Achievements

I have been honoured to have the trust of fellow Trustees and serve as Vice-Chair of the Regina Public for the last three years.  If re-elected, I will seek the role of Chair in November 2020.  For the past couple of years, I have been:

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• Chair of the Audit & Risk Management Committee; and

• Member of the Planning & Policy Committee; and

• Member of the Indigenous Advisory Council; and

• Three years on the City of Regina School Board Liason Committee; and

• Committed two years as our Boards Public Section Representative for the SSBA.

 

I am actively looking for opportunities to connect to our community across the entire School Division.  From attending Indigenous Resilience Award ceremonies, Pride events, Pink Day Events, Science & Heritage Fairs, judging debate competitions, participating in powwows, various cultural events, Division fundraising events for summer literacy programs, organizing and running school paint night fundraisers, and everything in between.  This dedication will continue if re-elected on November 9, 2020.

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I will also be working on immediately implementing two initiatives that support a productive board and consists of:

• Mandating a minimum number of School Community Council meetings that each Trustee must attend each year.

• Increasing the focus and structure of Trustee training and development.

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Interested in my track records?  Here are some specific highlights over the past four years:

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Transparency of the Regina Public School Board

I first introduced the motion on February 14, 2017, to increase transparency to our public meetings but was defeated.  Four Trustees voted no and two abstained (this has since been changed so no one can abstain in future votes).  To see the details of the vote, take a look at the meeting minutes by clicking here.

 

I didn't give up though and only seven months later, I had worked with fellow Trustees to eventually get the live streaming implemented with all Regina Public School Board public meetings!  And even more transparency than other Boards, we have all videos that can be played back at any time and click here to see past meetings.

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Transparency in voting is also important.  It was a practice of the Regina Public Board to not record Trustee votes in the past and abstaining from a vote was possible.  Work on the Planning & Policy Committee took place and we set in place a new motion that would update our Board policies to make voting mandatory for all Trustees and that every vote in the future would be a recorded one.  The was passed at the May 28, 2019 Board Meeting.

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Class Trip Program

Did you know in 2017, there were approximately 3,024 class trips taken from Regina Public Schools which represented over $200,000 in costs.  These costs are paid for by parents, School Community Councils (SCC), and local school budgets.  I saw an opportunity with Councilour Stephens to use the limited capacity of the busses during the hours of 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, and save parents thousands every year, with no extra costs for the City of Regina.

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I had thought this was a slam dunk partnership, but wow was I was woken up pretty quick.  There was a lot of unnecessary pushback from the City of Regina Council and was not expected at all.  Take a look at the video of the presentation by clicking here (skip to about 1:55:00 in the recording) or see the Leader-Post article here.  It was voted down by the City at this time, but my desire to push forward continued.

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More interestingly, a year later, the program was implemented and is currently saving $10,000's of thousands and see here for the program details, proving that the initial concerns were unfounded.

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Connecting our SCC's

Held large SCC meetings connecting schools and helping coordinate the sharing of best practises among them.  Helped form a community Facebook group for all SCCs to share and connect on with close to 200 SCC members on it that share information with each other.

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Joint Transportation

We had an extremely tough budget in 2018 and had to find over $9 million dollars, which with our School Division, came down to large cuts in as many areas as we could outside of the classrooms.  And $1.7 million was a cut to our transportation budget.  After this, I made it a goal to direct and advocate for Joint Bussing with Regina Catholic School Division to jointly save expenses.  Since this time, there have been multiple implementations of joint bussing and if re-elected, I will continue to advocate for more routes to be joint.

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Enterprise Risk Management

Based on my past experiences and knowledge, I directed the first-ever Division Risk Management System.  There is work to do but we are well on our way to managing Division risks in a proactive measure in partnership between Administration and the Board.​

 

Supporting and Advocating for a Joint South East Regina High School

I have been pushing for this to relieve pressure off other schools in the city that are at or expected to overcapacity in the next five years.  See the article here.

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Pride Vote

If you are from the City of Regina, you probably know all about this one.  I was one of the three Trustees that did vote in favour of Trustee Young's motion and the minutes can be seen here. I have continued work with our schools to heal the damage that was done on those days, and have supported the Diversity Committee that was formed and provided a report of actions for the Board.  If re-elected, I will work to ensure these recommendations are implemented within our Division and taken as a priority in the next School Year.

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Increased Communication Implications

Following the Pride Vote, I supported Trustee Ekong's motion to increase the analysis of communications and to ensure Trustees are provided all the necessary information before a vote takes place.  See here for the news article.

 

Student Voice on Regina Public

I have tried twice and submitted a motion to the Board to have a student voice on the Regina Public School Board, both of which never made it to a vote.  While our Division does a number of unique engagement events and incorporates student's voice, I will continue working on a solution in the next few years to ensure there is a formal process to have a consistent voice of our students at the front end of the policy discussions.

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Citizen Engagement in Budgets

I submitted a motion in 2017 for the collection and analysis of public voice towards our budgets.  It was not put to vote but I have not forgotten about the importance of including staff, parents, and even students in engaging students in the budget process.

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Supported Division Wide Initiatives:

• Opened five new schools over the past four years.

• Built an annual Community Engagement Forum.

• Initiated a new forum focussed on the voices of Indigenous Students.

• Developed a Community Engagement Plan.

• Developed a Mental Health and Well-Being Strategy.

• Developed a Diversity & Inclusion Action Plan.

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There are so many other items I have worked on, and have to say I would be impressed if you made it this far in the website.  If you want to chat further, send me a message and we can sit down to discuss more.