By Lattitia Taylor
Newcomer Jennifer McKenzie is eager to start work as a public school board trustee after defeating incumbent Joan Spice in the recent civic election.
For McKenzie the victory came as a huge surprise.
“I hadn’t really let myself think that I might win. I didn’t want to be disappointed,” says the new Kitchissippi and Somerset trustee. McKenzie won 54 per cent of the votes.
Spice, who has spent two terms as trustee, expressed disappointment at her loss, but says the voters have made their decision.
She was the only public school board incumbent trustee defeated on election night.
“My only regret is that there was so little opportunity for debate and discussion between the trustee candidates during the election campaign and so little media coverage of the serious issues that face our board,” she says.
McKenzie, a professional engineer, has been a school council member at two of the 18 schools within the district.
As a mother of three school-age children, she says she knows education is more than “getting good marks.”
“It’s about instilling positive values of respect and good citizenship and a life-long love of learning, ensuring that children from all backgrounds have as equal an opportunity as possible to grow, flourish and reach their full potential.”
McKenzie says she will work to provide playgrounds and green spaces at schools in the downtown core.
She would like to expand academic choices offered to students such as providing the music and math programs, saying the board must also recognize the area’s rich multiculturalism in its programs.
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board’s financial situation also needs to be addressed.
“The board has a higher than average number of at-risk students – students with special needs and immigrant students – their needs aren’t always funded by the province to the degree they should be,” she says.
“We don’t receive enough money to cover the teachers’ salaries so as the result tens of millions of dollars get diverted out of other funding envelopes, so we’re facing a large budget crisis in the coming year – all our resources are exhausted.”
McKenzie says she has enjoyed her working relationship with Spice and they often share a good laugh together.
“She ran a great campaign and I would like to thank her for all the hard work she’s done on behalf of our schools,” she says.
Spice says she wishes McKenzie and the new board every success over the next four years. “I hope she will be an excellent trustee and that the board will make the best decisions for the students of Kitchissippi and Somerset Wards and of the entire board,” she says.
Spice has no specific plans for the future. She says she is looking forward to having a more balanced life with more time for her family, friends, travel, reading, opera, and other interests that took a back seat during her time on the school board.
“After [the Christmas break], we will see what opportunities present themselves,” she says.
For now, McKenzie says she is keen to learn and to observe everything she can.
“There are all sorts of things that I think need to be done, but first we have to listen and learn and make sure we’re well-informed,” she says.
“But I look forward to working with other trustees, students, parents and the community and working together to make the schools the best that we possibly can over the next four years.”
The trustees in the three other school boards all won re-election by acclamation.