I am very grateful to be re-elected and to find myself enjoying the frightening honour of being chair of this board. We all bring something a bit different to any role. Whatever I am or am not… I intend to serve with diligence and good humour. I am doubly pleased to find my dear friend Hannah Seymour beside me as Vice Chair. I have often felt she is the older and wiser of the 2 of us despite her youth and my elder credentials.

I wish to recognise the conscientiousness of our outgoing chair, Candace Spilsbury. In addition, I would like to acknowledge the many fine qualities of those trustees who have retired- some of them after many years of service to the community – Julie Thomas, Ann Andersen and Barb DeGroot. I would also like to tell my dear friend and colleague Di Gunderson she will be sorely missed but I am comforted to know she is willing to continue offering her mentorship to us. We will need it.

In working with all these people, I have confirmed my view that despite often having contradictory opinions, it is possible and desirable to appreciate the merits differing people bring to any situation.

On that note, I welcome my fellow trustees to the board table. I know we can work together constructively. I believe this board should be a place of joy because this board is the material evidence of our collective reach as a community and our will to make things better.

As a board, we must cherish our role and our responsibility to act on behalf of those who have put us here. We are leaders- elected to work tirelessly under the scrutiny of the people of this valley. Though we should always thoughtfully consider the advice we receive from our senior staff, this board must affirm it is the elected trustees who will guide and direct the district.

We will fiercely defend our children; we will be just and compassionate employers; we will protect the public assets represented by the physical plant of SD #79.We will keep our eyes not just on the day to day operation of the classrooms but the wider world which our students will inhabit as they grow.

We will need courage and resolve to meet the gaze of our provincial government but more than that, we will need each other to do what is right for our schools and everyone in them.

Please contact me anytime at 250-709-7975.

We can have tea and chat.

Eden Haythornthwaite

Chair, Board of Education