I am completing a term as a Thames Valley District School Board trustee.

Supervision happened on my watch. I'm not going to run from that.

The distinction between "operational" and "governance" decisions got blurred prior to my election. Politically significant matters were reclassified as administrative, keeping them from trustee oversight.

This wasn't negligence. It was a pattern that accumulated over years, systematically eroding trustee oversight authority. By the time the misalignment became visible, the governance structure had already fallen into disrepair.

I'll also say what I've said publicly for over a year: trustees, including me, weren't transparent enough with the public and the media. Part of that is structural. The Education Act requires boards to speak with one voice. Individual trustees have to figure out media engagement on their own. That's not an excuse. It's part of the problem. I've owned my share of that.

What I did do, from my first months on the board, was push for real oversight and ask the hard questions. There was senior leadership turnover during that period, turnover that trustees doing their job helped bring about through legitimate governance processes. We were working to right the ship.

And I didn't stop there. I wrote a 75-page reform document: draft policies, draft bylaw language, grounded in the Education Act and Ontario court decisions. I met with Minister Calandra directly to offer collaboration. I reached out to MPP Rob Flack. I lobbied the Ontario Public School Boards' Association. I did it because fixing the system matters more than defending the status quo.

The province intervened before the turnaround could finish. And the minister's story, that trustees alone were the problem, still doesn't fit the facts. The deficit under provincial supervision is nearly double what it was under trustees. The structural funding problems driving it haven't been addressed, because the province won't address them.

What I learned is what I'm bringing to Ward 3: governance requires representatives who actually engage: ask the hard questions, do the uncomfortable work, and look for solutions even when the politics don't reward it. I've already done that once under pressure. I'll do it again on council.

My record on this is public. I've spoken to CBC, the London Free Press, and the Craig Needles Podcast. I said then what I'll say now: I care more about outcomes for families than about the role of trustees. For me, it's about getting better outcomes for families, not protecting a position.