Adam Hicks
Adam Hicks
Regina Public School Board Trustee
2016 - 2028
Thank you for your trust to serve a third term!
Adam Hicks
Experience
Stability
Transparency
I am a devoted parent of two who is committed to serving you. I advocate for our community tirelessly and make sure that the opinions of parents, staff, and, most importantly, our students are listened to. You need someone who is not afraid of the hard questions and fights for what is right. Others who have worked with me on Boards will remark on the enthusiasm and the creative thinking that is brought with a critical eye to detail who has learned to challenge the status quo while concentrating on crucial goals.
I have no hidden agenda and have demonstrated over the past eight years during my service on the School Board that my intentions are pure. I stand for safe and inclusive schools where all students and staff excel. I consistently show up, put in the hard work, and will remain a strong voice for our school division. I advocate for our community tirelessly and take the time to learn the real issues impacting students, staff, parents, and taxpayers.
With a robust financial background, I have consistently been the Chair of the Audit and Finance Committee and served as Chair and Vice-Chair during my time on the School Board. In addition to the required Board duties, I have attended hundreds (yes, almost too many to count) of voluntary events and meetings beyond the regular duties of the role.
In eight years on the School Board, I have worked through topics that made national news, such as the Davin school renaming and the Pride vote, multiple CEO hirings, a significant cyber-attack, tirelessly advocated for personal finance in every school in the province, division-wide mental health initiative, drastic budget cuts over multiple years, changes to transportation that impacted 1,100 students, capital advocacy and new school builds, COVID struggles, numerous union contracts, fundraising for multiple school community protects, and so much more.
Apart from serving on the School Board, I volunteer hundreds of hours yearly to make Regina the best place to live. It is rare to find someone who dedicates so much of his time to the service of the community, not someone who looks at or admires the problems but instead rolls up his sleeves and truly gets involved in leading community initiatives and improvements.
My daughter attends French Immersion at Dr. A.E. Perry, one of the schools I represent on the School Board, and my son attends high school at Campbell Collegiate. You have a trustee who is not only a professional director with training and experience but also someone who is often in our schools through his children's activities, providing additional insight into the needs of our schools.
With a strong leadership background and multiple designations, I have the training and tools to examine and analyze the issues that School Boards face. I sit on many governance boards and hold positions of significant community influence in my daily work as a Director of Finance & Strategic Operations at the South Sask Community Foundation.
My belief remains based on my 2016 and 2020 election slogans, “We all benefit from an educated society.” I will continue advocating for our students based on the belief that education lifts us all up.
I am honoured with the community support to serve a third term as your reliable local trustee.
My Promises to You
Safe & Inclusive Schools
Strong advocacy for all students and creating a safe environment for all students to learn.
Complete Transparency
More discussions in public meetings. More communication to staff, parents, and stakeholders.
Understanding Needs of Staff & Students
Ensuring decisions are made with our staff and students at the forefront.
Keeping Funds in the Classroom
Managing the funds of the Division to ensure we maximize the money to support classrooms.
The"Northern Stars"
Organizations love to create strategic plans, balanced scorecards, accountability goals, directives, policies, procedure documents, and more for large organizations like school divisions. The Regina Public School Division is one of the largest "companies" in Saskatchewan, with close to 3,000 staff, 59 buildings, approximately 27,000 students, and an annual operating budget of approximately $300 million per year. It can be difficult to ensure that all stakeholders collectively work together in the same positive direction.
However, to overcome the challenges of clear communication of goals and to unite people around a shared goal, we must truly understand what drives success. Once we understand how to make a collective impact, we can empower staff, students, and our community to work together to improve student outcomes.
We need to simplify our goals. When re-elected for a third term over the next four years, I plan to focus my efforts to help build a more clear Board direction in partnership with the leadership team.
1.
100% Graduation
Did you know that based on the 2022-2023 Annual Report (and results have been relatively static for years), just over 1 out of 10 students do not graduate in Regina (based on 3-year graduation rates).
Want to know something mind-blowing? Less than half of self-identified Indigenous students graduate. That is not a typo. Only 46% of Indigenous students graduated 'on-time' in 2022-2023. To expand this further, approximately 17-19% of all students have self-identified from our 26,000 students. Meaning of the approximately 5,000 Indigenous students, half of those students statistically will not graduate.
I genuinely do not understand why this is not discussed more and is not front and centre of all discussions. We need to stop looking at the data, "admiring the problem," as a former director would say, and to take true action to do something about it. It will take a community to make lasting changes, but we can't ignore these problems any longer.
We truly can make a change. Action must be taken, and I would love the next four years to try to move the needle.
2.
100% Attendance
For years, we have known, and numerous studies have shown, that attendance truly does matter. Students who regularly attend school, specifically in later grades, have a better chance of reaching graduation.
All students need to know they belong in our community. We need to support each and every student. We know that having one adult in their life who believes in them can make a statistical difference in their future success.
We need to empower our staff. A Board of seven trustees does not always know what is best, and senior executives do not know how to reach every student across all our 57 schools. Who knows best is our 3,000 staff. I believe that staff need to be supported, provided the tools to succeed, and allowed the freedom to impact students as they know best.
Engaged and cared-for students will attend classes. Attendance is a direct outcome of engaged students, and together we can focus on these goals of achieving 100% graduation.
3.
Grade 3 Success
Grade three student success rates directly correlate to future high-school success, including graduation. Numerous studies have been conducted, and even with our division, this topic has surfaced many times at the Board table.
Typically, leading up to Grade 3, students learn how to learn. After those initial years, those skills are assumed, and they then begin learning to utilize those foundational skills as they tackle more complicated and abstract assignments and topics year after year. Without that foundation that early grades teach, students continue to struggle and fall behind.
If we can work with families on kindergarten readiness (ready to learn) and aggressively focus on efforts to ensure all students are at Grade 3 reading and writing levels, statistically, this will ensure they are ready to succeed for the remainder of their schooling.
I will remain focussed on expanding efforts on early learning success.
These three Northern Stars are not out of reach. We need visionary leaders who are not afraid of shaking this system up, following the data, listening to the voices of our staff and students, and looking to others who are leading the way. Many countries are succeeding while we continue to fall behind. We can learn a lot if we look further than our provincial borders.
We need people who can stand up and challenge the status quo. I am that person. If you or someone you know is interested in learning more, please reach out, and I'd love to have a chat.
Together, we can make a difference.
Interested in Hearing More?
2024 Election Campaign Interview Video
Adam's 2024 TEDx Regina Talk