CANDIDATE PROFILE: Bonnie McBride

Our public school system is integral to our community and our families. Access to a meaningful and fulfilling education is the foundation to every individual’s life journey. We all need to feel successful, safe to explore, accepted, and valued in order to thrive. This starts with growing up around people who help you become your best self.

The connection between home, school, and community is universal. When we leverage that partnership and build through strategic investment, everyone wins.

I stepped down from my role as SD73 District Parent Advisory Council president to run in the election. I held this volunteer position for the last two terms. Previously I was president of the BC Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils, and founder and president of Four Paws Food Bank

I currently serve on the BC Disability Collaborative Board and work for Inspire Kids FASD Family Support Society of BC.

I bring a background of governance experience, lobbying, collaborating, and project development to the district as a volunteer. Now, I would like to invest even more time and energy into our students as a school trustee.

What do you think is the biggest issue facing SD73 and how would you use your elected position to address it?

Our district has had little time or room to grow our successes, with back-to-back crises over the last several years. Financial discrepancies, unsafe workplaces, huge cuts to staffing and programming, and constant turnover in administration and executive leadership have left no room for anything but damage control.

It’s time to take accountability. It’s the school board that is tasked with delivering a meaningful education program for every child in our community. Not teachers, not principals, not the superintendent. The school board is responsible. So, when students in our district aren’t getting the instructions and supplies they need to develop reading skills, it’s up to trustees to move forward with a solution. Approving District Learning Plans and annual budgets that don’t have any correlation with each other is not acceptable. Our board has not worked from a student-focused place. Often, students or children aren’t even mentioned during board meetings. It’s time our school leaders demanded more for our families.

What do you think is the biggest issue facing students and how would you address it?

Provincially, the biggest issue facing students in B.C.’s public schools is a lack of adequate funding. The province has continually added responsibilities to the Education Ministry without providing real resources to implement them. Year-over-year revenue increases have not kept up with inflation, cost-pressures related to the economy, and contract language that districts are experiencing.

Schools are the right place for us to ensure that families experiencing food insecurity are supported. Schools are the right place for students that need supported therapies like speech or vision therapy to access them. Schools are the right place for wrap-around support referrals and mental health programs. But the budget for textbooks and teachers shouldn’t be expected to meet those needs. We talk about how complex classrooms are making it harder for schools to support every student. What we really have are complex communities that we are asking schools to support without the resources required to do that.

The provincial government has also introduced inclusion and accessibility models that can’t be delivered with the built environment, professional, and resources that school systems have in place. Funding to provide disability services is secondary to basic education funding. This means districts are left with the responsibility of choosing who gets left out rather than being able to meet the needs of children so they can participate fully in school. Everyone feels that.

What are your thoughts on communication between SD73, its schools and the region’s residents? As a trustee, would you speak to your votes and decisions on the record?

Our district is currently addressing the way they communicate with stakeholders. Interim Superintendent McKay worked with the current board to restructure the public meeting schedule, report formats, and board meeting agendas in a way that reduced information to parents, students, and community. As we move into the creation of a new district strategic plan, open and transparent communication needs to be a focus for the district.

Trustees should always be able to openly share their thoughts and decision-making process when making decisions about students and families. Dialogue, debate, questions, and concerns are a healthy part of making thoughtful and inclusive decisions. It’s okay to disagree. I feel strongly that the inability to pressure the province publicly about their decisions on investment in our region is one of the reasons we have so little capital funding approved.

As a trustee, I will be available to discuss any decisions I was a part of, how I came to my conclusions, and whether or not I hoped for a different outcome. Once a decision is made, of course the board must proceed together. And employees and students must be protected in their workplaces and learning spaces. But school trustees are accountable to the community.

Following a term highlighted by allegations of bullying and harassment by its former superintendent and a $2.2 million budget shortfall, how would you use your position to bring stability to the school district?

Parents and caregivers were extremely frustrated by the lack of transparency and lack of meaningful consultation by the board when they responded to the mismanagement of district assets last term. The repeated assertions that decisions were not having an impact on students in classrooms was refuted by both parents and staff. There are very few examples of the kind of budgetary and executive changes in less than a year that our families had to navigate in our school district.

At the end of the day, it is school trustees that are accountable for the culture, the professionalism, and the process that shapes the team that delivers school programs for students. The lack of stability and massive cuts to programming are unacceptable.

The next school board must focus on developing and repairing the relationships the district has with partner groups. The development of our next strategic plan must recognize that we are building from a deficit position, with less programs, staff, and spaces than we need.

As a trustee, I would work to ensure that board communication and interactions are less guarded and that the organization refocuses the responsibility for meeting student and family needs where it belongs, with the board.

Why should residents give you their vote?

I hope to continue the work I have been doing as a volunteer as a trustee in the future. Despite some great successes as the chair of the District Parent Advisory Council, and as a provincial education advocate, more work needs to be done. Moving to a different role, and sitting at a different table, I hope to make gains in securing better funding for education, better partnerships with community, and better experiences for children.

I am committed to investing the time needed to execute the responsibilities of a school trustee, and to connect our district to as many opportunities as are available to make our schools work for all our families.

by CFJC Today

CANDIDATE PROFILE: Bonnie McBride

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