Presentation at Trustees' Forum

Good evening, welcome guests, fellow candidates. Thank you to COTA and COPAC for organizing this forum. My name is Richard Knight, and I’m running for School Trustee.

I have over 30 years of experience in Public Education, as a teacher, Vice Principal and Principal at the Elementary, Middle and Secondary levels. I also served as Faculty Advisor at UBC Okanagan supervising the practicums of student teachers.

I am a parent of 4, one still in the school system, and I have 2 grandchildren, one in grade 1.

I believe in the universality of education, and I believe we should all work to raise the profile of education in the public eye.

I have three broad areas of focus. Listening to the concerns of all stakeholders. Lobbying the government for better funding, and examining our own budget and how we allocate our funds.

One of the major issues I hear from people is the lack of funding in education. There is no doubt in my mind that education is underfunded. I have heard from people, and seen for myself an erosion of services to Special Needs students and to those in the “grey area”, like students who receive learning assistance, for example. Custodians have been cut, and yet we promote Health and Safety as one of our goals. Rutland Middle was left off the list for capital expenditures, to name a few.

I believe it is crucial to continue lobbying our government for better funding. But because we are experiencing hard times these days, I believe we must also look very closely at how we are spending the money that we have.

To cite one example, our library programs have been cut back considerably over the years, even though “improving literacy” is our top goal in SD 23. What, exactly, are we spending our money on? This is a question I’m very interested in exploring.

I believe in the universality of education. I shudder at the thought of schools lobbying their PAC’s for books, for example. I’m told this is happening.

The more we do these kinds of things, the more the Provincial Government will abrogate it’s responsibility, and the more we will create “have and have not” schools.

One of the most important issues for me in the Kelowna Civic Election has been the election of School Trustees. It's an interesting commentary on our society how little attention Education gets in the media compared to issues of bricks and mortar. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why it is so difficult to get better funding.

School District 23 employs about 3 times as many people as the City of Kelowna, by the way. It is the 2^nd largest employer in the Okanagan Valley, next to Interior Health.

We all want to clean up downtown. I wonder if it has occurred to anyone that all of our street people and homeless went to school. How many of our current students will end up on the street? Education is about actualizing long-term goals that will benefit all of us in the years to come. I will work hard to raise the profile of education in the public eye.

I am retired and therefore I have the time. I am committed and passionate about Public Education. And I’ve been living it for most of my adult life.

If you share any of my concerns please vote for Richard Knight on November 19.

Thank you.