'Potential for a united board': Meet the Calgary Board of Education's newly elected trustees

There will be six new faces at the Calgary Board of Education's board table this year.

Of the two candidates seeking re-election, only Wards 5 and 10 trustee Marilyn Dennis hung on to her seat, while incumbent Althea Adams lost her seat in Wards 3 and 4 to Laura Hack.

Dennis, who served as the board's previous chair, said she's looking forward to getting to work on some important issues with her new colleagues and hearing different points of view.

"Difference of opinion is good on the board because you need to be able to make sure that you're considering all opinions. So I'm expecting that with this board that each trustee will come with a viewpoint that is maybe different than the person sitting next to them," she said.

"But it is also about collaboration, right? It is about having honest, frank conversations, collaborating together and ultimately making decisions that are in the best interest of the students that we serve."

Susan Vukadinovic, elected in Wards 8 and 9, said she's excited to see there is already some unity on issues among trustees elect — including the province's draft K-6 curriculum.

"I am so excited about this incoming board. I mean, I don't know the last time there was such potential for a united board, it's like a dream team," she said.

"I'm looking forward to talking with the incoming board of trustees to talk about how we can strategize to bring home the message that if the UCP is committed to listening to parents — parents are not on board with this draft curriculum. And you can't implement a curriculum when parents aren't on board."

Patricia Bolger, elected in Wards 6 and 7, agrees. She said she hopes to see a unity in vision go beyond the CBE.

"I hope that our collective views are alongside those of the other new boards in the province because I think it's going to take a collective provincial voice, including all of our colleges of education and deans of our universities throughout the province," she said.

"The more people you have thinking the same way will hopefully help get some change here."

A 'strong stance' on curriculum

Charlene May, elected in Wards 12 and 14, said when it comes to the draft curriculum she hopes the new board takes a strong stance.

"It doesn't matter if you have kids or not, or grandchildren or not, everyone's upset about the curriculum, and I feel like the CBE didn't come out very strongly. They just said, 'it's about timing,' and that's kind of that," she said.

"I think they kind of dropped the ball on that and we didn't look as good as other boards because we weren't willing to have a strong opinion on it. I think, in the end, there needs to be a strong stance against it."

But, in other cases, May said it's important that the board be selective in their public disagreements with the province.

"You know, pick our battles as to where we're publicly in disagreement with the education minister," she said.

New trustees elect stressed the importance of building a stronger relationship with Alberta Education and Education Minister Adriana LaGrange.

"I think it's possible to have a clean slate," said Vukadinovic. "We have a brand new board of trustees and I think, like with every single relationship, personal or work, you need to start out thinking, 'we're going to get along just great.'"

Over the course of the last two boards, the CBE was singled out by the province over concerns of financial mismanagement and audited twice — with LaGrange even threatening the board with dismissal at one point.

LaGrange's audit found no evidence of reckless spending, but she still threatened to fire CBE trustees if they didn't make changes laid out in a ministerial order.

Ultimately, LaGrange found that the CBE had made significant progress to improve its governance and financial management under the ministerial order and said they were no longer at risk of being fired 13 months after the audit was launched.

Nancy Close, elected in Wards 11 and 13, is no stranger to the job of CBE trustee. She previously served as a public school trustee from 1999 to 2007. She was part of a board elected in a 1999 by-election, after the sitting board at the time was dismissed by the then education minister Lyle Oberg.

Close said that experience will help her navigate the CBE's relationship with the province.

"We met with the minister of education and built a relationship where we could work together so that wouldn't happen again," she said. "I think that's pretty critical and important, especially when education is within the mandate of the province and they have the ability to dismiss the locally elected school boards."