PRINCE ALBERT — A pharmacist who works at Sturgeon Lake and makes his home in Prince Albert is running for a trustee position in the Saskatchewan Rivers School Division.
Alex Crawley works as a primary care pharmacist at Sturgeon Lake and manages a continuing education program for healthcare professionals for USask.
Crawley chose to put his name in for the position because he has a five-year-old son who entered kindergarten in Sask Rivers this year and wanted to become more involved.
“I felt like, well, this is perfect timing to ensure that his public school system education is as good as it possibly can be,” Crawley said. “I got that vested interest that way.”
Crawley added that a second reason he chose to run is that his parents were both teachers before they retired. His mother taught at Glaslyn School and his father taught at Medstead Central School. That’s given him an appreciation for the position.
“I have got a lot of respect for that profession of teaching and I'd like to kind of support teachers any way I can,” he explained.
Crawley explained that he has a lot to offer if he is elected as trustee.
"I think that I'm a very good communicator,” he said. “I think that I would be quite a good listener to what teachers’ concerns are and hopefully can bring some innovative solutions.”
Crawley said he has experience with budgets and managing finances because of previous positions in management as a pharmacist.
“I think I bring kind of an outsider perspective almost in the sense I know I have lots of teachers who are friends,” he explained. “My parents are teachers, but I'm a pharmacist and come from the healthcare system and so I'm curious if I have some insights of what I've seen work in my side of the world and see if those things can help out with the education side of the world.”
Crawley added that he hasn’t decided on his long-term goals for the position if he is elected.
"That's one such a tough one to answer because I feel like until you actually get into the job, you don't necessarily know all the different aspects and issues,” he said. “I'm really curious about what everybody's perspectives are.”
Crawley said that in general his main goal, which he believes is shared by all candidates, is to make schools a safe and comfortable place with an excellent learning environment for students and to make sure teachers feel supported.
He also said that he wants to focus on outcomes like graduation rates and student success and try to make those numbers even better in the division.
Crawley added that he realizes there is quite a competitive slate of candidates this election for Saskatchewan Rivers.
“I know that there's a lot of great candidates running,” he said. “I hope to have people's votes, but boy, there's a lot of great folks running. I'm hopeful lots of great folks get elected, and if I'm in there, that's good, but if not hopefully there's lots of others to carry the torch.”
The Municipal and School Board elections are scheduled for Nov. 13.
