At last week's meeting of the Rocky View School (RVS) Board, Chair Todd Brand officially congratulated Premier Jason Kenney and the other MLAs who were elected on April 16th.  

Brand says one cabinet minister that was put in place by the Premier has, what could be, a very promising background for the group of Rocky View trustees and others in the province.  Adriana LaGrange was named the Education Minister in the first Kenney cabinet.  LaGrange is a former Red Deer Catholic School Trustee, something Brand says is a good thing.

"We're excited to see that a former School Trustee is the person to be named Minister of Education.  Obviously there's a lot of different backgrounds that could apply to someone who would be put into the position of the Minister of Education but we can't help but be biased towards people who understand the trustees perspective and we think that's going to be a helpful thing for her as she navigates the work of the ministry, just already having an understanding of what the needs of school boards are and how school boards operate.  I think we were quite pleased by that when we found that out."

The board is very anxious to meet with LaGrange as quickly as possible.  Brand says he, of course, understands that her agenda will be extremely busy, both now and in the future, but they're already planning on sending a letter to the minister offering to meet with her at a time and location that is convenient to her.  

"What we will say in that letter is that the starting place for us will be to go over our advocacy positions which is a public document that we have on our website, that highlights some of the needs for our capital requests and some of the other things that we feel are important.  We'll be sending that to her and her office and our office will work together to put together the exact details of the meeting.  We are realistic.  We know that she's not going to be able to meet with every board in the next month or two, it's going to take some time for her to make her connections across the province so we are realistic in our expectations."

Former Premier Rachel Notley expressed concern over LaGrange's appointment to the Education portfolio.  She accused LaGrange of being "out of step with the majority of Albertans," over the issue of Gay-Straight Alliances and hoped that Kenney would appoint someone who more moderate views.

Brand said he and the other RVS trustees are going to take a wait and see attitude on that particular subject.  "All we have heard officially is what the UCP was saying prior to the election.  In terms of what they're actual actions are going to be, we'll obviously be watching that very closely.  For all parties, we know that what is said and done during the campaign time, can be translated differently when it comes to action post-election."

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