The wheels are in motion to set a date for byelection to fill the vacant seat on the New Westminster school board.
A byelection will be held in the coming months to fill a seat formerly held by Dee Beattie, who resigned in September. She had taken a medical leave of absence from the board in June after it was revealed she had used a fake “Allan Whitterstone” Twitter account to troll parents and other individuals.
According to the school district, Beattie’s position has been vacant since Sept. 26. Under the School Act, the district must notify the municipal council of this vacancy within 30 days.
“The district will comply with this requirement and will formally inform council within the time frame stipulated under the act,” said the school district in a statement to the Record. “A motion will be forthcoming at the upcoming Oct. 24 open board meeting, with a notification to council following shortly thereafter.”
In an Oct. 3 email to the Record, Peter DeJong, corporate officer for the City of New Westminster, responded to an inquiry about the status of a byelection.
“The next step is for the city to be officially informed of the resignation of the trustee (this needs to happen within 30 days of the resignation),” he said. “Then, within 30 days after receiving the notification from the school district, the city will appoint a chief election officer, and at that time will be in a position to discuss the subsequent steps.”
Questions about a school board byelection arose at the Sept. 25 city council meeting.
Lisa Spitale, the city’s chief administrative officer, said all costs related to the byelection would be covered by the school board.
“Yes, we have a role, and I suspect what we will do is we will contract it out,” she said. “Right now, we have our own staff shortages, and I suspect the only way we can do it is to contract it out and then basically send the invoices to the school district.”
At that meeting, Jacque Killawee, who has served as the city’s chief election officer in past civic elections, told council that many of the city’s election contracts actually run over four years, so she doesn’t anticipate a need to go out to procurement for a contract.
