Adam Bramburger
Beaver Staff
Roberta Lamb is running to represent Greater Napanee on the Limestone District School Board because she believes it can have a different rapport with parents and the community.
The retired music and education professor from Queen’s University has been following LDSB meetings closely for the past two years through her involvement with Rural Schools Matter and she felt the current board displayed a “closed and often dismissive attitude.”
She joins a slate of 10 candidates in different geographic areas running under the #TRUSTee banner with hopes of changing the way they see the board operating. Lamb promises to focus on education first, accountability and transparency, as well as community commitment.
“With a number of open seats currently, there is a real opportunity to change the culture of the school board to one of openness and communication,” she said.
Lamb said she believes there is a lack of public trust in the board. She’d like to see better communication from trustees on issues like discipline and violence in schools. To that end, she has put together a number of policy suggestions that she’d bring to the table if elected. Those include: reducing private sessions to only those required by law; conducting and discussing important business during public meetings; including a 15-minute question period on the agenda for members of the public to speak directly to trustees in open sessions; live streaming and recording board meetings for broadcast and reviewing and revising the board’s policies.
“The last one may not be so easy to accomplish; however, it is a requirement for every newly elected school board to review and revise. This review needs to be done with a spirit of openness and co-operation,” Lamb said.
The board’s interactions with the province are another area Lamb says she’ll be watching closely. She says the Ford government’s line-by-line audit of its finances, conducted by Ernst & Young, could open the door to privatizing education through voucher and charter schools and reducing public education budgets.
“These proposals take education out of the public purse and also remove it as a public responsibility and a public good. Public education is essential for a well-functioning democracy. Negotiating with the provincial government becomes critical to the future of public education. As a trustee, I would commit to this effort with all my heart.”
While there is currently a moratorium on school closures, Lamb is also wary that issue may come back to the LDSB. She notes that all the rural schools in Greater Napanee, excepting Selby, have been closed and additional school closures loom in northern and rural regions.
“We must keep Selby Public School open,” she said.
Lamb also advocates for instructional consistency for students and says teachers must be allowed to work to their strengths to get the best results. Assessment, she said, should be honest and encouraging. She also indicated she is in support of giving students with special needs the support they require in a timely fashion.
With the first ballot in several years locally, Lamb is hoping voters give her a look.
“Professionally, I am an educator. This is my lifetime commitment. I know teaching and learning and educational policy. I have administrative experience from my years at Queen’s,” she said. “Now retired, I can give back to the community and have no higher political aspirations. My personal characteristics of integrity, ethics, hard work, and a quirky sense of humour, as well as being a bit of a policy wonk will serve this board well. I speak my mind, but listen to others with compassion and integrity.”