Eleven of 12 school trustee candidates held a lively debate on Thursday night in the library at New Westminster Secondary School, but it was the two people missing who made the night newsworthy.
The only missing candidate was high profile Voice New Westminster incumbent Casey Cook, who, according to fellow Voice colleague Jim Goring, was suffering headaches after a car accident a week earlier.
And while outgoing 31-year school trustee Brent Atkinson also wasn't in attendance, his work as the unpaid chief executive officer of the SD40 Business Company provided the most engaging exchanges of the night.
"I think the public has lost faith in the business company," said Voice candidate MaryAnn Mortensen. "I do realize that Mr. Atkinson turned the company around, but the loss of confidence is due to the lack of transparency in the business company operations.
"The business company still owes $200,000 back to the district. It's disingenuous when you say it's making a profit when all the money hasn't been paid back."
Mortensen's fellow Voice candidate, Brenda McEachern-Keen, followed up by saying she was "gobsmacked" and "dumbfounded" at how long it's taken the business company to repay its original investment back to the school district.
Goring also disputed whether Atkinson should get all the credit for turning the business company around, saying the business company has an unpaid board of directors that has also contributed mightily to turning the fortunes of the company around.
"Why does the credit only go to one person?" said Goring.
Incumbent Michael Ewen stood up for both the business company and entrepreneurial aspects of the district, such as international education.
"$2.8 million is how much money has moved into the district," said Ewen of what international education and the business company has reaped for the district. "If we stopped now, we would be taking services away from kids."
Dave Phelan also stood up for the business company, pointing out that this year alone, the business company contributed $500,000 back to the district.
"I don't see any sense to dismantle it if it remains profitable," said Phelan.
Each of the candidates was also asked by moderator Terry Hewitt to name what they thought their number 1 priority would be if elected.
James Bell said he wanted to see the district acquire the current site of the Justice Institute and turn that into the high school, while both Ewen and Jonina Campbell said getting the new high school built was the major priority, along with supporting the teachers, students and staff who would be in that new facility.
Lisa Graham said she would like to see the province provide more and better funding to the district, perhaps on an indexed system.
Goring and Mortensen said getting a new high school built was important, as was improving communication within the various stakeholder groups in the district.
Offering different viewpoints on the top priority in the district were James Janzen, who said the "elephant in the room" was the current labour dispute that sees teachers without a contract and perhaps facing a cut in salary; McEachern-Keen saying she wanted full access to the business company's financial and legal documents; Phelan wanted to ensure that the district looks at innovative ways of incorporating new ideas into classrooms, whether it be more technology-based equipment in libraries or making sure programs like automotive and culinary arts weren't ignored; James Pepa, who said the district should be involving people without kids into the decision-making process; and Glen Richmond, who said teamwork and making sure everybody is working together, would be a great priority.
The meeting, organized by the New Westminster District Parent Advisory Council, was attended by a packed house of more than 100 people. The library was so filled that extra chairs had to be brought in and many people stayed right to the end.
One question that all but two trustee hopefuls managed to avoid was whether the almost $20 million already spent on the high school capital project had been money that was wasted.
"I think it's not acceptable that amount of money has been spent to date," said Mortensen. "A lot of that money is wasted taxpayer dollars."
Bell also weighed in with his thoughts, saying the high school site is, in his opinion, on one of the poorest sites in the city.
No other trustee hopefuls were willing to comment during Thursday night's debate on this issue, even though there were 11 overall questions asked and participants having an opportunity to weigh in on as many as four of those questions.
Several candidates had interesting responses to the question of whether a trustee's primary role should be fiscal responsibility and defence of the public purse.
"Since we get an allotment (from the provincial government), we have no control over revenue," said McEachern-Keen. "We have to properly manage it, to properly steward it. It's all about educational outcomes."
Richmond said it was misleading to say a trustee should be protecting the public purse and that he was more concerned with the proper stewardship of the alloted money to give students the best chance of succeeding.
Ewen said he's proud that in New Westminster, the district doesn't set aside a contingency fund because money set aside for a rainy day is money that isn't going into classrooms and money that isn't going toward students.
In an unscripted moment, Bell got the biggest laugh of the night when he referred to the premier as Christy Cleavage.
When matters got serious again, candidates talked about teamwork and how they believe that can help build consensus on the school board.
"The vast majority, 98 or 99 per cent of the stuff we do is by consensus," said Ewen. "We do it with the city, we do it with the province, even though sometimes, it doesn't appear that way."
Janzen was even more eloquent on the importance of consensus.
"Consensus is something you build," he said. "It just doesn't happen. It means listening to people, it means letting people give their opinion.
"Consensus is work, you really have to work at it. for me, it comes down to what's best for the students of New Westminster. When I put the students at the centre, that's how you build consensus."
Voters will elect seven school trustees on Saturday, Nov. 19.
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