Chris Stedile
Castlegar News
The City of Castlegar has elected its three school trustees and they are eager to jump right in and begin making the schools better for children, parents and staff.
The elected trustees are Mickey Kinakin and Rosann Brunton for the Castlegar area, and Teri Ferworn representing rural Castlegar.
All trustees have said they are very happy with the elections and how respectful and professional the candidates were during its course.
“I received some very good information from the election,” Kinakin said.
“Elections always do that to you because you have to stand up and give what you believe in and listen carefully to what people tell you and what they see.”
Kinakin continued, “In the process you learn a heck of a lot. What I learned from this election is we need to work on improving our relationship between the district and our staff.”
“With all the cutbacks and such I believe we left a bad impression, and we need to work on that. Another thing we need to do is connect with our parents much more. A lot of parents expressed to me that they didn’t know what the board and the district was doing. I’m going to make an effort to get out and meet and connect with parents.”
While Kinakin has a clear agenda on what he aims to accomplish, Brunton is new to the trustee position and is taking a more patient approach.
“There is a huge learning curve,” Brunton admitted.
“I am going to be spending some time going through some orientation with the school board chair and superintendent, as well as attending school trustees information sessions going over what it means to be a trustee and what the roles and responsibilities are. For now it’s all a learning experience and we’ll see how it goes over the next few months as I settle in.”
The lone trustee for rural Castlegar, Teri Ferworn is taking a personal approach, engaging in a similar manner to Kinakin.
“I’m going to start by listening to the citizens of School District 20,” said Ferworn.
“My plan is to start going to PAC meetings to hear parents’ concerns and try to make myself visible to the community so that I will be open to peoples’ concerns. I want to do what is best for the children.”