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Students, teachers and staff need support following the negative impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on learning and mental health, according to city councillor Chak Au and The RCCA – Richmond Community Coalition team.
The coalition of School Trustee candidates includes former trustees Alice Wong, Rod Belleza, and newcomers Linda Li and Rachel Ling. They have released a platform of five actionable promises to improve the school system in Richmond.
“Teachers, school staff and students have really suffered the past couple of years,” says Belleza, a former two-term school board trustee. “Two things are really hanging over the head of people: anxiety and uncertainty about the future. We have to acknowledge that.”
The coalition is committed to making real change that is action-oriented and solutions-focused. To that end, they have put forward five action items they would like to implement if elected:
During the last school board term, the frequency of public school board meetings was reduced to once a month from its previous bi-weekly schedule.
“The consequences of this is that decision-making is slower and the number of opportunities for parents and stakeholders to express their views is reduced,” says Wong.
The RCCA – Richmond Community Coalition would like to reinstate the meeting frequency to twice a month for greater efficiency and to achieve more.
While the current rules of governance do not allow for an elected student member with voting power, the coalition would like to bring a student voice to the table to inform strategy and decisions. It is important for RCCA that students are listened to and engaged at a formal level.
“We want students to get involved in the decision-making of the board,” says Ling, who is a candidate for school trustee with the coalition and a current member of the SFU Board of Governors.
“Early exposure to the committee and public policy involvement is a key part of becoming civically engaged for life.”
A 2021 report that tracks the mental wellness of students in British Columbia found that Richmond students were lagging significantly behind their peers throughout the province.
“Richmond School District has always been proud of its performance, but this report shows that we aren’t doing so well,” says Li, Richmond Community Coalition candidate for school trustee.
“We understand that the pandemic has made people’s lives more stressful with the uncertainty hanging over their heads. This report indicates that we need to do better at providing mental health support to students and staff members,” Li says.
The RCCA – Richmond Community Coalition would like to place greater emphasis on mental health support for students, teachers, school staff, and parents.
“We need more resources for the physical health and mental wellness of the whole school population,” Wong says.
“We welcome the recent proposal to provide hot meals for students. That’s a good first step but we need more than one hot meal,” Wong says.
The coalition plans to work to strengthen every aspect of the education system from upgrading the air ventilation to supporting social and emotional learning.
Many Richmond students leave the city in search of greater opportunities when they’ve finished their education. The Richmond Community Coalition team would like to create more opportunities to keep talented youth and young adults living and working in Richmond.
“We want to help students prepare themselves after graduation or post-secondary so they have a sense of the real work and how they can build up their career paths by becoming an entrepreneur,” Li says.
Belleza adds, “We want to promote this option to the students. We want to prepare them early so they can see there are much more opportunities ahead of them.”
To learn more about the concrete changes Richmond Community Coalition proposes, visit www.richmondcommunitycoalition.com.
© 2022 Richmond News
