Prince George parent and teacher groups say the city selected a strong seven trustees but call for a more vocal board, better with transparency.
Tina Cousins, president of the Prince George and District Teachers Association, said board members need to offer more of a voice in the public realm.
"Are they going to be the caretakers for public education?" asked Cousins, adding she thought that advocacy was missing with the last group. "In the last strike, we found our board was quite quiet."
Saturday saw the re-election of chair Sharel Warrington, vice-chairperson Tim Bennett and trustees Brenda Hooker and Trish Bella, who topped the polls with 7,338 votes. Newcomers Tony Cable, Bruce Wiebe and Bob Harris all have decades of experience as educators and principals in Prince George schools.
Cousins said she'd called for champions for public education at one of the all-candidates meeting, and while she said those elected are well known and well respected, she was hoping for a more of a shift.
"I thought maybe we'd have more of a change in the sense of people who didn't have as much education experience but maybe had more political experience," said Cousins, noting it's still too early to say how the board will act.
"I think public education is now in the political realm and that's what we're looking for."
Improving board communication with partner groups is key, she said.
"They need to hear back from who they're serving and I don't think there's been enough information coming," said Cousins, adding that increase in conversation is especially important since School District 57 is such a diverse district.
The school board should work harder to hear the needs of rural schools differ and address vulnerable populations, said Cousins, though she gave the board a good grade on transparency.
Prince George District Parent Advisory Council chair Sarah Holland said there's still some work to do on that front.
"I would like to see them build and expand on the work of the previous board when it comes to things like transparency and partnership with their various partner groups," she said.
Holland would like to see fewer in-camera meetings and for the meeting minutes to be available online and in a timely manner.
She also noted that despite the fact that meetings are broadcast online, it is difficult to track who voted for what.
Holland said the learning curve for the three new trustees is likely to be different from the last election, when the board had five new members.
"These are people who have some familiarity with how the school district works, so that should really help them get up to speed fairly quickly."
Holland invoked comments made by re-elected trustee Tim Bennett's Saturday that "there probably could have been two good boards with the candidates we had."
"I'm so pleased we did have that many people who were willing to put their name forward," she said of the 18 school board candidates. "I cannot help think an interest in education is healthy no matter what."
