A father of two said he is running for school trustee representing Cochrane because he would like to see improved COVID response, more collaboration with teachers, particularly over the proposed K-6 curriculum and enough schools for the growing population.
Peter Fortna said the Province has downloaded the responsibility and decision making around COVID safety onto school divisions.
More needs to be done to keep students safe and parents informed, said Fortna.
“The current school trustees and the incoming trustees need to take that responsibility seriously and gather information wherever possible,” he said. “I like what other school divisions have been doing. For example, Edmonton School Division has set up websites to provide information to parents as best as they can with their schools and where there is outbreaks and how they are responding to them.”
He said Rocky View Schools should be following suit and improve their communication.
The re-opening plan in September from Rocky View was “disappointing”, Fortna said, with bare minimum restrictions and no masking rules.
“Here we are a month later and in essence in a new lockdown,” he said. “Rocky View Schools should have been making more proactive decisions.”
Fortna said another concerning issue he saw over the last year was the dismissal of teacher’s opinions by the Province as they developed a new elementary school curriculum.
“The Province actively sought to remove teachers and their input from the process,” he said. “I liked what other school divisions did in the lead up of it, in putting together groups to review the curriculum and provide constructive feedback.
“It worried me that our board chair, her initial response was there are some good things in there and that we should work with it and look at ways to pilot it.”
He said although Rocky View Schools changed their messaging, it is concerning that the board was originally favourable to the controversial curriculum. Speaking with teachers first about the curriculum would have been a first good move, Fortna said.
“If Rocky View Schools had done more to listen to their teachers and sought feedback right off the bat, they would have been in a better situation to determine that this curriculum was a bad idea and that it needs more input from teachers,” he said.
As a trustee, Fortna said he would lobby the Province to redo the curriculum with teachers’ consultation.
“If elected, one of the first things I would do is really push the provincial government to do the rewrite and include teachers from Rocky Schools in that rewriting process,” he said. “We have amazing teachers here and they can provide really important information and insight, as they are the ones who teach our kids every day and understand what will work and what won’t work.”
Another issue Fortna said he would focus on as trustee is ensuring the school system is growing in line with the town.
“Cochrane is a very quickly growing community as we are all well aware,” he said. “Our high schools are quickly getting to their max. Our elementary schools are at 80-some per cent and that is growing three, four and sometimes more per cent a year. We need to do some aggressive planning and lobbying for schools we need in Cochrane.”
Fortna can be found on Facebook and online at www.peterfortna.com
