Lenora Trenaman and Heather Suttie were elected as the new chair and vice-chair of the Kootenay Lake school board Tuesday evening.
Cody Beebe was chosen as the provincial representative to the BCPSEA and newly elected Nelson trustee Curtis Bendig was named as the alternate.
Outgoing board chair Rebecca Huscroft said the experience was a great time of personal growth, and she relished leading the district through a difficult period, which included the teacher’s strike earlier this year.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for Lenora. She brings a lot of experience to the table,” she said.
Trenamen was first elected to the Kootenay Lake Board of Education in 2005. Born and raised in Creston, she has lived in the Balfour area for over 30 years.
She currently represents Crawford Bay, as well as the East and North Shores.
Suttie, who represents the town of Creston, was first acclaimed as a trustee in November. She is currently the chair of the Creston-Kootenay Foundation, which is dedicated to managing an endowment fund of over a million dollars to benefit communities from Yahk to Riondel.
Beebe represents the south rural zone, and is currently the local union president at the Columbia Brewery. He also helped spearhead a campaign to stop the movement of Homelinks to Canyon-Lister Elementary School, which he cited as his reason for running in the most recent election.
Bendig, who works as Nelson-Creston MLA Michelle Mungall’s constituency assistant, has been active on a number of boards and committees including the Columbia Basin Trust’s Youth Advisory Committee and the Kootenay Carshare Co-op.
The board now consists of nine members. Trenaman, Suttie, Huscroft, Bendig and Beebe will be joined for the next four years by Sharon Nazaroff (Slocan Valley/Bonnington), Bob Wright (Salmo, Taghum and Blewett) Bill Maslechko (City of Nelson/Bealby Point) and Dawn Lang (Village of Kaslo and North Rural Zone-Area D).
Superintendant Jeff Jones welcomed both the returning and the new trustees, saying they have a number of issues to address over the next four years, including student poverty and decision-making around surplus properties as enrolment drops province-wide.
“There are enormous challenges, there’s no doubt about that,” he said, before adding he believes they’re up to the task.
A full list of trustees with biographies and contact information can be found at sd8.bc.ca.