Janet Fraser, the Green Party of Vancouver trustee who helped make the NPA’s Christopher Richardson the new Vancouver School Board chair, was named vice-chair December 15.
In addition to taking on the position, she will chair the board’s finance and legal committee and serve as District Parent Advisory Council liaison.
Vision Vancouver trustees declined vice-chair and committee chair positions.
“I’m disappointed,” Fraser said. “Particularly the three returning trustees had a lot of experience and expertise that would have been useful in those positions.”
The newly elected board includes four trustees each from the NPA and Vision with Fraser as the lone Green.
Former Vision Vancouver board chair Patti Bacchus said Richardson offered her the vice-chair position and a committee chair position, both of which she declined.
“After six years in the chair, I really want to focus now on bringing Vision platform issues to the table, which I did last night, making sure that we can build support and get this board to support a strong advocacy position,” Bacchus said. “I was very pleased last night that we were able to do that on two critical funding issues with the province.”
Trustees supported Bacchus’s motion for the VSB to advocate for the Ministry of Education to reverse its cuts to adult education for graduated adults who are upgrading.
Starting May 1, the ministry will no longer provide funding to school districts for tuition-free upgrading courses for adults who already hold a high school diploma.
Trustees also backed Bacchus’s letter urging the government to heed the recommendations for kindergarten to Grade 12 funding included in the 2015 Report of the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services.
The NPA’s Stacy Robertson, a lawyer and enforcement counsel at the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, will chair the planning and facilities committee and represent the VSB with the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association.
The NPA’s Penny Noble, executive director of Bike to Work Week B.C. and a former teacher and public relations and marketing veteran, will chair the education and student services committee, which deals with all matters relating to the quality and types of education provided at the elementary, secondary and adult education levels.
Incumbent NPA trustee Fraser Ballantyne will chair the personnel and staff services committee.
Each committee is joined by a non-voting parent, union association representatives and members of senior management.
Bacchus says the seismic upgrade at Queen Mary elementary got stuck with a half a million dollar shortfall in the tax shift from HST to PST.
Trustees unanimously supported Vision trustee Allan Wong’s motion Monday night to send a letter to the Ministry of Education to fund the difference.
Bacchus forwarded a motion on notice that the VSB commit to not entering into any negotiations regarding the sale of the Kingsgate Mall site without prior public consultation regarding the decision to sell. She worries discussions could begin in camera and then she wouldn’t be able to bring public attention to the matter.
Bacchus also said the VSB has an imminent court date to try to gain access to the underground parking lot of the Firenze condos, above which the new International Village school is to be built at Abbott Street and Expo Boulevard. She said access to this area is needed to work on the foundation of the school. Bacchus said condo dwellers have been offered parking with 24-hour security across the street.
Trustee turned MP?
Longtime Vancouver East MP Libby Davies announced Dec. 12 she wouldn’t seek reelection in 2015. Bacchus and others have encouraged former COPE turned Vision trustee Sharon Gregson to run. Gregson has tweeted that she’s seriously considering entering the race.
