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I urge the people of Kelowna to take a serious interest in the current campaign to fill the vacant trustee seat on the Central Okanagan (SD23) School Board and encourage my fellow citizens to vote on Saturday, June 26 or earlier at one of the advance polls (June 16 and 23).
As a former school trustee on that board I am familiar with the important work done by school trustees and the challenges they face.
An effective school trustee needs to be knowledgeable and passionate about public education.
They need to be able to take in a lot of information on complex issues and make fact-based decisions supported by science, economics and experience, not based on hearsay, whims or pre-existing biases.
A trustee also needs to be a good communicator in order to make connections with other trustees, explain decisions and policy to parents and to make the case with the minister of education for adequate funding for education province-wide, as well as the proper allocation of sufficient funds for their school district in particular.
While everyone needs to make their own decision, personally I believe that candidate Wayne Broughton has the right skills set and will make an excellent school trustee.
I worked with Dr. Broughton on a voluntary non-partisan project several years ago and I found him to be reliable and hard-working, as well as focused on the task at hand. In addition, he is passionate about things he believes are important and he is a clear and effective speaker, both one-to-one and in larger settings.
As an associate professor of mathematics at UBC Okanagan, he also has first-hand knowledge of many education issues and a demonstrated ability to assess complicated problems with an open and scientific mind.
For more about this by-election go to the SD23 website.
For more information on Wayne Broughton I suggest you visit his website.
Terry W. Robertson, former SD23 school trustee
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