Only two of the Upper Grand District School Board trustees made it to last week’s all candidates’ meeting – Irma DeVries and Tim Meyers, both of Minto.
Incumbent trustee Bruce Schieck was at a school board meeting and unable to attend.
Irma DeVries
DeVries took the stage with an almost identical speech to that presented to seniors the week prior. Her platform dealt primarily with moral values in today’s education.
DeVries was educated in the public system, but sent her own children to a Christian school in nearby Listowel.
At the same, she considers Minto a great place to live and noted her children participated in many recreational activities in the community.
She stated her goal of bringing new perspectives to the position of school board trustee. She wants to see “fair, balanced and unbiased teaching” in the school system – not propaganda.
She stressed that she pays public education taxes “and I want to make it better.”
She is against all day kindergarten for 3- and 4-year olds as well as sex education in the schools.
“I don’t see them as being unbiased.”
While she admitted her ability to bring about that change is limited, her goal is to have the issues talked about.
“It is the parent’s right to choose what their children are taught,” she maintained.
She commented that the current trustee Bruce Scheick “has been an admirable, approachable trustee for the past 18 years. It’s time for change.”
Tim Meyers
Tim Meyers offered a different approach to what he hoped to accomplish if elected.
He said one of the organizations he is involved with locally is the Palmerston Lions Club.
“One of the reasons I am a member is to help make the community better.”
Meyers has a business education and is a manager of the commercial roofing division of a building supply company – responsible for multiple locations across Ontario and Manitoba.
He believes his business experience can be translated to the school board.
He is also a proponent of fiscal responsibility – where investments are made in people, equipment, buildings, and made sure partnerships were in place.
“Running a business and making it successful is similar to running the school board. We have to be fiscally responsible and we have to know have to manage our money.”
At the same time, it must consistently invest in its people, equipment, and buildings.
“We have to be able to prepare kids for the real world.”
That is something he does not see happening. He sees budgets that are really not budgets.
“What we need to do is take the business aspect and put it into the school boards. You have to be constantly thinking outside the box.”
He said the reason he is concerned about money, “is that it needs to be directed to where it belongs – the classroom.”
“We need to serve our customer – and that customer is our children. The product we’re selling – a good solid education.
“It is only through a good education and a commitment to learning that our children will be able to think about and shape the world around them and attain the skills necessary to be successful in the workforce – to make good choices and decisions.”
