The Board of Trustees for the Rocky View School Division (RVS) got down to business today (October 4) at their Organizational Meeting for the 2018-2019 School Year and their first Regular Meeting of the year which followed.    

The first items on today's agenda were the election of a Chair and Vice-Chair for RVS.  Todd Brand will once again serve as Board Chair for the upcoming year, a position he also held last year.  Brand was the only person nominated by the trustees.  He says he didn't know what to expect from the chair's role but found that he enjoyed the experience last year.

"It was a new experience for me so I was kind of going into it wondering whether I would enjoy it or whether I wouldn't.  I really did enjoy it, in big part because we've got a great board to work with.  Vice-Chair Gilbert did an amazing job of supporting me in my role as Chair and it was a really good year bringing on five new trustees who have really stepped up and are doing an amazing job so far.  Looking forward to the year and looking forward to serving in this position."

Brand can look forward to further support from Fiona Gilbert in the coming year.  The trustee for Ward Six, representing the Town of Cochrane, was once again elected to serve as Vice-Chair.   That too was a unanimous decision.  

Brand expects that Rocky View will face a number of challenges during the school year, just as it has in the past.  However, as in recent years, one issue stands out above the rest.  "I think obviously the ongoing concern for us is our infrastructure needs, our need for more student spaces, so a good portion of our year will be taken up in terms of trying to get those spaces and getting government support for getting our school's built that we need to get built."

Brand also says an issue that took up much of the division's time and effort during the last school year, transportation, will continue to be a challenge for Rocky View. 

"We've made changes to cut costs during this last year, we now need to see how effective those changes were in terms of bringing our budget into line with where it needed to be.  We'll just be constantly analyzing and evaluating that throughout the course of the year."

Rocky View and every other school board in the province will also face an issue that only rolls around once every four years.  The Alberta provincial election.

"That will always bring education into the spotlight.  We want to be very active in our role as trustees, not being partisan obviously in the election, but in making sure that election issues are clearly understood by people who are making decisions when it comes to provincial elections."

Brand says a possible change in government doesn't concern him.  "We're ready and willing to work with whichever government will be in power after the election is over.  What we're most concerned about is making sure that people have a full understanding of the issues.  I think that's where we can step in and have a role.  I think if you surveyed our board in terms of where we sit politically, it's a pretty wide range of political viewpoints.  From our perspective, it's making sure that we do a good job of making sure that the issues are put out so people understand them and can make informed decisions when it comes to education." 

Brand says another big part of the year ahead will be developing a four-year plan for Rocky View.  He says the plan is about halfway through development and the board is currently getting public input on it.

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