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No by-election to fill vacant SRPSD trustee seat

Aug 20, 2017 | 11:34 AM

The Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Division (SRPSD) will operate as a nine-person board for the next three years, opting not to hold a by-election for their vacant urban trustee position.

Late last week, the division was granted permission by the Minister of Education to operate with four urban and five rural trustees until the next local election.

Due to budgetary constraints, director of education Robert Bratvold said the board decided not to hold a costly election. 

“The rationale was an election is an expensive endeavour and if we do not need to have that expense and have those dollars in the classroom, we would rather do that,” Bratvold said.

The fifth urban seat was previously held by long-time trustee George McHenry who passed away in June. 

Though there is a “bit of concern that representation is not quite the way it was,” Bratvold was confident the current slate of trustees can operate “effectively as a nine member board.”

The local government elections act requires the board to set a date for a by-election following a vacancy, however, they always intend to explore the idea of shrinking the board to cut expenses. 

But as the division does not set the number of board trustees, they appealed to the ministry, and were granted permission to run with a smaller fleet for the time being.

 

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr