Megan Hilgendorf

Brian is joined on the Porch by Megan Hilgendorf. She is a candidate for the Medicine Hat Public School Board. she believes that a big part of the role of school trustee is to build relationships with stakeholders and the electorate to understand the needs of the students. As a parent with two children in the school division she wants to bring everyone together working for a common goal.

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Transcript

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That's another thing that's important for trustees to have an understanding of is what does the modern classroom look like? I think that, you know, the education system and what is going on with our classrooms. It's ever evolving. It's constantly changing. So it's important that we're up to date and we're knowledgeable about these issues. This episode of Bring Back the Porch, brought to you by Bernie Leahy, River Street Realty. Let's get you home. And our guest today on the porch is another candidate for the Manhasset public school board, Megan Hill. Gondor. Welcome, Megan. Thanks for having. Me. Now, we were talking before we started here. You've never run for public office before? I have never run for public office before. This is my first time. How nerve wracking is it? You know, it's weird because when I made the decision that I was going to go for it, I haven't felt nervous once, which is a little unexpected. But I think it was also affirming that I'm doing the right thing that I wanted to do. I feel very good about it. Because we've had some people say they were stepping out of their comfort zone when they stepped into the political arena. Yeah, but you do have some experiences as a member of the Minnesota Public Library Board. I do, yeah, for sure. So I'm the vice chair of the Madison Public Library Board. I was appointed to the board in 2021, for a three year term. And just this past fall, I was given another three year term. So I've been really grateful for that. It's a little bit less forward facing than running for public office, so it is different. But you do get a sense of how boards operate, proper procedures, what's expected, governance, all of that kind of thing. Absolutely. And I think that's part of what made me feel so confident in making this decision is that I really had it's been the most valuable thing is that I learned a lot about governance over the last four years. And the most important thing probably is the distinction between governance and operations. That's been a big one and working with a team of people. Yeah, we can't not talk about education in Alberta today without talking about the elephant in the room. And that is the teacher strike that is underway here, I understand. As of this morning, we're recording this on a Thursday, the 9th of October. That they are going back to the table on Tuesday. So there, there looks like maybe there's a little bit of movement, but it is brought everybody's attention to the situation for public education in Alberta. Your thoughts? Well, I think what you just said is actually probably the best part about that is that it's creating more awareness about what's been going on. This is not an issue that happened overnight. It's certainly years in the making. Teachers have been telling us what they need. They've been telling the government what they need for a long time. And I think things have finally just come to a head. And I would just personally say, as a parent, I'm really proud of our teachers that they're standing up for themselves because they're also standing up for our students. And when I held my my youngest, teacher at school on Friday in, we cried together and she expressed to me, you know, we we're going to miss those kids. And they said, I know, but I don't want a Band-Aid on this issue. I'm really proud of all of you. And I really hope that, you're able to get what you need so that you can help all of our kids. As a potential public school trustee. How much impact do you think you would have on the situation? Well, I think the biggest impact would be through not only how we, you know, disseminate the funds when we're doing budgeting, but mostly through advocacy. And so advocacy is not just about creating an awareness and communicating with others. It's about knowing what's going on. So to advocate properly, you should have an understanding of what is going on broadly in public education across the province, but also it should be within a local context. So that means that you are constantly staying up to date and you're in communication with how does Medicine Hat feel about it's public education. And that's how you can advocate properly when you're dealing with, when you're as the person who is, you know, a trustee on the board, you're the bridge between the public and the politicians. And so having that understanding allows you to advocate for them and advocate for their students. When Catherine Wilson was our guest, on a previous podcast, Catherine is the current chair of the public school division or a public school board trustee seeking reelection again. And I asked her about the frustration of having to operate when your ability to tax was removed several years ago, and now your ability to bargain with your employees, the teachers, has been removed. So what's left to be done, right? Well, I think the best thing that we can do is just build our relation chips with the electorate. So that is your all of your stakeholders, the administrators, the superintendent, the teachers, the students and the parents and understands what our local needs are. And then also having the ability to build relationships with government officials and knowing how to talk to them and negotiate with them and advocate for what we need. It's the best thing that we can do. We hear about class sizes. That's one of the big issues in this strike. And people are saying, well, the teachers or they they've not they don't want a 12% increase. What's wrong with them? It's not necessarily about money. I believe it's coming from my memory here. There was a report came out after the last teacher strike in 2002 that recommended, so many teacher to student ratio, and we are way behind where we need to be. So how do you try to push the provincial government to get more teachers, to get more classrooms. To advocate for a class caps certainly, and to build schools for sure, but I think something to do with that as well is when you you don't only have more kids, you have more complexities in the in the classroom. So diverse needs a diverse learning needs, diverse behavioral issues. And I think part of that problem that relates to that certainly is the difference between integration and inclusion. Integration means that you just plop someone, a student, into the class and there you go. You have integration. Inclusion means that they have a safe environment. They feel like there's a sense of belonging. But to get full inclusion means that you need an adequate amount of funding so that the supports are there to provide for them. And then when you have no class cap, there's no ceiling on that. So you can get a whole host of diverse needs and you don't have the supports to serve everyone. I wonder how many people would be surprised at what the classroom looks like today. Compared when they were in school 20 or 30 years ago. It has changed dramatically. You mentioned the integration. You've got special needs students, you've got different challenges, you've got educational assistance as well. I went to school. Good day in school was when you saw the teacher bring in a 60 millimeter, film projector. It was going to be a good day. That's all changed now. Yeah, absolutely. And that's another thing that's important for trustees to have an understanding of is what does the modern classroom look like? I think that, you know, the education system and what is going on with, our classrooms. It's ever evolving. It's constantly changing. So it's important that we're up to date and we're knowledgeable about these issues. And what does that actually mean? So I actually worked in the school district for four years as a not as an education worker, but as a contracted worker. I'm a strength and conditioning coach. So I was brought in when they started introducing the academies into the schools. So I worked with, students at Alexandra middle School and Roy Wilson Middle School. And let me tell you, you can hear the number of 30 kids and you can read that on paper, but to have 30, 14 year olds staring you down and you're trying to direct them, it's a whole different experience. Actually. It was really eye opening for me. And then also trying to address their needs because we absolutely had children who were, learning English. That was their second language. We had children who had disabilities that we had to work with as well, and then you're trying to keep them engaged in what you're doing. And it was so eye opening. And I, I always expressed that to the teachers that were with me, I. Often wonder if the people who are perhaps not in support of the teachers. Yeah, maybe when they were in school they didn't like their teacher, and maybe that has colored their judgment through their entire life. Maybe. Or maybe it's just like you were mentioning, you know, that it's a time issue with when schools change so much and the way kids are, you know what? Who they are as people. It changes over time and what their needs are change over time. And so I don't think it's fair to compare today's classroom to five years ago to ten years ago more. I don't think that they're the same. One of the challenges in public education, too, is that fight for the dollar, because the dollar follows the students. Yeah. And, it has I'm not sure if it's what the government wanted, but it is set up competition among school divisions to try to attract as many students as they can to get the money into their budget. Yeah, certainly. So part that was part of the reasoning that the school division introduced these academies and more diverse options and programing, which I think has actually been a really beneficial thing. I think it's something that genuinely people wanted to see in schools. I know for my, grade schooler, she's really enjoyed having some options that she wouldn't have had access to until middle school. It's been great, but this is absolutely in direct competition with charter schools and the programs that they are offering for specialized programing. It's truly, truly unfortunate and I think, disgraceful that we have the lowest publicly funded education, but the highest publicly funded charter, private schools in all of Canada. I think truly that as a parent that public funds should be going to public schools. And yet we get good results from the teachers, even if they might be underfunded. So that gives me a measure of of how well they're doing and how well we're doing that. Teachers are some of the best people that I know, and definitely over the years, not just working in the school division, but as a parent, you get to know the people that work with your kids in their schools and you develop relationships with them. They are some of the best people that I know and they are experts at pivoting when they need to because they do everything they can to serve the kids. I think one of the other difficulties, too, is that the government has changed the way that, they do fund education in terms of enrollment. I think they just recently changed the formula. It used to be like a three year weighted average, which as I understand it, if you were in a division where the enrollment went down, you were still getting funded at older levels. So it was good for them. But for the system that has seen increases in enrollment, they were still getting funded at the old levels. It was like driving a car, looking in the rearview mirror. Right. Well, and also the funding isn't matching the rise in inflation. So, the, the jobs of the public school boards as people who control the budget, they are the ones who have to keep the lights on and keep the schools hot in the winter. And they need to fund these things, but they need to match. It needs to be able to match with the rise in inflation as well. You mentioned that you, had to face down 30 students in a classroom. Yeah. That's not easy to do. And people just think, oh, that's your job. Go and do it. Right? Right. Honestly, I think that we need to look at this through a compassionate lens. First of all, I'm also a short person. I'm five foot one. So all the all of them are taller than I am. It is a little intimidating school, right. But I would say, you know, when you're, when you're dealing with that many kids and you, you see them in person and you know, they're showing up and you're trying to keep them engaged. You have to be very good at pivoting. Sometimes they're just not feeling it. Right. So you're trying to constantly manage that and then to manage everybody's diverse levels of needs. So I think that we need to be more compassionate certainly towards teachers. As I said, the landscape is ever changing. And it's yeah. Were you when you got involved in this race for public school trustee? Where are you running for something or against something for. Running for all of the children within Medicine Hat and of course, their parents and their caregivers. I have nothing but respect also for everyone who works in the public school division. As I said, it was, you know, my decision to run actually was it was twofold. So I'm a parent of two children that are in the public schools. I've developed relationships with the people that work in the schools, other parents and students. And then I was also informed by my work in the school. I also considered the work I did very fun, the fun stuff, and I still had to work very hard to keep kids engaged. I can't imagine trying to teach the math, right? So it was just incredibly enlightening. And through those relationships, I've gained a lot of insight as well. And then on the other side, I have my experience with the library board and as I mentioned before, that gave me a really good understanding of the difference between governance. It's high level, it's broad scope, and you're trying to serve everyone, and you have a diverse group of people on the board who have different learning, different and, sorry, different, work experiences, different life experiences. And you working together for a common goal. So those diverse boards are unified for those common goals. So for me, I decided because I have these experiences and because of who I am as a person, I'm extremely passionate and I'm capable that I know that I would feel I would fit right in with the school board team, and I would absolutely work in unity with them. One of the things that we saw in the last six months, too, was an effort from the provincial government to set up a list of books that should be banned. With your experience and the library, you probably had a different point of view on that. Oh, certainly. Yes. And as a parent, as a as a human being, I'm always cautious when a government body of any kind tries to prevent or put restrictions on who can read what. Definitely. That always gives me pause. I don't inherently disagree with challenging certain books that should be in schools, but whether that should have come from so such a high level, I'm not sure, because I think, you know, at the library, certainly if anyone had an issue with a book that was in a certain section of the library, you they go to the one of the librarians or they talk to the chief librarian. And then from there they decide. They look at the book, they decide maybe it belongs in this section, maybe it doesn't. Certainly in regards to how that would relate to schools, I would absolutely talk to my child's teacher if I thought that a certain book maybe doesn't belong in that spot. I don't know why it needed to come from such a high level, because even the government's own survey that they presented the results of showed that only 36% of people were in support of these measures, and I'm not sure in any case when 36% has ever been a mandate. The other thing that teachers have had to deal with in the last 18 months to two years is gender identity and pronouns. Yeah. I guess that's something that never have worried about in school. Right. And I think that just speaks to the changing landscape for what kids needs are these days. It doesn't mean, you know, just because we're talking about something, it doesn't mean that there's suddenly more or it's going to influence more people. People are people. They're diverse and they exist whether we were talking about them before, we're talking about them now, it doesn't mean that they're, you know, there's suddenly this increase in them. And for teachers, I feel I feel that it's really unfortunate because they're put in the middle of these social issues that the government is, you know, putting them. It's the government that's putting them in those situations. Teachers just want to serve kids. They want to meet them where they're at, and they don't want to be put in the middle of these issues. All they care about is making sure kids are taken care of and that they feel like they have a sense of belonging. How does your campaign been so far? What have you been hearing from people that you've been talking to? Well, it's been very cool. It's as I said before, it's very different for me, but it's been wonderful. Something that has been really eye opening for me, though, is that there's a lot of people who don't truly understand necessarily what the school board does. And so it's the difference between that governance and operations that I mentioned before. And also I'm finding that a lot of people have told me that they never vote for school board, which was shocking to me because with a division that has over 7000 students who are going to be adults one day in this community, they will live here hopefully and work here. You want them to have the most robust supported education system ever. But they told me, you know, it's usually a couple things. Either their kids are too young, so they're not in the public school division yet, so they don't vote or they don't have kids, so they don't feel qualified to vote. And so I've been learning a lot about that. And, I'm encouraging them to turn out, you know, in municipal elections, generally voter turnout, if you take the whole electorate, it's pretty low. And if you look at the turnout for the results in, voting for school board, it's worse. So I'm hoping that in the conversations that I'm having, that I'm encouraging more people to vote and be engaged in this and municipal elections, whether it's council or whether it's your public school board, these this is the closest level of government that you get to the citizens. And so these are the people that you're going to see in the grocery store and out on the street. And it really matters. And that's why we should be as engaged as possible. Were you encouraged by the number of candidates who put their names in for this election? Certainly. I think it's great to see an increased level of engagement no matter what. Yeah. And have you had a chance to speak with some of the others? I don't know if there have been any forums, per se, but yeah, any, any interaction with the other, candidates. Well, there's going to be a forum next Tuesday at the college, so I hope everybody will come to that. I am so excited. But I have had had the chance to meet with all current, school board members and including the four incumbents who are running, and they have been wonderful and so encouraging. And I've just been wanting to learn as much as I can from them and from their experience as well, to inform myself. And I have met a couple of the other candidates who are running as well, and it's been it's been wonderful. We're all in this to just serve the kids who are going to school in Medicine Hat. So your message to people who are on the other side of this podcast, get out and vote. Please get out and take part. Be informed. It matters. Educate yourself. All the information is there and, yeah, just please be informed. Vote for school board. Thank you very much, Megan Hilton. Our thanks for having me, Brian. You're welcome.