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Former Manitoba cabinet minister Jim McCrae in front of his house in Brandon on Friday. McCrae joins the list of candidates seeking seats on the school board of trustees. (Abiola Odutola\/The Brandon Sun)<\/p>\n
\u201cMy last cabinet position was as minister of education and training. I travelled extensively in Manitoba and met with many teachers and others involved with the education of our children,\u201d McCrae told the Brandon Sun. <\/p>\n
\u201cI gained a much greater appreciation of the challenges we all face in these rapidly changing times.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said his family\u2019s deep ties to Brandon schools influenced his decision to run.<\/p>\n
\u201cFive generations of our family have been educated in Brandon schools,\u201d he said. \u201cI have been retired recently and can\u2019t seem to get public service out of my system. I grew up in Brandon, love our community and want to serve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brandon School Division faces significant challenges as it adapts to changing demographics and technological advances while maintaining responsible financial management, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenges facing the school division are daunting, given the changes in our demographic makeup over the past 30 years,\u201d McCrae said. \u201cTechnology has changed significantly as well. Meeting those challenges while respecting taxpayers\u2019 ability to do so is the annual budget-making job of school trustees.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said one of the board\u2019s key priorities should remain improving educational outcomes for all students while narrowing achievement gaps between different student groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrandon schools must continue to raise the achievement levels of all students to prepare them for the brightest future possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
McCrae said his experience working alongside senior administrators in municipal and provincial government would help him work effectively with school division staff and fellow trustees.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have worked with many administrators at the highest levels of civic and provincial government. This experience will assist as I work with division managers and fellow trustees,\u201d he said. \u201cBuilding consensus is not always easy, but it is the best way forward. Respect for everyone is key.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is important to support teachers, as educators who feel valued are better positioned to help students succeed, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTeachers\u2019 concerns must be seriously addressed. Teachers who are happy in their work are effective and the children benefit from that,\u201d McCrae said.<\/p>\n
He added that school board decisions should remain free from partisan politics.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe Manitoba legislature is a very political place; city council and school board members ought never to bring their partisan politics into their deliberations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
McCrae served on Brandon city council from 1984 to 1986 and again from 2006 to 2013, and represented Brandon West as a Progressive Conservative MLA from 1986 to 1999. During Gary Filmon\u2019s government, he held several senior cabinet portfolios, including minister of justice and attorney general from 1990 to 1993, as well as minister of health, minister of environment and minister of education and training.<\/p>\n
Following his political career, McCrae served three terms as chair of Manitoba\u2019s Vulnerable Persons Living with a Mental Disability Review Board, from 2017 to 2023.<\/p>\n
The school board election is Oct. 28.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Brandon Sun <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRANDON \u2014 Jim McCrae, a former attorney general of Manitoba, has registered to run for a seat on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":825008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-825007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}