Board of Trustees

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TRUSTEES CHOOSE NEW BOARD CHAIR AND VICE-CHAIR

Wed, 1 Mar, 2017

At the February 28, 2017 public meeting, Michelle Draper was elected as Board Chair and Ray Martin as Vice-Chair. The change in leadership came after Michael Janz stepped down as Chair, noting he wants to dedicate more of his time to fatherhood. He will stay with the Board as a Trustee.

Draper thanked Janz for his leadership and mentoring while she served as Vice-Chair. She also paid tribute to other past board chairs she admired and vowed to stay committed to issues like parent engagement, student success and advocating for predictable, sustainable and long-term funding for education.

“I appreciate your confidence in me and will not let you down,” said Draper. “I am committed to maintaining our strong working relationships with all levels of government, each other and our Superintendent and administration because at the end of the day, this helps ensure the success of all of our students.

“This is an exciting time to be Board Chair as we get ready to open 11 new schools next year, our student population is almost 100,000 students and continues to grow and our classrooms are rich in diversity.”

OTHER NEWS

The District’s Student Senators gave Trustees an update on their annual work plan. They will host a student mental health conference in April, survey District students to get their feedback on curriculum redevelopment and work on an initiative to create videos and other modern communication pieces to answer students’ questions about preparing for life after graduation. These were issues our District students asked the Senate to tackle this year.

The Board will also ask the province to eliminate the process that appears to give citizens a choice about which school district they will support with their tax dollars. Since funding for education is paid out based on number of students in each district, Trustees felt the process is misleading for taxpayers.