A longtime St. Albert Catholic teacher is back from B.C. to make a bid for a seat on the city’s Catholic school board.
Retired teacher Lydia Yeomans registered to run in the St. Albert Ward trustee election for Greater St. Albert Catholic earlier this month.
Yeomans spent 33 years with GSACRD from the 1980s to 2015 as a teacher at Albert Lacombe, Richard S. Fowler, and St. Albert Catholic, and as a principal at Vincent J. Maloney and district office.
Yeomans said she moved to B.C. when she retired but found she still had a burning passion for public education. Returning to St. Albert, she decided trusteeship is her best way to give back to the community.
“My son was blessed to have an education in this school division, and it served him very well,” she said.
“I would like that opportunity [to be available to] other people’s children and I would work hard to help that happen.”
Yeomans said she is a staunch advocate for putting public funds toward Catholic schools, having seen in B.C. how not doing so restricted Catholic education to just those who could afford it. She also wants to maintain a safe, inclusive, welcoming environment for students, and to advocate for more mental-health support for staff and students coming out of the pandemic.
“Are we asking our kids if they feel safe? Are we asking them if they feel welcome? … What are we doing to make sure those things are happening?”
Yeomans said she enjoys the work of governance and has experience in it through work with her local homeowner’s association and as a board member with the St. Albert Seniors Association. She also has a wealth of knowledge about the school system, having served as a teacher or administrator at all levels.
Nominations for the 2021 GSACRD trustee election are due Sept. 20. See www.gsacrd.ab.ca/trustees/election2021 for details.
