Meet your school board candidates
Question #1: Who are you and why are you qualified to be a good school board trustee?
PENTICTON: (Four to be elected) SHELLEY CLARKE: I’ve been on the school board for 11 years now and know the ins and outs of being on the board. I’m a good listener and will bring concerns forward. I have been a volunteer at our schools as a coach, PAC member in my community for several organizations. I still volunteer as a Class 4 driver for our sports teams and wheelchair-bound students. My previous work background was working with at-risk youth and developmentally-challenged adults.
TERESA HEBERT: I am great at being part of a team, valuing other perspectives and keeping my focus on students. I have the knowledge acquired during the 21 years I was on the school board of School District 83. I have First Nations ancestry and was very pleased to serve on School District 83’s First Nations education council , education committee, policy committee and on several provincial Aboriginal education committees. I was vice-chair, board chair for more than 10 years and elected to the B.C. School Trustees Association for three years. I have a passion for education and I loved being a trustee!
DEREK HURST: I have lived in Penticton with my family since 2003. I have two daughters, one in second-year university and the youngest graduating from Pen-Hi this year. I am operations manager at Bad Tattoo Brewing in Penticton. I chose to run because I see it as natural progression of my relationship with the school district. I have been an active member on three school PACs since my eldest was in kindergarten, holding various positions including vice- chair and chair. The last six years I have been the chair of SD67’s District Parent Advisory Council.
JAMES PALANIO: I am a father of two girls currently in our school district, Sophia is at Wiltse Elementary, and Olivia is at KVR in the French Immersion program. My wife and I both graduated here in 1984 and 1986 respectively. I have had over a decade of board experience on a variety of non-profit and advisory boards combined with governance training and board chair training give me the skills and tools needed to be a supportive, understanding and positive thinking school board trustee. I would be the trustee that supports student-based decisions and opportunities to help students achieve their goals.
BARB SHEPPARD: I have been a Penticton resident since 1996 and involved with the school district, in a number of capacities, since my son started school 2008 at Uplands Elementary. I was on the volunteer board of Community Futures for 15 years, taking on additional roles as the treasurer and vice-chairperson. As a trustee, I bring to the governance table 20-plus years of experience and skills related to planning, budgeting, communication, relationship building, board relations, strategic planning and development, and research, just to name a few. There are no easy decisions at the board table. I have the experience!
TRACY VAN RAES: I am a mother of two children with one that will be a student in our district for the next seven years. I am actively involved in the community. I was the past-Parent Advisory Council chair of Carmi Elementary for five years, an active Rotarian, a Jaycee. I also chair a program called “Starfish Backpack Program” which is a backpack of food for the weekend that myself and other Rotary volunteers deliver weekly to local students in need. We currently feed 46 kids in five schools. I am a strong voice to advocate for students and their families.
DAN WALTON: I’m a 29-year-old journalist who’s been working in the South Okanagan newspaper industry since early 2015. I’m taking a strong position against school closures and centralization. What qualifies me most to be a good trustee? I have become very familiar with the issues and operations of the school board through my coverage of school closures/shrinkages. In columns that I’ve written, I’ve been very critical about the priorities of trustees, as school boards seem to be out of sync with the general public.The articles I’ve written can be found on my Facebook page: “Dan Walton for School Trustee.” SUMMERLAND: (Two to be elected) JULIE PLANIDEN: I am currently serving my first term as a school trustee is SD 67. I have lived in Summerland since 2008 and recently moved to Oliver to be closer to my full-time job in the wine industry. I am currently the vice-chair of the board and have served as the Provincial Council representative to the BCSTA for the past three years. I have been involved in the schools in Summerland and in five different districts around the province for the past 20 years as the chair of various PACs and DPACs. I think students are amazing and we should all be doing everything we can to support them and see them succeed in whatever area they are passionate about.
DAVE STATHERS: My name, Dave Stathers, is very familiar in Summerland as I taught high school there for almost 30 years. I retired this past summer with a lot of firsthand experience on what goes on in the classroom. When people talk about underfunding, class size and composition, Special Needs, sports, theatre arts, and new curriculum, I lived it every day. I bring passion, commitment, loyalty, a proactive attitude and a desire for stronger school trustee representation for our community.
LINDA VAN ALPHEN: It is an honour to have served as a school board trustee of SD67 Okanagan Skaha for the past 16 years. Over time; I have held many positions including board chair, president of the Thompson Okanagan branch and provincial positions in education and legislation. My life work has been in office administration/ bookkeeping/ accounting. From 1998-2001, I was one of the certified BC-CPAC parent advocates in SD67. I successfully guided many parents and students through challenges within our system. This experience led me to running for school board trustee. Since that first election, my passion for supporting individual student achievement has never diminished.
PETER WATERMAN: I’m Peter Waterman, a retired horticulturist, a past two-term councillor on the municipal council of the District of Summerland. I am currently the mayor. My wife Claire, a retired full-time teacher, and I raised our three children after moving here 42 years ago. We have four grandchildren who are moving through the local school system. I have had substantial experience, on council, the RDOS board, the Okanagan Regional Library board, the Okanagan Water Basin board, and the B.C. Tree Fruits board. I understand process, and I would like to bring this experience to the school board.
RURAL: (Kaleden, Naramata, West Bench,
Penticton Indian Reserve) GINNY MANNING: Born and raised in the area, I attended Kaleden Elementary, Princess Margaret and graduated from Penticton Secondary School. My children also attend school in this district, so I understand the different issues facing rural schools. For the last 16 years, it has been my honour to be your rural trustee. In this time, I sat on local and provincial committees, served four years as board chair and four years as vice-chair. My passion, experience, strong relationships, active involvement (approximately 200 events last year) and continual professional development give me a unique set of qualifications for this position.
KATHY PIERRE: My entire life has been focused on improving educational opportunities for people. I am a teacher and educational administrator. Education is the most important vehicle for making a change in society, in our community and globally. I have over 20 years of experience focused on education as a career. I have worked at all levels of education from classroom teacher to being an education administrator. I bring experience regarding education issues, knowledge and experience in examining education trends that were positive and negative for students and our education system. I would offer a diverse perspective as an indigenous person.
Question #2: Teachers went on strike for a 1 per cent pay raise. CUPE (bus drivers, custodians, secretarial, support staff) received about the same. Do you agree with the superintendent’s pay raise of 17 per cent (with 3 per cent annually over the next two years) voted on by the present board?
PENTICTON: SHELLEY CLARKE: So this question needs way more words to answer fully, so I will concentrate on one aspect. At the time of the raise, we realized then that we may lose her to a more lucrative contract. Wendy’s (Hyer) salary had been frozen by government. So salary for public non-union employees is set by PSEC. They will give us a range of what the low end of the scale to the high end of the scale is for salaries of superintendents is in the size of district we are in. We set Wendy’s raise in the middle of that scale.
TERESA HEBERT: I support the concept of giving the superintendent a raise. Teachers and CUPE staff got raises over a number of years where the superintendent got zero per cent increases. I think it would have been better to give smaller increases over time rather than giving 17 per cent in one year. The board made the decision they thought was right at that time.
DEREK HURST: I do. Collective bargaining with the unions referenced is not done by the board of education, it is done by the Ministry. The board is told what to pay positions represented by those unions. The board increased the wage for a highly-experienced senior staff member to a level which brought the superintendent, to my understanding, to the average (50th percentile) of our cohort districts. Our superintendent renewed our international program off the side of her desk until it became self supporting. I think we all agree that has been a successful initiative supported by the board of education.
JAMES PALANIO: No, the optics were not good at all. Our monetary resources are limited and I do not feel this was a fair distribution of those resources.
BARB SHEPPARD: The superintendent of SD67 had their salary frozen since 2009. The salary negotiation that took place in 2014 was an adjustment to bring the salary in-line with the BCPSEA grid. It is unfortunate that previous boards did not maintain the small annual incremental increases. Because this question compares the teacher’s salary increases to the superintendent (which I do not agree with), I would like to source the collective agreement increases that the teachers have received: “The collective agreement term starting July 1, 2006 through to June 30, 2010 provided for a total compensation increase of 16.0 per cent. The minimum percentage increase a BC teacher realized was approximately 14.0 per cent, while the maximum percentage increase a BC teacher realized was approximately 21.5 per cent.”
TRACY VAN RAES: No. I don’t agree. The timing was completely wrong. The vote lacked transparency.
DAN WALTON: A 17 per cent raise for this public-sector job is offensive. It was excessively out of proportion to anything offered to teachers or the averaging working-class citizen. Less than a year later after approving that $17,000 raise for the superintendent, trustees blamed financial pressures on their decision to close three local schools. Before increasing our superintendent’s income to more than $150,000 annually — trustees should have shopped around. There are a lot of talented people we could hire for that much money. I won’t support any executive raises unless they are equal to, or below, the rate of inflation and they are truly deserved.
SUMMERLAND: JULIE PLANIDEN: For the record, I voted against this item. Administrators and excluded staff were under a provincially-mandated compensation freeze from 2009 - 2016. During that time, teachers received 18.9 per cent, but did not go without an increase for seven years. The superintendent is the CEO of an organization with 950 employees. There are very few superintendents with the experience SD67’s has and going through a recruitment process would have cost the school district and taxpayers significantly more.
DAVE STATHERS: I understand the importance of keeping good employees in a school district and offering fair, competitive wages. But, I also understand there are other employees too, like teachers, who went on strike for a very small pay raise. I agree that the superintendent’s big increase didn’t seem fair and reflected poorly on the previous board. I’m sure the trustees could have devised a more appropriate, gradual process of awarding our SD67 leader with a fair increase.
LINDA VAN ALPHEN: Definitely yes! Over the past 10 years, the Public Sector Employees Compensation Council has been establishing grids for all who work within the education sector. Where any employee lands on the grid is dependent on the scope of their work. Due to a salary freeze, the current superintendent had not had a raise since 2008 therefore the compensation lift was deemed fair. It was similar to the teachers’ compensation lift over the same time period. This question is deliberately misleading as it cites a percentage from a specific period of time against seven years. Truly comparing “apples to oranges.”
PETER WATERMAN: I do not agree with the 17 percent increase in salary with three percent annually. The superintendent’s salary is established by comparators for similar-sized school districts with similar responsibilities. A raise of 17 percent means the board has not done their due diligence in keeping pace with the remuneration of similar positions throughout the province. I understand this substantial raise was to encourage the superintendent not to leave for greener pastures. The superintendent should have been encouraged to further her career path in a district that was larger or had the responsibilities to justify such an increase.
RURAL: GINNY MANNING: You picked a point in time to promote controversy to sell papers. Readers deserve the entire picture from when the superintendent started. Prior to this raise, she went six years without one (three from a provincial freeze and two she turned down in fairness to employees without a contract.) Once that contract was settled, we brought her back to the 50th percentile of the superintendent pay grid for districts of our size. She had strong marks on her formal reviews (many stakeholders). Analysis showed that replacing her would cost more and with a new secretary/treasurer, continuity was important.
KATHY PIERRE: I did not agree with the raise. The school board has the responsibility for conducting fair annual employee evaluations on the superintendent. The evaluations should also determine salary increases that are reasonable and within the cost of living. When the media coverage came out regarding this, it was shocking. Personally, I wondered why a reasonable salary increase was not occurring incrementally over time since the superintendent was hired. If I was on the school board, I would have voted “no” for the 17 per cent increase because it was too much. I agree that employees deserve raises but they must be financially reasonable.