Janet Fraser elected as Vancouver School Board chair

The Vancouver School Board (VSB) chose Janet Fraser as its new chairperson during the board’s first official meeting Monday night.

The Green candidate was first elected as a VSB trustee in 2014 and was re-elected this month.

The recently-elected trustees were officially sworn in during the meeting, following this month’s by-election.

Fraser will also choose a vice-chair after consultation with the trustees in the upcoming days.

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“First priority is to build the culture of respect and then we must address the teacher recruitment and retention challenges that we’re seeing here in Vancouver. There are challenges across the province, but I think they’re particularly acute in Vancouver as we have additional challenges with affordability and teachers leaving, choosing to leave to work in other districts.”

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Dianne Turner will now serve as a special advisor.

Turner became the official trustee after the entire board was fired last year amid allegations of bullying and a failure to pass a balanced budget.

Fraser was part of the board when former education minister Mike Bernier decided to dismiss them.