How often have you followed someone's car at well under the speed limit and wished you had a loudspeaker through which you could yell something like "Would you reel in the anchor?", or "You got a gas pedal in that thing?" Well, that's how I feel about our school district.

To carry on with the car analogy for a minute, our district has great infrastructure (the chassis, tires, etc.), highly trained educators (the drivers), a great track record of innovation and accomplishment (the engine), plenty of things to do (gas), and goals to strive for (the destination). But we've hit a wall (oops! Better skip the car analogy with that one).

The crew chief--our superintendent--is not only highly accomplished and greatly admired, but is also a very likable person who can really motivate a group, and can call the occasional spade a freaking shovel when the occasion demands it. While he's new in the job, my 24 years of experience with superintendents tells me that he may become the best of the seven I've worked with (I wasn't on the board during the Des Mackay tenure).

In other words, there is plenty of spark at the top to get the district moving forward as it has in the past (spark plugs). But we're not moving. We've slumped. The reason?--There seems to be a big foot on the brake.

That's where leadership comes to the fore. If things aren't happening as they should despite all the pieces being in place, there is only one way to deal with it--cast a vision, get the strategic plan firmly in place, and motivate the educational leaders as they apparently haven't been in the recent past.

I believe that the people I'm supporting--Preet Rai, Stan Petersen, and Freddy Latham--are up to the task of leadership. Please vote for them in this election.

Thank you.

Back to the all-important topic of leadership. I have a friend who is a partner in one of the larger agricultural businesses in Abbotsford. I asked him about the company's CEO. My friend described him as very able and hardworking, and said that he was doing excellent work. I asked further what role the partners played. His response? "We get out of his way and let him do his job."

This answer is consistent with that of many strong Canadian corporate leaders. Aaron Regent, President of Barrick Gold, gave his definition of leadership: "Sometimes leadership's about leading, sometimes it's about following, and sometimes it's just about getting out of the way."

For many people who run for school trustee, leadership is the use of new-found power via reserving virtually all final decisions for board members, questioning plans, giving orders, and otherwise restricting the extent to which the senior educational professionals go about their business. There is not a management text, a competent business practitioner, or a leadership consultant who would recommend this, but it is a common enough practice on school boards.

If a board of school trustees is not to be significantly involved in day-to-day operations (and the Lord knows that many of them want to be), what is their role? First and foremost it is to cast a vision. A study conducted by a global human resource company of what workers most value in their superiors revealed this number one response: the ability to create and share an engaging vision for the future.

Dominic Barton, Global Managing Director of McKinsey & Co., agrees with this: "At the end of the day, you have to have some dream about what you're trying to achieve." The CEO of a large architectural firm concurs: "Leadership....means inspiration."

How is this done? My belief is that this is best accomplished by working closely with the senior educational leaders in developing a strategic plan that captures the values and objectives that our city stands for (excellence, inclusivity, safety, provincial leadership, character), and which any educational system worth its salt would provide (responsibility, self-respect and respect for others, creativity, productivity, education that meets the unique needs of all learners).

Once that is accomplished, the trained professionals are given the responsibility to carry out the strategic plan, and are held accountable for results. The CEO of Ericsson Canada puts it this way: "Managers and leaders don't have all the answers, but strong leadership seems to utilize the knowledge of the employees and the collective power of their motivation and experience." Another president adds: "What leadership has provided for me is the true joy that comes from seeing the success in others when they really unleash their hidden potential."

I can’t point at any one person and say, “That’s the Moses who took us to the Promised Land.” But I can identify significant players who together turned the good ship Abbotsford into the marvelous school district it became during the 1990s and early 2000s.

First there is John Smith, now an Abbotsford city councilor. John was chair of the board for many years, and his unique combination of fiscal prudence and creativity were central to the transformation of our school district. 

John took on an enormous load of extra work on behalf of school district employees, families and students, with few of them ever knowing it. Rather than simply falling into line with the BC School Trustees Association, John forged alliances with the boards of other growing school districts that were feeling the pinch of insufficient funds and exasperation with the Ministry of Education, which told each of them in turn that they were the only ones complaining.

Out of this came much more funding than we could have normally expected, including two new secondary schools in the same year. As the deputy minister of education of the day said to me, “John has been heard.”

At about the same time, superintendent Corey Wentzall appointed then assistant superintendent Jim Dick to implement site-based management. Now principals and teachers would have much more flexibility to use their funds in ways that best met the individual needs of their schools.

A major turning point was the appointment of Robin Arden as superintendent in 1995. It was during Robin’s ten years or so that key changes occurred:

·      Significant choice programming was instituted, including traditional schools, fine arts schools, and the first of the various academies.

·      Robin found a way to convince the financially strapped Ministry of Education to fund the first three middle schools.

·      Strong young teachers, particularly women, were identified and approached about applying for management positions and completing doctorates. We continue to benefit from this as excellent candidates for leadership at all levels can be found within our district.

·      Under the guidance of assistant superintendent Jacqui Taylor, school goal setting went from a vague and generally useless process to a sophisticated, realistic, measurable, and relevant approach to preparing schools for long-term success.

Most importantly, Robin was able to motivate the school district leaders in ways that had not previously been achieved. He provided the spark to that powerful engine that sent the district racing ahead. Two of our last three superintendents, Des Mackay and Kevin Godden, benefited from Robin’s tutelage.

I could mention many others, but I simply want to give a quick indication that many people working collaboratively, attuned to the needs of employees as well as students, put Abby Average on the road to scholastic success.

It’s been a great trip.