I am not shy about controversy although I am a shy person.  I am hoping that our new board deals with sustainable funding, support for rural education, reducing cost of bussing, condition of school grounds, improvements for special needs students, and more site-based management.

More about me: 

I'm a mother of two kids in SD57 elementary schools, married to teacher, and an employee at Northern Health. I do pottery in my spare time. I was born in Nova Scotia, raised in Saskatchewan and other places (military family), and have lived in Prince George since 1998. I have served one term as a trustee in SD57 from 2011-2014. 

Feel free to contact me by text/phone (7783499119) or email (trusteecooke@gmail.com) if you want more information, would like to share your thoughts about public education, or have concerns that need to be brought forward. 

I would like my next post to be about questions that staff, parents, and students would like answered. Please contact me if you have some good questions.

Issue #10 Real Sustainability

Problems:

Schools support communities and neighbourhoods, and have a duty to be responsible community players. Over the last 10 years we’ve seen our school grounds increasingly chained up, gated, and made less welcome for neighbours. Friendly users are given the message to keep out, leaving the schools alone to the vandals. These are public lands, and should be open to the public.

Sustaining communities also means being stewards of our resources. Useful surplus equipment (e.g. from closed schools) should not be thrown out, but recycled or donated. It is still not known what has happened to surplus sewing machines, stoves, fridges, pottery and shop equipment from schools closed in 2010.  Either they have been thrown out or their whereabouts have not been properly reported.  The disposal was done quietly and kept out of the press.  Outrageous - this wasn’t junk - these were valuable assets in good repair according to staff from John McInnis and Lakewood. What is known is that hundreds of computers have been thrown out over the last two years, aging but still of use if the district didn't block donations. The issue of a principal throwing out school supplies was in the media this year, but that appears to be an isolated event rather than a pattern.

We need to recover carbon. Currently, school groups that organize efforts to green their school grounds are discouraged, being told that mown grass is preferable to trees and natural vegetation. Our district pays $150,000 per year (? please confirm) in carbon taxes based on the size of its footprint. The Highglen Montessori solar panel project is good start - Dave Leman’s efforts show us an example of something our school district should be prioritizing.

Some of our school groups have attempted to green their school grounds, like install gardens or replant trees that were cut down during the Pine Beetle outbreak. They are told that it is too expensive to do groundskeeping around new plantings, and most of these projects are denied. School grounds can be a place of wonder and beauty for students, and a lot of this has to do with trees. A few trees have been successfully planted, but we should be talking about stands of trees, little forests - thinking 100 years ahead!

Solutions:

Engage neighbourhoods and make use of social capital (the power of motivated people). Imagine how productive the board and board office could be if they became less adversarial with parent groups and said yes more often. Allow municipalities to assume after-hours liability in school grounds if that is why the chains and gates have gone up, and send the message that public school grounds are common ground.

Be public, open, and honest about what happens when a school closes. Donate, repurpose, or auction all surplus equipment and do not throw out usable assets. Appoint a trustee, PAC, or DPAC member to monitor disposal of assets. Our district has gained the reputation of being wasteful and it will take some serious effort to correct this impression.

We need to be more aggressive in reducing our carbon emissions and footprint, perhaps even recovering credits by sponsoring an offset project. To register these with the Pacific Carbon Trust, they would have to be completed by a third party to qualify as schools are currently excluded. They also need to involve something new that didn’t already exist in some form. Installation of outdoor learning space that involves carbon-capturing features (like trees) would qualify. 

Encourage tree planting and garden projects at many school sites in the district. Many of these projects already have volunteer help and funding lined up, so this does not have to be a new expenditure. Look beyond just making school grounds attractive and look for connections for environmental education and outdoor learning spaces.


Offer small incentives for teachers and schools to involve students in greening projects. What a great accomplishment it would be for a student to be involved with an innovative carbon capture project or the start of a new urban forest.

PG Free Press spot

...and now she wants to see it from another side.  The Prince George Free Press published my interview with Allan Wishart online today.  I'm quite pleased with how it turned out... I've never really done that sort of thing before.