LONDON (September 5, 1997) - Fp executive member Robert Vaughan announced his candidacy for re-election as Board of Education Trustee in the November municipal elections in London. Vaughan, who was first elected in London's Ward 4 to serve as a Trustee on the London Board of Education, must now run city-wide for a seat on the newly amalgamated District 11 Public School Board.

"Education is my first passion in politics," said Vaughan. "As a witness to the mental abuse that has been inflicted on the children of this city by the government education system, I could not sit idly by and watch it continue. While the role of trustee will not be as influential as it has been in the past, there is still much I can do as a member of the school board."

Vaughan has become widely known in London as a fresh voice of reason at the London Public School Board. Often on side with fellow trustees Ab Chahbar, Rob Alder and Tom McClenaghan (all of whom have chosen to seek city council seats in the November election), Vaughan was often quoted by the press acting as a sort of unofficial "opposition" to the majority members of the Board.

Vaughan successfully fulfilled his 1994 campaign promises of acting fiscally responsible and championing the "back-to-basic" approach to education. He opposed every tax increase the Board made over the past three years. He opposed the $50 million renovation and down-sizing of Beal Secondary School (the single largest education capital project in the province). He was also instrumental in putting "phonics" on the agenda of the Board. With a motion by Vaughan, the Board recognized "phonics" as a "fundamental" component of reading instruction rather than simply another "clue" in the guessing-game approach used in "whole-language".

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