School trustees elected in Saturday's elections will have to be able to hit the ground running, says board chair Melissa Hyndes, who was not re-elected but still holds her Port Moody trustee job until early December.
The inaugural meeting for the new School District 43 board of education is not until Dec. 9, and with only three incumbents back on the board with six newcomers, the learning curve will be steep, Hyndes said.
Among the issues Hyndes expects to wrap up with the current board in the coming weeks is the CUPE collective agreement, which has to be concluded by the end of the month.
But it will be up to the new board to decide how to fund $800,000 in wages the board agreed to pay teachers in September for their first day back at work following the public schools strike.
Hyndes said the province has so far taken the stand that the money is outside the collective agreement and hasn't offered to pay the sum.
"The new board will have that financial responsibility going in. They may have to look at mid-year cost-cutting," Hyndes said, although she acknowledged that paying the teachers for coming into the classroom the first day following the strike was the "right thing to do."
Hyndes, who spent 12 years on the board, including eight as its chair, said her position as the face of the school board meant she had to take the heat over the district's financial situation and attributed that to her loss. "As the board chair, you wear the decisions of nine members of the board and I think people saw that," she said.
But she also acknowledged that the winners in the election worked hard to earn their votes.
Among the board accomplishments of which she's most proud, she said, was getting a new middle school built in Anmore, Eagle Mountain, which opened in September; the district's Learning Without Boundaries vision, which promotes differentiated learning to accommodate children's different learning styles, including the use of technology; and building stronger relationships with the cities.
Although she plans to "take a break for a while," Hyndes said she would continue to stay abreast of education issues.
Incumbent Coquitlam Trustee Diane Sowden, who topped the polls in her city, said job one will be for the new board to meet and get to know one another. "I think it's something we need to get on as soon as possible," she said.
