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McCallum: Prioritize budget

#MRvotes2018: important for residents to give back to their community,
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Gord McCallum.

Gord McCallum, for trustee.

• Occupation:

Retired elementary school principal.

• Political experience/qualifications for running in this election:

I have been in the education field for over 35 years, as a teacher and elementary school principal.

I have a Masters of Education in School Administration.

Since my retirement, I have continued in the education field through acting principal roles, mentoring, organizing FSA marking, substitute teaching (Surrey) and supervising student teachers.

• Reason for running:

I strongly believe it is very important for residents to give back to their community. Choosing to run for school trustee seemed like an excellent way to do this. With my extensive educational career, I feel I have the experience to make a valuable school trustee.

This year the majority of trustees elected for School District No. 42 Board of Education will consist of new trustees. I have always worked cooperatively with groups at the school level and outside of the education field, such as Agricultural Land Commission (commissioner), B.C. Lions Society (executive member), of Timmy’s Christmas Telethon (chairman).

• What do you consider to be the top two issues this election and how would you address them?

School funding is always an important issue. I will advocate to access the most financial support that we can for School District No. 42. The reality is that we will receive a budget from the Ministry of Education that is based on a formula.

So how we prioritize that budget is going to be the main focus of our Board of Education.

For example, I would like to look into what resources are allocated to students who are gifted. This is one area where I feel student’s needs are possibly not being met. I would like to investigate this issue further to determine whether these students are in fact reaching their full potential.

The recent increase in student population is another issue in School District 42. We need a trustee with hands-on experience in this area. During my time as a principal in Surrey I was responsible for the opening of a new school as well as additions at two other schools.

gordmccallum.ca

• Facebook-Gord McCallum, Maple Ridge School Trustee Candidate

• Email: gordmccallum@shaw.ca



Colleen Flanagan

About the Author: Colleen Flanagan

I got my start with Black Press Media in 2003 as a photojournalist.
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