Janet Fraser didn’t anticipate securing such a powerful position on the Vancouver School Board when she ran to be trustee.
“It’s not quite what I expected…” she said. “This is the situation it is and I’m going to make the best of it I can.”
The victorious Green Party candidate will hold the deciding vote on issues that split trustees of Vision Vancouver and the NPA.
Vancouverites elected Fraser, four Vision and four NPA trustees Saturday night. Twenty-nine candidates vied for nine board spots.
Those elected will be sworn in Dec. 8 and select a chairperson and vice-chair.
Vision’s Patti Bacchus, who attracted the most votes of any trustee, has chaired the board since she was elected in 2008. But Vision lost three incumbents on the board — Ken Clement, Cherie Payne and Rob Wynen.
So will Fraser be chair?
“It’s not a role I expected to take on,” Fraser said. “Obviously, I’ll be talking with the other trustees and getting to know them and their parties and I’ll have to think about it.”
In order of votes from most to least, the trustees for the next four years will be:
- Patti Bacchus, Vision incumbent
- Joy Alexander, Vision
- Fraser Ballantyne, NPA
- Allan Wong, Vision incumbent
- Mike Lombardi, Vision incumbent
- Penny Noble, NPA
- Janet Fraser, Green
- Stacy Robertson, NPA
- Christopher Richardson, NPA.
Fraser said she’s been contacted by most of the elected trustees since Saturday night.
She wouldn’t say whether she feels more philosophically aligned with Vision or the NPA.
In terms of priorities, Fraser wants to see the revised gender identities and sexual orientation policy passed in June fully implemented.
“That having a policy on the books translates into a better environment in the schools,” she said.
She wants the VSB to take more action towards its goal of becoming the greenest school district in North America and is keen to hear options being devised to keep the elementary band and strings program humming.
Trustees are to hire a new superintendent, and Fraser wants Steve Cardwell’s successor to be someone who will work to support children living in poverty and aboriginal students.
Fraser has served as chair or co-chair on PACs for 10 years, co-founded the Marpole Matters community group, worked as a scientist in the pharmaceutical biotech industry for a decade and has been an at-home parent for a decade. Her children attend Laurier elementary, Churchill secondary and the TREK program at Prince of Wales.
Ken Denike, who was first elected in 1984, lost his spot on school board, as did his running mate Sophia Woo. Expelled by the NPA in June over comments regarding the gender and sexual orientation policy, the duo ran with a new civic party called Vancouver 1st.
The Vancouver Elementary School Teachers’ Association and the Vancouver Secondary Teachers’ Association endorsed all seven Vision candidates and the two candidates with the new Public Education Project.
But neither Jane Bouey nor Gwen Giesbrecht of PEP was elected.
Fraser will be the VSB’s second Green trustee. Voters elected Vision Vancouver Coun. Andrea Reimer as Green trustee in 2002.
crossi@vancourier.com
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