Sieklicki won’t run for second term on school board

Brandon School Division trustee Breeanna Sieklicki has decided not to seek re-election in the Oct. 28 civic election.

The trustee, who has served four years on the board of trustees, announced her decision on Monday evening after the general meeting.

Sieklicki said she has enjoyed her time as a trustee and does not regret the positions she took during her tenure.

“My family will always come first, and right now, my family needs me to be at home,” Sieklicki told the Sun.

“My family’s doubled in size. I went from two kids when I was elected to now I have four at home, and I just need to be spending more time with them.”

Sieklicki said the demands of board meetings have also become more difficult to balance with family life, particularly when meetings run into bedtime.

She said her decision is not necessarily a permanent departure from school board politics.

“I have enjoyed my time as a trustee, and maybe in the future it’ll be a time for me to do it again,” she said. “It’s just time for me to be with my family again.”

During her four years on the board, Sieklicki said she was proud of several initiatives she supported, even though not every issue went in the direction she had hoped.

Among them was her push for greater transparency at the division. She raised concerns about the status of committee of the whole meetings and advocated for them to be open to the public.

She said she also helped spark a partnership between Brandon School Division and Habitat for Humanity after the organization made a presentation to the board. The partnership has since involved students at Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School.

Looking ahead to the next board, Sieklicki said she hopes people who genuinely care about students will consider putting their names forward.

“If anyone’s even giving it a thought, I want them to try. Don’t be afraid to lose. I want to see more parents and people with children in the division become involved,” she said.

“I want people to put students first … not to go at it because they think it’s another paycheque to sit at the table. I want people there because they care about the students, they care about their education and they care about the future.”

She urged the next board not to lose sight of the fundamentals amid the many issues facing the division.

“There can be so much stuff out there that can cloud where we need to focus, because there’s always a lot of little fires going on,” she said. “But we do have to always focus on the big picture of how we want our students to succeed in the future.”

She said trustees should remember that they are elected to represent their communities, even when their views differ from the majority around the board table.

“I might have only been one voice around the board table, but I was still representing my voters and the people around the city,” she said.

Sieklicki is the third trustee, after Jim Murray and Calistus Ekenna, to announce she would not seek re-election this fall. Trustees Duncan Ross, Kirk Carr and Lorraine McConnell have registered to run while board chair Linda Ross and trustee Kim Fallis have yet to register.

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