DPAC questions emailed to trustee candidates October 28th, at 8:30pm. Answers received from Tim Bennett November 1st
1. What do you think is important to parents in the district?
I believe that the following are three of the most important issues for parents in the district.
• Your child’s physical and emotional safety
• Your child is receiving an equal and quality education that will provide them with the skills and knowledge to pursue whatever opportunity they want to once leaving the K-12 system.
• Your child has the opportunity to attend the school in the community or neighbourhood in which they live.
2. Why are you running for trustee?
The reason I am running for trustee today is the same reason I ran three years ago. It is because I believe that every child needs an advocate and that the best return on investment for society is to proactively invest into our children and their education. I believe that the board needs to do a better job advocating for all students and that my professional (currently the Executive Director at Big Brothers Big Sisters) and volunteer experience (sat or currently sitting on numerous boards at the local, regional and provincial level) are an asset to the board and the decisions we make each and every meeting. I believe in order to represent students in the 52,000 square kilometers that is SD57 you need to be available and present at schools, meetings and in the communities we serve.
In addition, after serving the past three years on the board my eyes were opened not just to the great things happening in the district but also how much more can be done. I am seeking re-election so I can continue with the work I have started and can bring my leadership, advocacy, experience and passion to the role of trustee and work together for the betterment of students currently in the system and those yet to enter it.
3. What have you done to prepare yourself for the role of trustee?
I have had the opportunity to serve on the board for the past term. During this time I had the chance to not only preform my regular trustee duties but also take a leadership position on the board. I have served as Vice Chairperson for the past two years and also have chaired numerous district committees including Policy and Governance (2 Years), Management and Finance (1 Year), Expanded Committee of the Whole on 2014-2015 Budget (1 Year), Committee of the Whole on Technology (1 Year), and Ad-Hoc Committee on Mobile Technology (1 Year). I believe the last term has prepared by well for the next term.
I believe that in order to be an effective trustee you need to be able to give it everything you have. I have met with my employer and had conversations with my family to ensure that they were supportive of me seeking re-election. You deserve 100% and I wanted to make sure I could continue to provide it.
4. How will you ensure that the schools in this district are safe and caring places for all students?
I believe work has started on this over the past mandate including the passing of the standalone LGBTQ Policy, the creation of the Live Binder, the hiring of a part time Inclusion specialist teacher, and directing the Policy and Governance Committee to review and strengthen other district policies with regards to bullying and safety. This policy review has yet to occur and will be something that the next board will need to pick up and finish the work. We need to ensure that policy and practices are in place to ensure all students feel safe and welcome at school.
However, policy is only the first step and it alone will not create change. District Student Advisory Committee (and I am sure DPAC) are really interested in combatting bullying in our schools and the district needs to work with those interested to find solutions that will work. We also need to work to include more opportunities to professional development and in-service to give our staff additional skills to ensure each school is a bully free environment.
In addition to the work to ensure an emotional safety we need to continue to work with facility services and custodial staff to ensure schools are physically safe. They do a great job with the resources they have but our buildings are not getting any newer. In the most recent Ministry of Education Facility Index 71% of our schools were rated as “poor”. We need to continue to pressure government regarding our aging infrastructure and ask them to not only invest in capital projects in our district but also to increase annual facility grant funding to help us complete more work each year to maintain and improve conditions in our aging buildings.
5. How do you see your role as trustee in relation to the superintendent and staff?
The board’s only employee is the superintendent and they are responsible to providing the Superintendent with the vision and set the direction of the district. The superintendent runs the day to day operations of the district. The board meets on a regular basis with the superintendent and members of the senior administration team to be briefed about what is going on in the district and receive information needed to make proper governance decisions.
In this co-governance model we are the employer and we need to advocate and support staff in our district. I recognize that work needs to be done to create positive change when it comes to staff morale and I believe the board has a role hear. We need to regularly meet with partner groups to have honest two way conversations and it could help start rebuilding the relationship between staff and employer.
6. How will you demonstrate and communicate the accountability and transparency of the school board to parents and to the community?
I think that this is an important question and ties into one of the main reasons I ran. I believe that in order to be accountable and transparent you need to be present and available. Over the past mandate I have made myself available to the district through social media, email, and telephone and in person. I am willing and able to take the time needed to provide information, talk through problems, provide clarification on a decision of the board and most importantly listen. I took many concerns you brought forward to board or staff and know that a lot of them were dealt with. I will continue to provide that accountability over the next mandate. I want to hear from you regardless if you are happy, sad, confused or angry and believe that every call, tweet, and email needs to be replied to as soon as possible and not left unanswered. I do need to get better and updating my blog and this will be a goal of mine for the next mandate.
As for transparency I believe that the work of the board needs to be transparent and that there should be no surprises (this is value of mine and bring it to the work I do. An example of this is regularly updating through social media with regards to my campaign spending and will once again post all the information by end of day on November 14th). Saying that there is a portion of our work that needs to be done in-camera. I believe the next board needs to continue to strive to ensure that business being done at in-camera meeting is truly an in camera item and in the event that it is not to move it to the public board table.
7. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Thank you for the opportunity to sit on the Board of Education of School District 57 for the past term. It has been a great experience and I committed and passionate about serving another term. If you want to learn more about me and my beliefs and/or platform you can visit my blog at www.timbennett.me, find me on social media (Facebook: www.faceboook.com/TrusteeTim; Twitter/Instagram: @tiben12; LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/tbennett12) call me anytime at 250-649-8316 or send me an email tbennett@sd57.bc.ca or timps.bennett@gmail.com
http://www.pgfreepress.com/bennett-seeks-second-term-on-board-of-education/
http://www.250news.com/2014/09/30/bennett-seeks-second-term/
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