The board of the Flin Flon School Division (FFSD) has some big decisions to make ahead of the upcoming general municipal election.
The Manitoba School Boards Association (MSBA) has issued an official call for nominations and resolutions for its upcoming annual general meeting. A number of positions on the provincial authority, including the president, vice-president – only for school boards which represent 6,000 or fewer students – and three regional director positions.
School board trustees can be named to the MSBA either by being nominated by their home school boards, by submitting an expression of intent and being approved, or after a regional meeting or convention. Resolution ideas can be sent in to MSBA by member boards, including FFSD.
“Every year, when we go to the MSBA general meeting in Winnipeg, there’s always resolutions put forward by different boards. It’s based on things that are happening in the school division that may have an effect province-wide. It’s discussed with us ahead of time,” said trustee Trish Sattelberger.
However, the deadline for the first call of nominations and resolutions is Nov. 2, barely one week after the upcoming school board election on Oct. 24 and shortly after the new board’s first meeting on Oct. 30.
This leaves new school board members only one meeting to discuss what priorities they hope to share or who may be nominated to the MSBA.
The measures will be discussed further at the next school board meeting, set for Oct. 23, one night before the election. While the deadline and election date leave a time crunch for trustees, the measure will be discussed further during the next meeting, allowing sitting board members to discuss matters further.
“If we end up with a fair amount of new board members – which we don’t know – we do have to have some sort of plan to talk about it at our next meeting before that election happens. If there is stuff to be done, it can be put in in a timely manner,” said Sattelberger.
