A couple of votes were required and in the end, the South East Cornerstone School Division had changes at the governance table last Thursday afternoon.
Harold Laich was elected chairman of the board of trustees, outpolling incumbent chairwoman Carol Flynn in an election of the peers around the trustee table.
Audrey Trombley then became vice-chairwoman, taking over from the incumbent Pam Currie after another vote.
Following the recent civic elections which led to the appointment of a new board of trustees for Cornerstone, there was a requirement to reorganize the board and make any changes they desired in terms of trustee remuneration and committee representation.
Marc Casavant, director of education for the division, served as temporary chairman for the reorganizational meeting and called for nominations for chair. Flynn allowed her name to stand for reappointment and Weyburn trustee Len Williams nominated Laich, the trustee for Subdivision 2, as the challenger. After nominations ceased, both candidates were asked to make a brief presentation as to why they felt they should be in that leadership position. Laich, who was unable to attend the meeting, made his pitch via an audio conference setup.
Shelley Toth, chief financial officer for the school division, acted as returning officer and called for a secret ballot with Laich casting his ballot online directly to Toth. When the tally came in, she said that Laich had won the position by a count of 6-3 with one trustee/voter leaving their ballot blank.
When the call came for vice-chair, Currie indicated she was willing to serve again and Williams then nominated Trombley who had been chairwoman of the board prior to Flynn's election.
The same process was followed and when Toth tallied the votes, it ended in a 5-5 tie and protocol then called for one name to be pulled in a random draw and Trombley's surfaced, which made her the new vice-chairwoman.
While making the nominations from the floor, Williams explained that "this is not a personal thing at all, I simply feel that an occasional change is healthy for everyone."
He went on to note that he felt Flynn's leadership capabilities were not being questioned and she has served the division very well, but perhaps it was time to change things up and he cited the same reasoning when nominating Trombley to challenge Currie for the vice-chair's position.
Since he was not physically present to assume the chairman's duties, Laich asked Flynn if she would simply carry on in the role she was familiar with for the remainder of the meeting and she complied.
Other changes around the table were noted as well. Even though Garry Hammett had defeated Subdivision 4 incumbent Kevin Keating in the polls, Keating returned to the Cornerstone table as the trustee for Subdivision 3 as a replacement for Daryl Harrison who announced that he was retiring prior to the election. The call for nominations in Subdivision 3 for the late October civic elections resulted in no names coming forward to replace Harrison so following his defeat, Keating answered the recall for nominations in the neighbouring subdivision and his was the only name submitted for the second round, so he was declared elected by acclamation. Keating told the Mercury he enjoyed the work and in reality, Subdivision 3, which includes schools in Carievale, Carnduff and Redvers, was actually closer to where he lives anyway compared with Subdivision 4 (Alameda, Oxbow, Lampman and Bienfait) which is now represented by Hammett whom he had defeated in the general election three years earlier.
A new face at the table was Elwood White who outpolled four contenders for the Subdivision 6 seat, including incumbent Bruce Wagner. White, a Pangman area resident, will represent schools in Gladmar, Oungre, Ogema, Pangman, Radville and Yellow Grass.
Estevan will continue to be represented by Currie along with Janet Foord who is now president of the Saskatchewan School Boards Association and is Saskatchewan's delegate to the Canadian School Boards Association.
On the indemnity question, Cornerstone stayed in the middle of the pack compared with pay scales in other school divisions around the province by giving themselves a modest increase of $5 per meeting. Each trustee now receives $225 for each meeting of four hours or more they attend on school division business. Less than that allows them half that amount. They each receive an additional $225 per month, representing one per diem devoted to work done outside of formal meetings. The chairman receives two additional per diems per month to compensate for the extra time involved in carrying out that job. One-third of the per diems are determined to be non-taxable.
Other compensation allowances for meals, accommodation and travel remained the same, which means they are similar to provincial government rates.
Only minor changes were made to the various committee appointments and it was noted that while the trustees are now serving four-year terms, the reorganizational setups are carried out each year.
