The Rainbow District School Board appointed Ruth Ward as the trustee to replace Tyler Campbell during a board meeting on March 21.
Ward served as trustee with the board from 2006 - 2010 with all but two members of the current board (Judy Kosmerly and Bob Clement) and says that she is excited to get back to the board table.
"I'm thrilled to be appointed and excited to get back to the table with some of my old colleagues," said Ward, who was not in attendance at the meeting when board chair Doreen Dewar put forth the motion to appoint Ward as Tyler Campbell's replacement for the remainder of the 2014-18 term.
"I've always had a passion for education and for getting the best for our kids, I'm a big supporter of community schools and it will be nice to get back to working for the kids in this community."
Ward will be officially sworn in as trustee on or before March 29.
As with the board's outlined voting process for appointing a new trustee, Ward would have had to receive a clear majority vote on a secret ballot in order to be appointed.
In the event that two candidates received an equal number of votes, the drawing of lots would be used to fill the position.*
The final vote count was not disclosed and trustees voted that the ballots be destroyed.
When the motion was called to appoint Ward, all trustees voted in favour with the exception of Larry Killens, who was joining the meeting via telephone.
"On behalf of our trustees I want to thank all of the candidates who applied," said Dewar. "We had a number of great quality applicants and it was a difficult decision."
Dewar has sat on the same board as Ward and says that she is pleased to have the former trustee once again entering the fold.
"What I remember about Ruth when she was a trustee prior is that she was extremely interested in our students, she was always well-prepared for meetings and was exceptionally active on a number of committees," said Dewar.
Trustee Judy Kosmerly utilized the trustee comments period of the meeting to suggest that with a new face joining them, it would be a good idea to invite OPSBA (Ontario Public School Boards' Association) to conduct a refresher course for the trustees.
"I think with a new trustee coming in it would be a good idea to get a refresh from OPSBA on some things that we've been dealing with here such as confidentiality and in camera meetings," said Kosmerly.
Trustee Grace Fox agreed with Kosmerly's suggestion and went a step further to suggest that the refresher be open to parents as well.
The board voted unanimously in favour of having a sit down with an OPSBA representative.
*In an earlier version of this story, the board's voting process was not made clear and read as though there was a clear majority winner, despite the board not disclosing final vote totals. We apologize for any confusion this have caused.
