School trustees square off at Vernon forum

Parents, grandparents and youth packed Vernon Secondary School recently to hear from those hoping to lead the school district.

The Vernon School District trustee positions for Vernon and Coldstream have a combined 13 people looking to fill the five positions. To give residents a chance to hear from the candidates, a forum took place at VSS Monday, Oct. 3.

Four of those seats are for Vernon and electoral areas B and C, being sought by incumbents Jenn Comazzetto, Mark Olsen and Tom Williamson, along with Andy Collins, Philipp Gruner, Vanessa Mitchell and Truman Spring. Sylvia Herchen, Jewlie Milligan and Nellie Villegas, all with the ParentsVoice BC group, have also put their names forward, but none of them took part in the forum. Williamson was in attendance but due to an administrative error he was not permitted to take part in the forum organized by the Vernon Teachers Association, CUPE 5523 and District Parent Advisory Council.

There is one seat for a Coldstream trustee, being sought by incumbent Robert Lee and newcomers Sheri Minard and Kelli Sullivan.

The two Lumby trustee positions have been acclaimed by incumbents Gen Acton and Lori Mindnich, who ran unopposed.

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The nearly full house of residents listened to the candidates share their goals and thoughts on a variety of issues including governance, funding, union staff discrepancies and increasing enrolment.

Lee explained that out of the district’s $116 million budget, 90 per cent of that pays wages for the approximately 1,000 staff.

“That is where the challenge comes,” said Lee, who has been a trustee for eight years, has 40 years of experience in the public school system and has a vested interest with seven grandchildren currently enrolled.

But, as Lee points out, the district does have programs, such as forestry and international students, which generate funds for the district.

Collins said the district needs to charge more for rental of its facilities, which would generate additional revenue for schools. He said Kelowna made $600,000 from rentals last year, whereas Vernon only made $6,000.

“I think we missed a huge opportunity here for many, many years,” said Collins, who has five teenagers and has been coaching in the district for 20 years. “Are we being creative? We have to be advocates for ourselves.”

Spring agrees with charging more for facilities, as well as establishing a finance committee, which could also look at grants.

“It comes down to innovation and the sub committee would be a great start,” said Spring, a Vernon Museum board member. “There is only so much money to go around and there are priorities. But like everyone says the priority should be our students. I am a strong advocate for kids and their support.”

An additional finance committee for oversight is needed, said Minard, a mother who has been involved with the Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) locally as well as with the district (DPAC) for more than 10 years and manages a law firm.

“Can we not lobby the government to at least increase the pay per student? We need to go after specialized funding. If we bring more money into our system then we don’t have to make anymore cuts,” said Minard.

Gruner would also like to see a sub finance committee form the basis of the budget every year. He was involved in the DPAC consultation on the district’s strategic plan and says dialogue is necessary and more is needed.

“How can we get more dialogue going? Just spending time in the schools, spending time with the administrators, finding out what’s going and what’s bugging you,” said Gruner, former executive director of the Vernon and District Immigrant and Community Services Society who lost by one vote in the last byelection.

Listening to people for budget input is a valuable tool, said Olsen, who has been a trustee since 2018 and was employed with the district for 30 years.

While they can’t do everything, Olsen is a proponent of lobbying and pushing for more. He is excited about funds coming from the new daycare program at Alexis Park Elementary, as well as existing programs such as Montessori, which supports students needing a different style of learning.

“We are doing pretty good, I think we are on the right track. We can always do better, there’s always somewhere we can improve.”

Focusing on the most vulnerable is essential to ensuring no students are lost in the district, whether they aren’t showing up due to bullying or suicide, said Mitchell.

“Having those conversations and really focusing on the most vulnerable, always being sure to follow up. Where are their voices and where are they going,” said Mitchell, an Syilx member. “We have a long way to go. We can have policy but if we don’t have strong work then it doesn’t go anywhere.”

Sullivan is concerned that the district has more than 20 buildings that are in poor, or very poor, condition. But when it comes to finances, she said it is time to think outside the box.

“This is a really good chance for us to get innovative,” said Sullivan, adding that teachers and staff are doing as well as they can at providing an inclusive education considering how little funds the district gets. “I think we have an opportunity to partner with our community. Every district in B.C. has a funding gap in terms of inclusion education.”

Comazzetto doesn’t think the district has done as well as it could in terms of inclusion.

“We are only as good as the lowest one, so we have to help each other: a rising tide will raise all ships,” said the climate-change concerned incumbent.

“There’s not always one answer that fits for everything,” said Comazzetto. “We get work with some smart people at the provincial level and we get to work with some other people at the provincial level. The funds we have, those funds actually circle around to our economy: any funds we spend on people that just keeps benefiting people.”

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