As the local government election approaches, the Summerland Review is asking questions of the candidates for trustee for the Okanagan Skaha School Board.
This week’s question: What are the most pressing needs within the Okanagan Skaha School District?
Erin Hayman
In talking with parents the most pressing need of our school district is transparency. We have a large parent population that feels out of touch with decisions that the district and ministry have been making.
We need individuals that represent families to be able to create the change that accurately reflects needs.
Maureen Harrington
The most pressing need is to remove SOGI123 from our schools.
In order to have resilient adults, we need to protect them when they are young children. We need to let kids be kids.
Our mental health and drug problems are rooted here.
Dave Stathers
My focus in a second term is unfinished business. I have a six-point platform that reflects issues that still need major attention: Construction of a new $10 million gymnasium at Summerland Secondary School; confirming strategies associated with a new district Long Range Facilities Plan; implementing a new bus transportation policy; investigating more daily child care spaces; implementing new mandatory Indigenous graduation courses; ensuring health and safety in the face of another possible wave of COVID.
Our board made great strides in many policies and plans in the past four years, but we have some tough decisions ahead of us that could include grade reconfigurations and school closures. School District 67 is hampered by stagnant enrolment and schools that are 30 per cent empty. I will direct my energy to students and programs that support their learning and mental health.
Linda Van Alphen
The students of School District 67 Okanagan-Skaha have experienced unprecedented levels of personal restrictions and anxiety over more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This included long stints of distance/online learning while being kept apart from their peer groups.
I believe that the district will need to put in strong social/emotional and academic supports which are readily accessible for all our students.