Leah Vanderwey is running for School Board Trustee for the Lakehead Public School Board in Thunder Bay.
Leah (she/her) retired two years ago after 33 years in education. She has worked for Lakehead Public Schools, three regional school boards, and the Ministry of Education in various roles, including teacher, principal, superintendent, Student Achievement Officer, and Thunder Bay regional manager for Field Services. Many of these roles allowed her to work with different staff and students across Northwestern Ontario. Those work opportunities provided Leah with not only a local perspective but a regional and provincial one. As a Trustee, she believes she can bring that breadth of knowledge as the elected board of trustees participates in making decisions that would benefit all schools and their communities. She remains committed to quality education and would love the opportunity to be a voice of education experience for the community at the trustee table.
Why are you running for this position?
Lakehead Public Schools is a system that faces many of the challenges of Northwestern Ontario: isolated schools, rural schools, and urban schools. I am running for this position to help bring the different communities' voices to the trustee table.
What do you think are the greatest challenges your municipality faces?
After listening to the session, Deconstructing the Reconciliation Conversation, I was struck by a question the speaker asked about Every Child Matters. The question was, "What matters to every child?" Perhaps to start to answer the question, we might look at a partnership with the city and schools to collect voices from children and their parents/guardians to determine what matters to every child in our municipality.
If you received a $1 million grant to use for your municipality any way you wanted, what would you do with it?
I would apply it to the project above so that the needs of our children are being identified and met within the community.
What do you think are the greatest challenges your municipality faces?
The greatest challenges that our municipality faces are drug addiction, gangs, and violence.
Other than the official ways of communicating (minutes, municipal notes), how else will you reach out to your constituents to involve them in the decision making process?
Social media. Opportunities to meet with parent groups or holding town hall meetings.
What is your favourite thing to do in your municipality?
I love to curl, play ball, and walk the various walking trails in Thunder Bay and the surrounding areas.
Why do you think it’s important for women to be represented in civic leadership, including on committees, boards and municipal councils?
I think it is important for women to be represented so that we are role models to others that we provide value added leadership to committees, boards, and municipal councils.
What does a ‘feminist city’ mean to you?
A "feminist city" means women are equally represented and respected for their work.
Please identify the most critical policy, project, or initiative in your platform that addresses systemic barriers faced by women in your municipality, and describe why:
In education, the systemic barriers faced by women might begin in childhood. For example, are there any courses in secondary school that are largely male-dominated? If yes, this would provide an opportunity for staff to determine why that might be the case.
