By Cheryl Jahn

City and School District to offer campaign help

Aug 26, 2022 | 3:02 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Deciding to run for office is not a light decision at its best. Sitting around the Council chambers or the School Board Office is a heady place to be, making decisions that affect the lives of thousands of people. With that in mind, Council has passed the creation of a so-called Campaign School for this upcoming Civic election. The aim is to present a clear picture of what the job entails.

“Of course, we all want to change things. We all want to make things better. How do you do it? So with Campaign School, it outlines what the regulations are under a Community Charter, how you typically interact, why you’ve got the same number of votes as everybody else around the table, and, really, how to get things done,” explains Councillor Garth Frizzell, who initially vetted the idea back in June.

School District 57 is doing to something similar, holding information sessions through the district next week. The intent is the same.

“The nature of these sessions will be to provide people who interested in or are thinking about being a Trustee what it means to be a Trustee what that looks like, what’s the time commitment, how we organize our district and where Trustees fit into the role of school districts and public education,” says Cindy Heitman, Superintendent of the district and one of the two people heading up the information sessions.

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The following are the dates and locations for the information sessions:

*Tuesday, August 30th at 7:00 pm at the SD57 Board Office located at 2100 Ferry Avenue, Prince George

*Wednesday, August 31 at 6:00 pm at Mackenzie Secondary located at 500 Skeena Drive, Mackenzie

*Tuesday, September 6th at 7:00 pm at the SD57 Board Office located at 2100 Ferry Avenue, Prince George

*Wednesday, September 7th, at 6:00 pm at McBride Secondary located at 1300 – 2nd Avenue, McBride

Heitman says the hope is to paint a clear picture that the job is not easy and it involves a lot of personal time.

“I would estimate between fifteen to twenty hours a week of time to be a Trustee. There are things that happen that you can’t control in terms of events or meetings that you can’t predict. And it’s quite flexible and fluid. There are times it requires more time than others. But if you average it out, I would say between 15 and twenty hours a week.”

Garth Frizzell says there is some hope too that the information may enlighten potential candidates who, while having the best of intentions, may be walking in wearing rose-coloured glasses and he cites a recent example.

“It was really sad last election that one of the candidates who ran and won in one of the jurisdictions in BC, quit about a month in, when he realized how difficult it really is and how much work it actually is, to get change to happen. He really wanted to get some significant things done in a very short period of time. That’s great. It’s laudable to want it, but how do you do it?”

The nomination period opens next Tuesday. If you are interested in learning more about the job, head to the City’s website.