Endorsements for school board

As residents of the UNA area at UBC we have the opportunity to vote for school board trustee candidates.  On A Campus Resident (where I focus on the story and less on my opinion) I have described the platforms and perspectives of the contending civic parties in this election.  This post reflects my personal perspective on who among those choices would create a strong, student friendly, diversity respecting, pro-public education board of trustees.

You can find stories on the left & center candidates here and on the right here.

My top five candidates, in my order of preference, are:

1. Zeidler (Vote Socialist)
2. Brown (One City)
3. Mah (COPE)
4. Cardwell (Vision)
5. Wong (Vision)

Karina Zeidler (Vote Socialist) is a medical doctor who has been outspoken on behalf of health and safety, particularly around issues of COVID-19. But she is more than that. Dr Zeidler represents a tradition of care and activism in community that has been lacking on our school board for many years now. Many of educational policies promoted by Vote Socialist are ones that of our colleagues in the Faculty of Education at UBC promote through their own teaching and research. We would do well to have this hardworking, caring, and activist MD on our school board.

Rory Brown (One City) is on faculty at BCIT in teacher education. He previously worked as a high school teacher in the Vancouver School Board. He was also the president of the Vancouver Secondary Teacher's Association for several years. Early in the campaign I had an opportunity to speak with him about the school crowding issue and left that long interview impressed with his care for learners and for his understanding of what is needed for public schools in Vancouver.

Suzie Mah (COPE) is a veteran teacher with over thirty years experience. In my interviews with COPE on why UNA voters should vote COPE, on the school safety issue, and on the school crowding issue, she demonstrated comprehension of the complexity of our school problems but didn't use that complexity to hide her perspectives on what needs to be done to make a great system even better.  

Steve Cardwell (Vision) became superintendent of schools in Vancouver shortly after my time on the executive of theVancouver's District Parents Advisory Council came to an end  (he stared in 2010). He has since then served in a number of educational leadership roles. I've followed him for many years (off and on) on social media. Every school  board needs a person with the kind of experience and perspective that Steve has.

Alan Wong (Vision) is currently the longest serving trustee on the board. I knew him when he was first elected to the board (I was then a member of COPE and he was a COPE candidate). I likely would have endorsed Alan irrespective of civic party he ran with. He has done a good job as trustee and will continue to do so if elected.

In my complete list you will see my choices include 4/5 One City Candidates, 2/5 Vision candidates and all the COPE and Vote Socialist Candidates.

One special mention in position 10, if I had a tenth vote, TEAM's Matiul Alam, PhD. Dr Alam made his way out to UBC to sit down and talk with me about why he is running, his policies, and what he hopes to achieve if elected. I will be publishing a full story on our meeting in A Campus Resident shortly. He is TEAM's only school board candidate. 

I would urge voters to think carefully about some of the candidates whom I have not mentioned running with ABC and NPA.  As I describe in my story on school safety (on A Campus Resident, Monday Oct. 2, 2022) candidates often use the same key words to mean very differnt things. This is particularly apparent around the importance of tolerance and emotional safety in schools. 

Here is my complete choice, listed in order and format as they will appear on the ballot.

304 MAH, Suzie 馬陳小珠 (COPE)

307 ZEIDLER, Karina (VOTE Socialist)

310 TRIGUEROS, Rocco (COPE) Burnaby

317 SIGURDSON, Krista (OneCity)

318 EPSTEIN, Kyla (OneCity)

320 REDDY, Jennifer (OneCity)

323 BROWN, Rory (OneCity)

326 CARDWELL, Steve (Vision Vancouver)

329 WONG, Allan 黃偉倫 (Vision Vancouver)