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Meet the Candidates: Terry Hanik

School District 20: Hanik, Terry – School Trustee

Terry HanikI am 65 years old, born and raised in Trail. Married with three children and six grandchildren. I serve as President of the Trail Wildlife Association, warden for the Fort Shepherd Land Conservancy and Teck Land. Retired from Teck where I was a supervisor, trainer and process operator. Also served as a Local 480 shop steward.

The biggest challenge facing the school board is to improve the dialogue between teachers, administrators, parents, and students. I believe school board trustees need to be more involved with all the partners in our school system.

What would help is that the trustees visit the schools to see how the teachers handle issues that come up in the classrooms on a daily basis.

Another way to improve dialogue is when the teachers and board meet. What I am referring to are the three committees that were formed to deal with certain situations.

• Teacher/board education resources committee that deals with educational programs and education services. It handles proposals for policy which involves education programs and make recommendations to the board. And it reviews administrative decisions regarding provision of facilities and to make recommendations to the board.

• The joint curriculum implementation committee that decides curriculum and curriculum policy, time considerations, inservice requirements, funds and materials.

• Self funded leave plan committee, which allows for teacher leave without cost to the board. The board decides who goes on the committee and teachers do likewise. What I can’t understand is why there is not one trustee on any of these committees. Something as import as these committees are, you would think that at least one trustee would be on one of these committees. I would propose a trustee appointed on each committee.

An outstanding issue is that we have too many trustees. In our district with a population of approximately 25,000 and we have nine trustees. A place like Kelowna has a population of 60,000 and has only seven trustees. So, do we really need nine trustees? I’m convinced we need to adjust the number of trustees over the next four years.

Let’s bring back the trades of our secondary schools. It worked before and I don’t see why it wouldn’t work again. Let’s keep our students involved and up to date on the current work place. I will listen and make decisions in the best interest of our wider community.

“Let me help our children.”