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SD72: Campbell River School District trustee Kat Eddy running for re-election

Looking to build on work started in first term
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Kat Eddy is running again to be a trustee for the Campbell River School District. Photo courtesy Kat Eddy

Kat Eddy feels like the work of being a Campbell River School District trustee is just getting started, and is running for re-election in the 2022 municipal election coming up in October.

“I feel like the first term and the challenges presented through COVID eliminated opportunities to get some work done,” she said. “I feel really well-positioned and really well-educated to make some very positive change in education over the next four years.”

Eddy was elected for the first time in 2018, and said that the experience of being a first-time trustee was a bit overwhelming.

“The first year of sitting in a role like that is like trying to take a drink from a fire hose,” she said. “The information is so much, and just understanding how everything works at a provincial and a local level, and how it all interlocks and intertwines, it’s a big learning curve. It’s steep.”

“Typically, trustees have been retired educators, or retirees,” she said. “Now there’s a really youthful voice that’s very engaged in change. It’s a really exciting time, and I’m stepping forward because I want to continue to be a part of that.”

With her first year on the job spent learning the ins and outs of the system, and the last couple spent dealing with COVID-19, Eddy feels like she was only getting started with the work she wanted to do. For Eddy, the most important issue is building relationships with Indigenous communities and ensuring that education is truly equitable.

“Not just the word equity, but true equity for our Indigenous kids,” she said. “It’s about really allowing them to see themselves in the learning that they’re doing in the public education system. It’s also about really embracing the new curriculum. That work is really, really important, and will be ongoing, probably for the rest of my lifetime, but it is work that needs to be recognized and it needs to be done.”

Besides that, she wants to help improve the district’s literacy rates. Eddy’s background is working in literacy, she is also the executive director of the Campbell River Literacy Association. Over the past few years, she has supported school district staff in improving the literacy rates for kids within the system and would like to see that work continue.

“I’m super passionate about literacy and increasing the literacy statistical data for our local school district. We haven’t always done the best job, and I think our education community is really engaged and really able to increase the literacy rates for our kids,” she said. “I want to continue to support that as deeply and positively as I can.”

To Eddy, a school district is only as strong as the people who work there, and she wants to continue supporting superintendent Jeremy Morrow in building a solid team.

“I just feel that (education is) such a positive place to be. Who doesn’t want to govern a system that has such an incredible impact on the most important people in our community, kids?” she said.

For more information, visit Eddy’s Facebook page. Eddy is also interested in helping other prospective trustees learn about the role. Those interested in talking about the role, or other issues related to her run for trustee can email Eddy at kateddyreads@gmail.com.