Larry Killens
Incumbent Manitoulin Rainbow District School Board trustee Larry Killens is a retired 30-year veteran of the OPP, the last six years of which he served Manitoulin as the community services officer with his main duties taking part largely within Island schools. He currently lives with his wife in South Baymouth and has three grown children.
He said that his main platform in this election was to hold the school board to account as he believes that the rules put in place by the provincial government have been “falling by the wayside.”
Mr. Killens used the example of recent policies regarding the assignment of homework to students. “I have received a lot of calls on the homework plan,” he said. “The assigning of 30 minutes of homework every night was not taken to the parents’ councils,” he asserted. “It was never reviewed by the parents.”
Mr. Killens did concede that the new homework guidelines were supposed to be a “voluntary thing,” but he said that the communications he was aware of “did not say it was a voluntary thing.”
The second example he put forward was the reevaluation of the governance policies that govern much of the operations of the school board. “To date none of this has been brought before the parents’ councils,” he said. He said that he would continue to press the school board to better inform parents on these types of policy changes.
Mr. Killens said that the news was not all bad on the educational front, however, and that there have been many positive accomplishments on the school board that favourably impact Island students’ education.
Among Mr. Killen’s proudest accomplishments, he cited being the recipient of the Canadian War Veterans of Canada medal for service to youth and being awarded a Queen’s Jubliee Medal, also for his service with youth.
Mr. Killens indicated that he was proud of being responsible for a change in policy that allows seniors groups to be able to use Rainbow District School Board schools for their activities.
He also said that he was responsible for the exemption from the payment of activities fees for students whose families are experiencing economic hardship.
Mr. Killens said that if reelected he would continue to hold the Rainbow District School Board to account in adhering to provincial legislation regarding transparency and communication with parents and students about board policies.
