www.BarbaraFreeston.com

Thank you Dorval

Goals for the Future

• All Dorval students [North and South] must have the opportunity to stay in Dorval for their elementary education. I will push for further rezoning such that those in North Dorval have the option of a bilingual program in a Dorval school (Bishop Whelan) as well as their current choice of early immersion at Dorval Elementary.

• I will work to ensure that resources are made available to develop Lakeside Academy as the gold standard for any secondary school - public or private - in media arts and technologies.

• We have barely scratched the surface in E-Learning, in Distance Learning, in interactive internet classrooms across the province, across the country, across the planet. Technologies are needed to increase the breadth and depth of options available to our students in all fields, be they at the elementary, secondary, or adult level.

• The LBP continues to develop programs of excellence for students with many diverse skills and interests. There are general enriched programs, creative arts, performing arts, science and technology, and multi-media. It is time to expand the envelope for the 2% of the student population colloquially referred to as “severely gifted” so as to engage them throughout their elementary and secondary schooling. Boredom is not an option.

• All students have the right to a secure and peaceful atmosphere in their classrooms. Certainly having special needs students integrated in the classroom with their peers whenever possible is to everyone’s advantage. But the demands continue to grow each year, and the funds available are finite: we must revisit our model to ensure that every student can progress toward his or her maximum potential.

• The long term demographics are not in our favour, and of course school board funding is on a per capita basis. Therefore, we must build aggressively on the current strong base of revenue-positive program. Among them are international programs, summer learning camps and special interest courses on weekends and in the evenings for youth and adults in our communities.

• With the sparkling new conference facility approaching completion at the Pearson Electrotechnology Centre in Lachine, we must develop new partnerships with business to offer retraining and upgrading courses for their employees.

• We must continue to lobby the ministry to authorize additional professional training options in our vocational centres.

• We must decrease the huge volume of paper generated at all levels at the board, in class and administratively, by accelerating paperless communication and increasing recycling and reuse.

• There is a need for greater School Board partnership with the municipalities whose citizens we serve. To facilitate this I intend to attend Dorval Council Meetings as an observer on a regular basis and to encourage joint projects and ventures wherever possible.

Value Statement

As a school board commissioner, my mandate is

• To represent the needs and aspirations of the citizens of Dorval, and most particularly the parents of our students

• To ensure the best possible education for the youth and adults of the whole territory of the Lester B. Pearson School Board such that they are prepared for the work force and the world of the future

• To maximize the value of the financial resources available to the Board, to maximize those resources, and to ensure a balanced budget (as required by law)

• To retain and continuously upgrade the skills of all our workforce: teachers, administrators, support staff through appropriate mentoring and professional development

• To ensure a safe, secure, healthy, ecologically sound environment in well-maintained, clean buildings for all members of the Lester B. Pearson School Board