Smetacek leaves Students Count to run independently for trustee seat
After a rough start to her campaign for public school trustee amid reports of offensive tweets, Bianca Smetacek announced Thursday she is leaving the Students Count slate to run independently.
In a media release, Smetacek said she felt issues in Wards 5 and 10, where she is running, were unique compared with the rest of Calgary and that she will run separately from a slate of candidates known as Students Count, which formed as a team this spring ahead of October’s school board elections.
“I have listened carefully at countless doors to parents’ concerns. I have spoken to voters in English, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu. It’s clear to me that many issues faced by students and parents in North East Calgary are different than in other parts of the city,” Smetacek said in the statement.
When Postmedia contacted her campaign team for more information around the reasons for her exit, campaign manager Hadyn Place said she will not be commenting further.
In the news release, Smetacek added that her independent campaign will have an additional focus on supporting English Language Learning students and fixing busing issues.
In May, Smetacek joined public school trustee candidates Lisa Davis, Althea Adams and Sabrina Bartlett as part of the Students Count Team, all of whom said they shared similar concerns such as improving math skills, building better report cards and getting big money out of campaigns.
Days after that announcement, Smetacek was criticized on social media after she shut down her personal twitter account amid reported screen grabs of offensive language in previous tweets.
In June, Mike Bradshaw and Sadiq Vailliani also joined the Students Count Team to run as public school trustee candidates. Kelley Charlebois, who is organizing the slate of Students Count candidates, did not return Postmedia’s calls Thursday afternoon.
Lisa Davis, a Students Count candidate running in Wards 6 and 7, would only say “we wish her well and we look forward to working with whoever gets elected in that area.” School trustee elections occur concurrently with the municipal elections on Oct. 16.