麻豆视频

PRINCE ALBERT Jaimie Smith-Windsor is seeking another term as trustee for Subdivision 3 in the Saskatchewan Rivers School Division.

Subdivision 3 represents Christopher Lake, Candle Lake, Meath Park and surrounding rural areas.

Smith-Windsor was first elected in 2009 and said that being a parent of school-age students is one reason that she decided to run again.

"(I) have a strong sense of what's going on in our schools and in my role as a parent,” she said. “I'm also a caregiver and an advocate so I think that's a natural fit.”

Smith-Windsor has a background in political science and policy governance. In addition to being a veteran trustee, Smith-Windsor has also served as president of the Saskatchewan School Boards Association (SSBA) and was recently elected vice-president of the Canadian School Boards Association (CSBA). She said that gives her a unique perspective on the school board.

"At the end of the day, what I really want is to make sure that we are safeguarding our education system,” she said. “We all benefit from a strong, publicly funded education system.

"I think I think we're at a time in education where we really benefit from having some experienced advocates for our publicly funded education system in the role of school board trustees,” she added.

Smith-Windsor said being on the two association executives gives her the ability to connect what is happening locally with what is happening provincially and federally.

"That’s a significant strength and opportunity for our community to have that kind of representation of local voices,” Smith-Winder said.

Smith-Windsor said that provincially school boards are facing several issues. The first is securing sufficient and sustainable provincial education funding. She said that there also needs to caution around centralized decision-making and privatized education.

"I think that increasingly we need to be vigilant about preserving the integrity and the independence of school boards and keeping partisan politics out of the board room,” Smith-Windsor explained.

"Keeping public tax dollars and publicly funded schools is also really important. There were legislative changes made as far back as 2011 that have created alternatives to the publicly funded education system and we need to make sure that we are safeguarding our publicly funded schools for generations to come.”

She said that there is also work around tax efficiencies because provincial and federal taxes are imposed on school divisions that cannot set a mill rate.

"The whole concept of governments taxing at their levels of government is problematic and so I think I would certainly be supportive of doing some work around exemptions or rebates of provincial and federal taxes,” she said.

"Then I think what we're also seeing is increasingly some tensions between the educational and human and treaty rights of children and youth and need to position our school boards to make the best decisions possible for all of our students,” she added.

With sustainable funding, Smith-Windsor also said that investments should be made in items like full-time Kindergarten, school nutrition funding, and a strong renewed vision for rural education.

“Sask Rivers hasn't had a capital build in decades, and it's time to take a look at the at the two priorities, which are rural schools and Shellbrook and Christopher Lake,” she said.

She added that Indigenous education is an area that always requires investment for Sask Rivers.

“Ensuring local voice in education remains because local decision-making results in the best decisions and opportunities for local kids,” she said.

Smith-Windsor is one of two candidates running in Subdivision 3 on Nov, 13. The other is Jill Brown.

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