Alberta Education has approved Rocky View School’s (RVS) proposed changes to its ward boundaries.
The changes, which will go into effect with the Oct. 2017 election, will see Ward 2, which includes Chestermere split into two distinct wards, one for the city and one covering the rural area.
“Students and residents in Chestermere will now have their own Trustee so will have great representation that they do right now.
“It’s a much fairer scenario for them,” said current RVS Ward Two Trustee Bev LaPeare.
She said that she has mixed feelings about the change to the ward she has represented for years.
“It’s definitely what’s in the best interest of my constituents so it’s a very good thing for them,” she said, “The kids will be the ones that really benefit and I’m thrilled about that.”
She is sad to be leaving the relationships and people of Chestermere behind once the ward is split.
As a rural resident, LaPeare has to run in the new rural ward in the October election.
“I’ve grown close to so many people that I’ve worked with and I’ve thought of every one of those kids as my own when making decisions at the Board table It’s hard to let go and know someone else will be representing half of my ward,” she said.
With the creation of the new ward, LaPeare is encouraging residents to consider running to represent the board.
“The elections aren’t that far away so now is a great time for people to put some thought into being a School Board Trustee,” she said.
LaPeare said that she is happy to chat about what the job entails with anyone that thinks they might be interested in running.
The approval of the boundary changes came after a stressful week when a misinterpretation of the legislation led RVS to believe that the province had missed the deadline to approve the changes in time for October’s election.
“We have been under the assumption that since School Board elections happen alongside Municipal elections, we abide by the same rules as municipalities when it comes to making changes to divisions or wards,” said LaPeare.
The last time RVS made changes to the ward boundaries it was done far enough in advance that the issue of deadlines wasn’t a concern.
This time however, the approval by the school board of the proposed changes was much closer to the assumed deadline.
“Since the timing for our ward boundary change came down to the wire under our assumption, we had sent an email to the ministry to seek clarification as to what was going to happen,” said LaPeare.
Alberta Education’s response eventually cleared things up.
“They answered us, indicating that the deadline we needed to be aware of is the March 1st deadline for our bylaws for the change but there’s no real deadline for the ministerial approval,” she said.
The board had thought that the province had to approve the changes prior to April 16 for the changes to take effect with the election.
