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My name is not Elaine
Marieze Tarr will remain chair of the School District 53 board of trustees in 2017.
While Tarr was reelected at Wednesday night's board meeting, she will have a new vice chair in Robert Zandee.
"I announced last night that this will be my last year as chair and I asked the board to bring in someone as the vice chair who could take over as chair when I leave," said Tarr. "So we made a bit of a succession plan for when I leave so he can take over in a year's time."
Sam Hancheroff, who was serving as vice chair, was not interested in serving as chair. He remains a board member.
Despite the difficult year, Tarr said she is staying on as chair because she believes in the work the board does and it was the best plan moving forward.
A funding shortfall leading to the announced closure of Osoyoos Secondary was certainly a dark spot for the board.
"This was really challenging because of the fact we told the ministry this was our position and then at the 99th hour they came through with the money," she said. "It was also a challenge because we had to put the community on a roller coaster ride with one minute the school was closing and the next it was open."
Looking forward to 2017, Tarr said she they will be refocusing on strong governance needed to provide a good education for children.
Zandee agreed saying the board's goal is to provide students in the district with as many educational opportunities as they can, as well as advocating on their behalf to the provincial government to follow through on their promises of the past months.
"It certainly has been a challenging time, but if the province fulfills its promises, it would appear that we will for the near, forseeable future, have some financial stability within the district," he said. "It appears that the ministry has heard the calls from boards for stable, predictable funding that recognizes the challenges that rural districts face. I believe that it is part of our job to try to keep the ministry’s feet to the fire on this issue."
