Mark Peters is running for a Ward Three trustee position with Hanover School Division, saying he wants to help address issues he has seen firsthand within the school system. 

Peters says his decision to run aligns with the experiences of many other candidates, noting that he has two children in the division who he feels are falling through the cracks of the school system. 

"Their particular needs weren't being met. One of them has ADHD, and the other one was having some difficulty staying seated and keeping quiet in classroom, and so he needed some additional attention." 

He says he saw an opportunity for improvement and believes his background and skill set could help address some of the challenges facing the division. 

Engineering background 

Peters has spent the past 10 years working in engineering, a career he says has involved extensive data analysis and finding solutions to problems. 

He believes that experience would be valuable if he is elected as a trustee. 

"In this case with the school division, then the customer is going to be the student first of all, and then families and students secondly, but also impacts them whatever we're doing. It's that process of reviewing what the issue is, looking at solutions, discussing it with people who may have very different ideas about how we might approach it, collecting feedback, and then changing what we're doing, if what we're doing isn't achieving the desired result." 

Challenges facing the new board 

Peters says one of the difficult issues the new board will have to navigate is negotiating a new contract with educational assistants. 

He also says the decisions made by the board are ultimately in the public eye. 

"Every decision you make is going to receive a lot of scrutiny and it's going to be nearly impossible to make everybody happy. And so, it's not necessarily a rewarding job because even if you do very good somebody will be upset with you." 

Literacy and numeracy 

If elected, Peters says he has several priorities he would like to address. One of his first areas of focus would be literacy and numeracy, saying student outcomes in Hanover School Division and across the province need to be examined.  

"Provincial testing shows that about 50 per cent of children can read and write at grade level, and only about 35 per cent can do math at grade level. Now our internal scoring in terms of grades that children are receiving is somewhat higher, but I think that we need to look at that, apply the data analysis, and see why is it higher?" 

Peters points to the previous board's decision to allocate $500,000 toward literacy for the coming year, which he says he applauds. 

"We implemented literacy screening last year, which is something that the province is now mandating this year. So, in a way, we're ahead of the curve on that." 

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Greater transparency 

Another priority for Peters is increasing transparency between the school board and the community. 

"I think that the board should have whatever policies have been reviewed, posted publicly, so that people have an opportunity to respond or to comment on that and that the board can consider the views of the community and their ideas." 

He says providing more information could help build greater trust with the community. 

Peters also points to the curriculum as an area where he believes more information could be provided to families. 

"I don't know if you ever tried to find it. It's difficult and it's kind of vague about what's being taught. I think we could be a lot clearer and more complete in the information that's provided." 

Additionally, Peters says there needs to be clearer communication about what falls within the board's authority and what does not. 

"I think that it would be helpful to also communicate with the community, what is a provincial mandate? We're doing these things because they're mandated by the province. They are not things that the board can necessarily override or choose not to do, and there are many." 

Peters says making that distinction clear would allow residents with concerns to direct their advocacy to the appropriate level of government. 

Planning for growth 

Peters also points to continued growth in the community and the resulting pressure on schools, particularly Steinbach Regional Secondary School. 

"We need a plan, not just what are we doing next year? We need a five-year plan, we need a 10-year plan," he says. "We recognize that this is not necessarily completely the jurisdiction of the trustees, but the trustees can certainly petition the province and say this is what we want to do, this is our plan, and it's important to just say like we want to do this." 

Addressing bullying 

Peters' final priority is addressing bullying in schools. 

While he says there is plenty of discussion around the issue, he does not believe a lack of effort from teachers is the problem. Instead, he says educators are busy focusing on their primary responsibility of teaching. 

"I would like to work with the educators, similar to the literacy plan on how can we detect bullying sooner to mitigate its impact. Because it's certainly going to happen. It's how fast can we respond in a manner to put a stop to individual instances between students." 

For more information about the upcoming election, visit the municipal election landing page on SteinbachOnline.  

With files from Afton Berg

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