Fresh faces for Halifax school board

Rookies will be taking over Nova Scotia's largest school board next month.

Only one of the 13 members of the dismissed Halifax Regional School Board is running again in October's election.

Gin Yee, of Dartmouth, had only two years in when Education Minister Karen Casey fired the board for infighting in December 2006 and replaced it with a single appointee.

"If we listen to each other, respect each other and get the politics out of it, I think that's when the school board is successful," Yee said. "We have to make sure that the education is the priority."

Two former members who unsuccessfully sued Casey to get their jobs back, Deborah Brunt and Bridget Ann Boutilier, are running for positions on Halifax regional council.

Brunt said the school board is better off with a fresh slate of candidates, given the history of the last one.

"Some of us feel that it was preferable for the school board to have a fresh start and move forward, that it would be better for staff, students and parents," she said.

The school board oversees the education of about 53,000 students in 137 schools around the Halifax Regional Municipality.

Earlier this year, the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board agreed to reduce the size of the board, to eight elected positions according to district and one African-Nova Scotian member elected at large.

Nominations closed Tuesday for candidates in the Oct. 18 provincewide municipal and school board elections.

Source: CBC News, Wednesday, September 10, 2008
http://www.cbc.ca/ns