Lynette Kershaw said she has been actively involved in schools, through PAC’s (parent advisory council) and classroom volunteering since her children were in Kindergarten, which she would promote as a school board trustee.
She is running in Area G - Parksville/Qualicum Beach, and said as a trustee she would encourage and advocate for more teacher, student and parent involvement in the educational decisions making process.
“Last year’s Oct. 2 announcement by the current board of possible school closures, caught the Town of Qualicum Beach broadside,” she said, adding that the board’s delaying the decision until the spring of 2012 also ended their willingness to discuss options.
One of the team of candidates the Oceanside Communities for Quality Education group that formed around the possible closure of Kwalikum Secondary, she said school closures “without fully exploring options is not on my agenda.”
“The potential of overcrowding Ballenas, closing KSS and changing the grade configuration of possibly every school in our district was a situation I couldn’t ignore,” she said.
She said the OCQE group has fresh ideas to increase revenue or decrease expenses that “need to be explored with the primary consideration of creating educational opportunities for our children within their communities not outside of them.”