SCHOOL BOARD TRUSTEES

Four of the city’s 14 school board trustees are not seeking re-election. Gerald (Gerry) Kleisinger, who has served 37 years on the Catholic board, is retiring. Here, we hear from the other three.

DALE WEST

West served 10 years on the public school board, and decided to call it quits because “I really believe that a term limit is important. I don’t think somebody should stay on forever.”

Plus, he has worked for the past 55 years, including 31 years as a teacher.

The biggest change West saw in his decade on the school board was in 2009, when school boards lost control over property tax mill rates, which are now decided by the provincial government.

Previously, boards could raise property taxes if school division funding fell short, as it did this year.

“We’ve had to make up by cutting back on consultant staff and rearranging this and that, and there’s been some cost-cutting measures that we’ve had to apply,” said West.

For the incoming school board, West sees “transformational change” as a challenge, as it remains unclear what the government’s plans are. He is concerned about the education minister’s suggestion of amalgamating school boards.

Another challenge will be maintaining the division’s number of aging schools, although West is proud of Regina Public’s five new schools set to open next year.

LISA POLK

Polk was elected to her first term on the Catholic school board in 2012. Due to the busyness of her job (she’s a pastoral assistant at Resurrection Roman Catholic Parish) and her family, she opted not to seek re-election this time. That said, she may run again in four years.

She experienced a learning curve as the board worked to develop policy. The learning curve is also the biggest challenge she sees for the new board.

“It is almost like starting over again, especially when you don’t know the people that are going to be on there,” said Polk. “It’s 18 people running this time and you hope there’s continuity with some of the people being re-elected.”

KATHLEEN O’REILLY

O’Reilly had a number of reasons for not running for a second term on the public school board. She wants to focus more on her work on the “front lines” as an education professor at First Nations University of Canada.

An advocate for education, O’Reilly felt she might better serve the community as a citizen rather than as a board member.

“I think (trustees) can do very good work,” said O’Reilly, “but I think that our hands are tied a little bit in the sense of perhaps not being able to be as strong an advocate as we want to be.”

She worried that individually speaking out on an issue could be detrimental to the board as a whole.

O’Reilly is proud of the Treaty 4 flag that now flies outside the board of education office. She is also proud of the board’s work to meet the needs of vulnerable children, a point that she campaigned on..