Parent advocacy group says newly-elected VSB should focus on students, not politics

A new Vancouver School Board (VSB) was elected on Saturday, but one parent group said the new trustees need to put their heads down “and get to work.”

The Parent Advocacy Network for Public Education (PAN) said students need to be the board’s priority, adding there should be no room for partisan politics.

“There’s a lot of work to be done and they need to get their heads down and start doing the work,” PAN’s Andrea Sinclair said.

The entire board was fired last year amid allegations of bullying and a failure to pass a balanced budget.

Sinclair said the board should learn from last year’s events and move on.

“Certainly for the benefit of the students on the front lines, with the teachers and with the staff on the front lines, so reset and try to just go forward and leave the past in the past, but learn from it,” she said.

Sinclair said trustees also need to focus on the implementation of class size and composition and the “many facets involved with that.”

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She said re-establishing a “positive working relationship” with the Ministry of Education should also be a priority for the newly-elected board.

She said this will help matters such as seismic upgrades “move forward a whole lot faster than they have.”

WATCH: Former VSB trustee calls firing “outrageous”

5:50 Former VSB trustee calls firing “outrageous”

Three Green candidates were elected, along with three candidates from Vision Vancouver, two NPA and one from OneCity.

Sinclair said the parent group is hopeful having a mix of parties will help bring different views to the table.

“Different people, different perspectives, and that gives me, and I think other people, great hope to think that they can focus on the task at hand and not get mired in partisan politics,” Sinclair said.

Nineteen candidates battled for a trustee position at the VSB but only nine were elected Saturday night.

Voting turnout was less than 11 per cent.