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Pascale Shaw seeks third term as school trustee
The two-term trustee says her education experience informs her call for school-space planning and support systems that better reflect students’ diverse needs.
Pascale Shaw is seeking a third term as a school board trustee in the upcoming municipal elections. The former education assistant was first elected in 2018 and re-elected in 2022.
Shaw said her experience as an education assistant, early childhood educator, mother, community volunteer and advocate for children and education workers is the kind of experience needed at the board table. After 15 years as an education assistant in two school districts, she said she has gained an intimate understanding of what is and is not working in schools.
She said her campaign will not be elaborate and will not use AI enhancements. Shaw, a two-term trustee who grows flowers and raises goats and llamas on her farm when she is not working in education, said voters will see her as she is, “and a llama.”
As an early childhood educator, Shaw said she has witnessed an increase in children with diverse needs who will soon enter Maple Ridge schools. Most arrive without a diagnosis, she said, leaving no additional funding even when they require added support. That places greater strain on a system she said was not designed for so many needs.
Shaw described public education as being in crisis. While the district is working hard within an underfunded system, she said, the system was designed for a time when there were far fewer neurodivergent students and fewer needs. She said the provincial government should review both how schools are built and how their learning spaces are used, arguing that the current formula does not reflect the diverse needs of today’s students.
Students need alternative learning spaces that are much larger than the small rooms in which many spend their days, Shaw said. As society, students and their needs have changed, she said, the formula for allocating school space must change as well.
She said she hopes voters elect a broad cross-section of people with expertise, strong experience and knowledge of public education. Candidates should run because they want to help bring positive change to public education, she said, rather than using the position as a stepping stone or a way to pass time.
Municipal elections will be held Saturday, Oct. 17.