Andrea Grebenc
for
Regional Chair
Andrea is currently serving her 8th year on a Regional Board as a School Board Trustee and demonstrated excellent leadership as Chair of the Board for 4 challenging years (2018-2021 inclusive).
“I’m looking to continue to serve the people of Burlington, Halton Hills, Milton and Oakville in an alternate leadership role to ensure the well-being and interests of Halton Region:“
-Andrea Grebenc
Strong Leadership
From Dec 2017 to Dec 2021, Andrea’s trustee colleagues elected her Chair of the Board for four annual terms. They trusted Andrea to lead, speak and advocate on their behalf.
Andrea has partnered and built relationships with local, provincial and federal leaders.
“I feel I am leaving the Halton District School Board having facilitated sustainable, tangible and positive change as well as a stronger voice for trustees and better understanding of the role across the region and province.” Andrea
Bold Advocacy
When issues arise, public education needs a voice. As Chair of the Halton District School Board, Andrea advocated to the Minister of Education, the Premier, MPPs and other elected officials through letters, phone calls and one-on-one conversations to shed light on their decisions’ potential or realized consequences. She often spoke with the media to inform the public of potential outcomes and encourage engagement when necessary.
Fiscally Responsible
Annually, as a trustee for the Halton District School Board, Andrea considered and approved operational and capital budgets for the upcoming year. For the 2022-2023 school year, the combined operational and capital budget is $1 Billion. Budgets are tight and tough decisions must be made. The Region follows a comparable budget process.
Governance of Large Organization
The Halton District School Board serves 66,000 students in over 100 facilities with 10,000 staff with an operational budget of $850 million.
As trustee and Chair, Andrea provided strategic vision through the development of two multi-year strategic plans and sound policy leadership.
Similar public sector governance structures and processes exist between the school boards and the Region.
Great Constiuent Relations
Parents have come to Andrea seeking solutions for their children’s needs for the past eight years.
“My cell phone number is clearly provided on the school board website and I have welcomed each call and email. I look forward to continuing to help the people of Halton in the role of Regional Chair.” Andrea
Growth Management
As Halton has expanded. Along with this comes the requirement for expansion of infrastructure. For the Region, this means roads, children’s services, waste collection, community housing, sewage treatment, paramedic services, etc. Growth management is a huge concern with the school boards. As families come to raise their children in the best region in the country schools need to accommodate them and educational staff need to teach them and buses need to transport them. Growth management has been a primary focus for the past eight years.
Values:
Accountability, Transparency, Integrity, Collaboration, and Continuous Improvement
Decision Making
School Board Trustees make decisions that directly affect families and children’s futures. People are very engaged when decisions will affect them or their children personally-and rightly so! Below is a sampling of such decisions that were undertaken over the past 8 years during my tenure as Trustee and Chair of the Halton District School Board.
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Restructuring and Implementing a new elementary French Immersion (FI) program
- The monitoring of the reimagined program shows that the decision, which affected thousands of families across the board and for years to come, helped alleviate some of the pressures associated with finding qualified staff and maintaining a robust English program in dual-track schools.
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Burlington Program and Accommodation Review (PAR)
- The goal was to provide robust and equitable access to educational programming across the schools in Burlington. Students at lower enrollment schools were forced to take more eLearning courses and had fewer selections in course and extra-curricular offerings. The PAR resulted in two high schools closing. Students have since been able to enjoy a larger selection of courses and teams and clubs; all of which provide greater engagement in the school environment and support learning, achievement and well-being.
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Boundary Reviews
- Over the years some parts of Halton region have experienced rapid enrollment growth while other areas have seen a decline. Boundary reviews for new and established areas can be hard on a community and families as expectations of where students would be attending can change.
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