Trustee candidate completes term on provincial parent board

Local public school trustee candidate Gord Kerr expressed his satisfaction that almost two years of effort on the Parent Voice in Education Project and the Interim Ontario Parent Involvement Advisory Board resulted in improvements to Ontario's education system.

"The results are beyond what anyone expected." Kerr commented. "We began by seeking a way to renew the Ontario Parent Council and finished with a new provincial parent's board, a new provincial policy on parent involvement and new funding for school councils and boards to engage parents in education."

The connections made at the provincial level should help Kerr if he is successful in obtaining a trustee's seat on the York Region District School Board. "I had the tremendous experience of working with Kathleen Wynne on these projects when she was the Parliamentary Assistant.

Now as Minister of Education, I know that she will use her extensive experience and her deep personal commitment to public education to continue to make improvements to the system."

On Kerr's contribution to the Parent Voice in Education Project, Wynne said, "Gord was a leader who brought skills, experience and humour and was instrumental in helping the project succeed."

There is no better investment that we can make in the future of our children and of our province, than the one we make in public education," said Annie Kidder, executive director of People for Education and another member of the Parent Voice in Education Project. Kerr agreed and stated that, "public education provides the very foundation for our democratic society and the basis for future economic prosperity in York Region, in Ontario, and indeed, all of Canada."