Two candidates are running for the Trustee Electoral Area 1 (Upper) seat in School District No. 46.
With less than two weeks from voting day, Coast Reporter reached out to the candidates, to learn about them and their campaigns.
Advanced polling begins Nov. 29 and voting day is Dec. 9.
Tracey McClelland was born and raised on the Sunshine Coast and attended both Madeira Park and Pender Harbour Elementary Schools. A mother of four, McClelland has been an active parent in the community for more than 17 years, working in fundraising and student-parent support at a district level. She is a long-time advocate of parents and families, particularly around bussing issues that affect Halfmoon Bay, Pender Harbour, and Egmont as well as equitable access to information for those who aren’t able to access information online.
McClelland has been a volunteer board member of Serendipity Childcare, Madeira Park PAC, Pender Harbour PAC and most recently at the school district, DPAC.
McClelland said her years of board work have caused her to develop excellent collaboration and communication skills, and that her ability to present an informed opinion while keeping an open mind would be an asset at the board table.
“People in general are pretty comfortable talking to me about school-related issues. And that helps with that communication flow from parents and families back up to the board level,” she said.
McClelland has also worked as a bookkeeper and administrator for the last 20 years, “I've got a really good working knowledge of creating and dissecting and managing budgets and as well as adhering to legislative requirements around different acts through some of my roles with different companies," McClelland said. “And that fits really well with the role of the trustee in terms of setting plans and policies and the annual budget each year.”
She said that strengthening, and in some cases, reestablishing communication between the district, education staff, children and families is high on her priority list in the school district.
“There's a gap between what parents and families know, and what senior staff and trustees, board members think that we know about current practices and processes in our education system.”
McClelland said she’d like to advocate to the ministry for more sustainable food program funding as well.
If elected, McClelland said she would like to readdress the decision to remove trustees from PAC meetings, saying that trustees can benefit from attending in both their community engagement role, and also in trying to facilitate direct communication from the board level to parents.
Jordan Copp is the Coast Reporter’s civic and Indigenous affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
