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The Citizen, 2003-12-10, Page 13THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2003. PAGE 13. Schenk loses bids for chair, vice By Stew Slater Special to The Citizen When Meg Westley looked around the new version of the Avon Maitland District School Board at its inaugural meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 2, she must have been reminded of her very first board meeting, almost exactly three years earlier. Westley hinted at her relatively recent introduction to school board politics, in expressing why she should be chosen to return for her second term as Avon Maitland chair. With the Nov. 10 municipal election results sending five new trustees to the nine-member board, Westley suggested her own experience of being a newcomer is fresh enough in her mind, that she would be very effective al assisting those five people to learn about the job. That commitment, as well as comments about her accomplishments over the past year, formed the basis of Westley’s speech after being nominated for chair. The Stratford trustee, who asked fellow trustees to remember her work organizing two information­ gathering sessions with wide stakeholder involvement, was promptly re-elected. The other nominee was 2002 chair Colleen Schenk, the long-serving North Huron trustee who served as Westley’s vice chair for the past year. Losing the chair vote wasn’t Schenk’s only disappointment of the evening; she also was nominated to return as vice chair, but lost that vote to second-term South Huron trustee Randy Wagler. The board’s representative at the Ontario Public School Boards Association (OPSBA) was also decided at the Dec. 2 meeting. Schenk declined a nomination because her position on the OPSBA executive makes her ineligible. The other nominees were all new trustees: Stratford’s Doug Pratley, North Perth’s Jenny Versteeg and Perth East’s Tina Traschel. Traschel and Versteeg declined, so Pratley was acclaimed. Interviewed following the meeting, Westley welcomed the new mix of experience and new ideas on the Avon Maitland board. “Of the new trustees, a number of them have a fair amount of experience at different levels in the education system,” commented the chair, adding she was “delighted, honoured, pleased and excited” to be re-elected as chair. Her acceptance speech again mentioned the recent stakeholder meetings, and included a strong hint there are more to come. “I would like ... to build on what we have achieved together,” Westley said. “For a long time the board has lamented the fact that we do not have a clear strategic plan. I think the next step would be to hold an in- depth session with stakeholders to create one.” Westley, who teaches communications at the post­ secondary level, is currently on leave from her job and is working on a contract basis with a Waterloo­ based organization called “Tamarack.” She’s helping establish a learning centre for the group, which she describes as an “Institute for Community Engagement.” Over the past couple of years, she has been an invited guest at conferences hosted by People for Education, a non-partisan organization which analyzes Ontario’s education policy. Earlier this year, she also arranged to have the organization release its 2003 study of rural education funding at a media event at Mornington Central Public School, north of Milverton. She stressed, however, that she’s not a participating member of the group. As for Ontario’s new Liberal government, Westley was encouraged during a recent trustee orientation session in London, hosted by the Ministry of Education. Gerard Kennedy, who moved from Education Critic to Education Minister when the Liberals took power, told those in attendance he’d like to develop a more “collaborative” relationship with school boards. Westley believes it’s the perfect time for this new relationship to take place, particularly in the case of the Avon Maitland board. “With so many new faces (among trustees) and among senior staff — and the recent election of a new government ->— there is all sorts of potential for positive change,” she said in her acceptance speech. 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