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Hello,

My name is Gin Yee and I am running for the District 3 area in the upcoming Halifax Regional School Board elections on October 18, 2008.

Make math and literacy a priority

For the last four years, students in the Halifax Regional School Board have made gains in their performance in literacy and mathematics. This is good news but there is room in improvement.

I will commit to do the following:

  • Work with the Department of Education to look into the methods of testing for effectiveness.

  • Push for reduced class sizes and more classroom time.

  • Make sure students get adequate textbooks and other learning aids.

  • Make sure teachers have proper resources and tools.

High School for Eastern Passage

When I was school board member, I voted YES twice (December 22, 2004, and June 28, 2006) to recommend to the Department of Education to build a new Eastern Passage High School. If elected to school board, I will vote YES again to have the new high school for Eastern Passage back on Halifax Regional School Board Department of Education new construction list. While we wait for the Department of Education's response to our list, I will urge the board to consider a pilot project to improve transportation for high school students from Eastern Passage by decreasing the travel time and introduce late buses so students have a way home if they are involved in extracurricular activities.

One-year moratorium of school closure consideration

This year, Halifax Regional School Board is considering closing three schools in Dartmouth / Halifax: Alderney, Saint Mary's, and St. Patrick's-Alexandra. The newly elected school board should have the opportunity to vote and be given more time to consider schools for closure. With the extra time, the Halifax Regional School Board should have more public consultations in how to resolve our aging schools issue. I will urge board members to restart the process in 2009-2010 where we can consider building, consolidation, renovation, or closure of aging / end-of-life schools for the whole region.

French immersion

Create a new school-board policy, where if there a need for a new French immersion class in a community, we will create one. The policy will assist parents and students by spelling out the number of students needed to be signed up in a school area. The only reason a class will not be created is because of funding or availability teacher resources.