Meet the Candidates: Clem Verhooven

As part of an ongoing series, Media49 is inviting candidates running in the upcoming Creston South Rural School Board election to share, in their own words, why they are running. The following letter was submitted by Clem Verhooven.

Clem Verhooven

9/28/20262 min read

Today’s Need for School Boards—Clem Verhooven

We all know the rate of change is accelerating, seemingly at light speed when we compare it to

the pace of change in the sixties when Bob Dylan proclaimed, The times, they are a’changin’ . Some

might argue that School Boards are a relic of the past, and the public’s concerns for the education of

future citizens is best left to properly qualified experts who have earned PhD's in education or, as often

is the case, business administration. Although these experts have important roles to play, so too do

members of the public whose employment and life experience have nurtured and shaped an

appreciation and commitment to the power of education to determine a future that serves not only

individual well-being, but one that also serves the common good.

Our time and the foreseeable future are fraught with extreme change by seemingly colossal

problems. Indeed, weaponised trade agreements, the rise of fascism and decline of democracy, the

imbalance of wealth, the suffering through disasters caused by climate change, and the rise of Artificial

Intelligence are all existential threats demanding our immediate attention if we are to create a future

capable of sustaining the needs and aspirations of our children and their children. The level of focus

required of such serious problems demands that we be the best we can be.

I have been on the sidelines since my retirement in 2009 from a thirty year teaching career,

observing an accelerating decline in educational standards, a decline which began well before my

retirement. When I began marking provincial grade twelve English exams in the 1980’s, the passages

measuring reading comprehension and literary analysis often included a passage from one of William

Shakespeare’s plays. By 2005 reading comprehension was measured using questions calling for the

student’s understanding of stories from The Vinyl Cafe, a CBC radio series featuring light-hearted narrative.

We are not alone in experiencing a decline in educational achievement. Mathematical and

reading skills are at seriously low levels throughout Europe and North America, hardly a promising

foundation for the focus needed to deal with the colossal problems facing us globally.

Literacy, both numerical and language based, are at the core of any curriculum, because they are

the components of thought. Without language and numbers, we cannot reason. Without reason, we are

incapable of critical thinking, analysis and evaluation, the skill that allows us to distinguish between

fact and fiction, truth and delusion. It should not surprise us that a significant number of people

incapable of critical thought would elect for their president a known liar, bully and criminal, mistaking

aggression, narcissism and bravado for the characteristics of leadership. The sad conclusion is that

public education has failed to protect democracy from the forces undermining it.

These are no times to sit on the sidelines. I believe that school boards can be an essential

component to a robust democratic process. It remains the responsibility of trustees to articulate the

concerns of the public. I too have children and grandchildren whose happiness and opportunities I

would like to ensure. I believe that public education that instills a desire to be the best we can be is the

key to a society able to choose wisely, making positive choices for the greater good of all. I am

ready to engage in that positive future in the most effective way I can, by offering my values and

experience as Creston’s representative to the school board for the Kootenay Lake school district this

upcoming October 17, 2026.

info@media49.ca