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ELECTION: School trustee City candidate Candy Ashdown

A Voter’s Guide to key election questions.
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Candy Ashdown

Candy Ashdown

Running for school trustee in the City of Langley

Realtor, 44

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Have you held office in past? If so, please specify: Yes, I sat on the Langley Board of Education from 2011 to 2014.

Candidate provided bio:

In 2011, I was honoured to be elected by Langley City residents to the Board of Education. I served until December 2014. Before serving on the Board of Education, I served over 10 years on the PAC Executives at my children’s schools and two years on the Langley DPAC Executive. I am a Langley School District graduate, as well as my children. My Mom, Diane Pona, served 12 years as a Langley trustee.

I am a business owner, a realtor with RE/MAX LifeStyles Realty. I currently sit on the government relations committee with the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board.

I am very passionate about mental health. I believe our district can do a better job of supporting students with mental health challenges. Mental health supports play a critical role in student success and their well-being.

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Website: www.reelectcandy.ca

Facebook: www.facebook.com/reelectcandylangleycity

Telephone number voters can reach you at: 604-309-5440

Who is your favourite superhero, and why?

My favourite superhero is Spiderman. I love Spiderman because he is humble, he helps others who are less fortunate, he loves his family and he does well in school.

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There are 12 candidates running for seven positions on Langley School Board. The following are questions asked of each trustee hopeful. They were directed to provide a minimum of a Yes, No, or Don’t Know answer, and given an option to expand on one answer in print (to a maximum of 100 words per question). They could expand on all questions online, if they wished to do so. The following are their replies.

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Questions and Answers:

1. What neighbourhood of Langley do you live in?

Answer: I live in Salmon River Uplands now, however I lived in the City before moving four years ago.

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2. How many years have you lived in Langley?

Answer: 41 years

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3. How many Langley School Board meetings have you attended in the past year?

Answer: 5

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4: Do you support the use of the SOGI resources in Langley schools?

Answer: Yes. SOGI 123 is an optional learning resource that teachers have available, if they wish to use. It’s unfortunate that over this past year that there is so much misinformation being spread to parents and the community about SOGI 123, it’s content and intended use.

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5. Should school districts once again have authority over municipal school taxation?

Answer: Yes

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6. Are school administrators overpaid?

Answer: No

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7. Should the province have the power to dismiss school boards?

Answer: Yes

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8. Should Langley offer incentives to attract more teachers?

Answer: Yes. We definitely need to find more ways to attract teachers to come to work in the Langley School District and stay here.

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9. Do schools rely too much of parent fundraising efforts?

Answer: Yes

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10. Should the district do more to lobby for new schools in the faster growing areas?

Answer: Yes

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11. Do you think the province is underfunding public education?

Answer: Yes

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12. Should the school district solicit corporate money by way of sponsorship to fund education?

Answer: No

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13. Should the school district cut down on using technology, like iPads and computers – to save money?

Answer: No

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14. Should the district have a strategy to reduce portables?

Answer: Yes

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15. Should we re-instate the previous busing boundaries for students?

Answer: No

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16. Should students requiring extra attention – such as ESL or those with behavioural or learning disabilities – be taught separately from other students?

Answer: No. All of our students, regardless of what learning challenges they may face, deserve to treated equally. However, there are always exceptions and the appropriate learning environment for a student should be on an individual basis and up to the teachers and qualified staff that work with that student to decide what is best.

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17. Do you support increasing the amount of international students to help fund education?

Answer: No.

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18. Should a trustee live in the community they want to serve in?

Answer: No. I believe a trustee should definitely live in the City where they want to serve but not necessarily the exact community they live in, for example Langley City vs. Langley Township.

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19. Should there be a limit to the number of consecutive terms a trustee can serve?

Answer: No

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20. Should the district redevelop vacant school sites to bring in revenue?

Answer: No.