Rooted in community. Growing bright minds.
I believe strong public schools are at the heart of strong communities. Every student deserves to learn in a school where they feel safe, supported, accepted, and given the opportunity to succeed.
That also means making sure every student knows that they belong. Our public schools serve students with different abilities, identities, backgrounds, experiences, and needs. An inclusive public education system does not simply welcome those differences. It makes sure students have the supports and opportunities they need to fully participate in their education and their school community.
Zone 1 is also diverse in the communities it represents. It includes growing suburban communities, established neighbourhoods, villages, and rural communities across Stittsville, West Carleton-March, and Rideau-Jock. The needs of our schools are not all the same, and I believe our representation at the Board should reflect that.
I also recognize that this election is taking place under extraordinary circumstances.
Since June 2025, the OCDSB has been under provincial supervision. Under the Province's Order in Council, control and charge over the administration of the affairs of the OCDSB has been vested in the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry Supervisor has taken over the governance and decision-making functions that would normally rest with our elected Board of Trustees.
As a result, trustees have been prevented from fully performing the governance role they were elected to perform. I believe our communities have also lost an important part of their local democratic voice at the Board table.
I want that to change.
Until full governance and decision-making authority is restored to the elected Board of Trustees, I will use the role and voice available to me to be a strong advocate for Zone 1. I will listen to our communities, raise their concerns, speak publicly about the issues affecting our schools, advocate directly to the Province, and make sure the voices of students, families, and education workers continue to be heard.
At the same time, I will advocate for provincial supervision to end and for local governance to be restored to the trustees our communities elect.
I am running because I want to do the full job of a school board trustee. I want to represent Zone 1 at the Board table, work collaboratively with my fellow trustees, debate the issues facing our schools, make responsible decisions about the future of the OCDSB, and be accountable to our community for those decisions.
Until that authority is restored, I will not treat supervision as a reason to be silent. I will treat it as another reason to advocate.
These are the priorities I will fight for now, and the priorities I will bring to the Board table when trustees are once again able to exercise their full governance responsibilities.
Our public education system needs to have the resources to provide every student with the education and support they deserve.
The financial challenges facing the OCDSB are real, and I believe trustees have a responsibility to manage public money carefully and responsibly. However, responsible budgeting cannot mean continually asking students, families, and education workers to make do with less.
One of the clearest examples is special education. Even as overall enrolment declines, the OCDSB continues to see increasingly complex student needs. In the 2026-2027 budget, the Board added Educational Assistants because those supports are needed in our classrooms.
Fewer students does not mean fewer needs.
Funding for public education needs to reflect the students who are actually in our classrooms, the supports they require, and the real cost of operating the schools that serve them. An inclusive education system cannot work if we commit to supporting every student without providing schools with the resources necessary to make that commitment meaningful.
I will advocate for provincial funding that better reflects those realities. I will support responsible budgeting and reasonable efficiencies that do not compromise student success, but I do not believe chronic funding pressures should be addressed by continually cutting the people, programs, and supports our students rely on.
When there is a genuine gap between the resources the OCDSB receives and what is needed to properly support students, I believe we need to clearly identify that gap, explain its impact to our communities, and take that case directly to the Province.
We should be able to invest in our classrooms, support education workers, maintain our schools, and plan for the future. Our goal should not be to decide which of those priorities we can afford to sacrifice.
Students deserve to learn in schools that are healthy, safe, welcoming, and comfortable.
For me, student health includes the physical environment students spend their day in. That means safe drinking water, good indoor air quality, reasonable classroom temperatures, accessible spaces, and school buildings that are properly maintained.
This is particularly important in Zone 1, where our schools reflect the diversity of our communities. We have newer schools serving rapidly growing neighbourhoods, as well as older schools that have served their communities for decades. Some of our school buildings have been part of their communities for generations, and continuing to invest in them is an important part of making sure they can continue serving students well into the future.
As our communities grow and our buildings age, we need to be proactive about maintaining and modernizing our schools. Repairs, building systems, accessibility improvements, environmental health, and the overall condition of our learning spaces all need to be part of long-term planning.
I also believe student health needs to have a stronger voice in those conversations.
We should be willing to look at the evidence, listen to health experts, and ask whether the standards and practices we follow are providing students with the healthiest learning environments we can reasonably achieve. Meeting a minimum requirement should not prevent us from considering stronger approaches when the evidence supports doing so.
That includes looking carefully at issues such as drinking water quality, indoor air quality, ventilation, classroom temperatures, and other environmental conditions that can affect students and education workers throughout the school day.
These issues can also affect people differently. Students and staff with disabilities, health-related needs, sensory needs, or other circumstances may experience additional barriers when their physical learning or working environment does not meet their needs. Creating healthier and more accessible schools is therefore also an important part of creating more inclusive schools.
I believe we also need to think beyond individual repairs and look at the long-term condition of our schools. When the same infrastructure problems continue to appear, we should be asking what investments are needed to address the underlying issue, rather than relying indefinitely on temporary solutions.
At the same time, we need to be realistic about what those improvements cost.
The OCDSB has significant responsibilities for maintaining and renewing its buildings, and those needs compete for limited resources. I do not believe the answer is to take money away from classroom supports, education workers, or programs in order to make necessary improvements to our schools.
Instead, we need to clearly identify our infrastructure needs, establish priorities based on evidence, plan responsibly for the resources available to the Board, and make a strong case to the Province when additional capital investment is required.
As trustee, I will advocate for greater investment in school renewal and modernization, with particular attention to the needs of our older schools and the pressures facing growing communities in Zone 1. I will support evidence-based decisions about where investments are needed most, and I will push for provincial funding that allows us to address those needs without sacrificing the supports students depend on inside the classroom.
I also believe in being transparent about those decisions. Families and communities should be able to understand what work is needed in their schools, how priorities are determined, what the Board is able to fund, and where additional provincial support is required.
Every student, regardless of which school they attend or how old that building is, deserves a learning environment that supports their health, safety, well-being, and success.
Investing in our school buildings is an investment in the students, education workers, and communities who depend on them every day.
Every student should know that they belong in our public schools.
To me, inclusion means more than welcoming students into a classroom. It means creating schools where students can participate meaningfully, where differences are respected, where barriers are identified and addressed, and where students have access to the support they need to learn and succeed.
Students come to school with different strengths, identities, experiences, circumstances, and needs. Some students require Educational Assistants, specialized education staff, mental health supports, accessibility accommodations, additional learning resources, or other individualized assistance. Others may be facing barriers that make it more difficult to regularly attend school, participate in the classroom, or remain engaged in their education.
I believe we need to understand those barriers, not simply the outcome. Regular attendance and participation are important to student success, but expectations also need to be accompanied by support. Whether a student is struggling because of a disability, mental health challenges, unmet learning needs, bullying, transportation, family circumstances, or another barrier, our focus should be on helping that student stay connected to their education and successfully participate in school.
Providing that support also means investing in the people who make our public schools work every day.
Teachers, Educational Assistants, Early Childhood Educators, custodial staff, office and administrative staff, professional and support staff, and other education workers all make important contributions to our school communities. They deserve safe and respectful workplaces, appropriate resources, manageable workloads, and a meaningful voice in the decisions that affect their work.
I am proud to support education workers and the unions that represent them. I believe in the important role of organized labour, I respect collective bargaining, and I believe the experience of frontline education workers should be valued when we make decisions about our schools.
The people working directly with students see the impact of staffing levels, classroom complexity, resource shortages, and changing student needs every day. Listening to that experience can help us make better decisions, not only for workers, but for the students they support.
As trustee, I will advocate for special education funding that reflects the actual needs of students, and for sufficient EAs, teachers, professional staff, support staff, and mental health resources in our schools. I will also stand up for education workers, advocate for the resources they need to do their jobs, and make sure workers and their unions have opportunities to be heard.
I believe some of our strongest advocacy can happen when families and education workers work together.
Families bring an understanding of their children, their experiences, and the supports they need. Education workers bring their professional experience and their knowledge of what is happening every day in our classrooms and schools. Both perspectives are important, and trustees should be listening to both.
I want to help build strong relationships between families, school councils, education workers, unions, and the Board. I want to create opportunities for people to share their experiences, identify common priorities, and work together on solutions that strengthen our schools.
That is particularly important when we advocate for better funding. When families are asking for more support for their children, and education workers are asking for the staffing and resources necessary to provide that support, there is an opportunity to speak with a stronger, shared voice about what our schools need.
I believe that is part of the role a trustee can play. We can bring people together, listen to the people who know our schools best, and turn those shared priorities into strong advocacy at the Board and provincial levels.
Students deserve the support they need to succeed. Education workers deserve the support they need to do their jobs. Families deserve to know that their experiences and concerns are being heard.
One of the things I value most about Zone 1 is the diversity of the communities that make it up.
Stittsville continues to experience significant residential growth, which creates pressure on school capacity and requires us to think seriously about where students will be learning five, ten, and fifteen years from now.
At the same time, West Carleton-March and Rideau-Jock include large rural areas where distance, transportation, attendance boundaries, and the continued strength of local community schools can have a very different impact on families.
We need an approach that understands both.
In growing communities, I will advocate for earlier planning for new schools and additions, stronger provincial capital investment, and a long-term approach to school capacity. Portables can be a useful temporary solution, but they should not become a permanent substitute for building the school space we know our communities will need.
In our rural communities, I will advocate for decisions that recognize geography and the realities of rural families.
A boundary or transportation change that may appear small on a map can have a significant impact when students already travel long distances to school. Transportation is also an issue of access. If we want students to regularly attend, participate in extracurricular activities, access additional supports, and feel connected to their school communities, we need to consider whether our decisions make that participation easier or create additional barriers.
Transportation policies, attendance boundaries, and accommodation decisions need to consider how they will actually affect students and families.
When boundary changes are necessary, particularly when new schools open, I believe we need to consider community relationships, sibling continuity, transportation, accessibility, and the disruption those changes can create. Families should also be given meaningful opportunities to understand proposed changes and have their voices heard before decisions are made.
Growth also cannot mean forgetting the schools that are already here.
I will advocate for new infrastructure where our communities are growing, while continuing to fight for investment in the established schools that have served our communities for generations.
Zone 1 should not have to choose between preparing for the communities we are becoming and investing in the communities we already have.
I am running to represent Zone 1, and I believe that representation needs to mean something.
A trustee should be accessible to the people they represent, understand what is happening in their schools, communicate openly about major decisions, and bring the concerns of their communities directly to the Board table. I want to build strong relationships with students, families, school councils, education workers, and community organizations across Stittsville, West Carleton-March, and Rideau-Jock.
When an issue affects our schools, I want to understand the evidence, hear directly from the people affected, and make sure the experiences of Zone 1 are part of the conversation.
I also believe strongly in transparency and accountability. I will communicate openly about the major issues facing the OCDSB, explain the reasoning behind the positions I take, and be honest when I believe the Board does not have the resources or authority needed to properly address a problem.
Right now, however, our elected trustees do not have the authority they were elected to exercise.
The OCDSB has been under provincial supervision since 2025, with governance and decision-making authority transferred from elected trustees to a provincially appointed Supervisor.
I want that supervision to end.
I believe in accountability, responsible financial management, and making the changes necessary to put the OCDSB on a sustainable path forward. I also believe that our communities deserve local, democratic representation.
I am not running for trustee simply to have a title or to sit on the sidelines while decisions about our schools are made elsewhere.
I am running because I want to do the job.
I want to bring the concerns of Zone 1 to the Board table, work with other trustees to find solutions, ask difficult questions when necessary, and be accountable to the people who elected me for the decisions I make.
I will advocate for provincial supervision to end, and for full governance authority to be returned to the trustees our communities elect.
Our students, families, and education workers deserve to have their voices represented at the Board table, and I will fight to make sure they are.