School District 57 trustee Tim Bennett was named vice-president of the B.C. School Trustee’s Association on Thursday.
Bennett, who has served on the BCSTA’s board since 2018 and on the School District 57 board since 2011, was acclaimed to the position. Bennett takes on the role left vacant by West Vancouver trustee Carolyn Broady, who moved up to become president of the organization.
“I think, this year in particular, that public education is at an interesting time in B.C.,” Bennett said in a statement issued on Friday. “We are coming out of COVID response, our schools are starting to feel like those previous patterns of life are returning, but we also know that COVID isn’t going anywhere. We have to find this balance. I want to be a part of that, and initiatives like implementing the new curriculum recognizing our Indigenous history, implementing the action plans around Bill 41 (the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People's Act), and all the regular day to day things that our sector is responsible for.”
Bennett was scheduled to attend the BCSTA annual general meeting in Vancouver, but the early arrival of his newborn daughter prevented him from travelling to the meeting.
“If you asked about this even three years ago, to accept nominations from people not physically in the room, that may not have been acceptable,” Bennett said. “We have been forced as a society to accept changes and adapt with innovation. I’m glad of that for another reason, too, and that is, we want mechanisms in place to allow for young parents like myself or prospective directors in other situations to still have a way into leadership positions and positions of communication. That goes to the board levels as well. We want Boards of Education to represent the communities that elected them. That doesn’t look just one way at all times. We want dialogue to flow, opportunity to flow, no matter what the situations that may come up. We have the technology, now, and we have a couple of years of seeing how it can work.”
The School District 57 board of trustees’ next meeting is Tuesday in Mackenzie.
