Hard Days Night

You have to love local politics. In addition to having to govern while also running for election (other levels dissolve during the election period), we also have two weeks of meetings after the election. Its like reality politics having to sit through three hours of meeting less than 48 hours after youve lost an election.

But before I report on the board meeting, I have to thank the hundreds of people who have sent emails and phoned over the past few days. Its been another very humbling experience for me in my journey as a rookie elected official to receive such stunning support from so many people, even in defeat.

For those that I havent personally been able to reply to yet, I want to let you know that although I am personally disappointed, my real heartbreak is to see the progressive majority lost at the board. It was an incredible group of people that came together at the exactly the right time, when public education needed such courageous and principled defenders. We didnt always agree on everything in fact we often didnt agree on anything at the outset but we took the time to listen and come to consensus with respect for each other and out of a shared commitment to the institution of public education.

To lose such a powerful force as simply collateral damage in the fallout from the split at council is more than heartbreaking. Yesterday I had a look at the poll by poll results and its clear that NPA voters chose a mayor and then worked down the slate. In the absence of a mayor of their own, its a miracle anyone from COPE survived and for someone in a small party like me it would likely have been impossible in these circumstances.

Nonetheless Im very proud of the work Ive been able to do on behalf of children and families in these last three years and the many positive changes that have happened at the district. Im also very proud of the campaign my team ran this election. Thanks to their efforts, I received almost exactly the same number of votes as I did in the last election, it just turned out not to be enough this time around.

So the board meeting. On the whole, it was pretty much committee report outs on everything from the many sustainability initiatives underway to French immersion to the status of several capital projects. Unfortunately only one of the newly elected NPA folks came to hear the reports. Tradition is that new trustees come to these meetings so that they can get up to speed and provide some sort of seamless transition for the sake of stability (also the reason we go through the torture of post-election board meetings). Hopefully theyve taken the time to check it out on the web site at the least. One thing Ive learned in the last three years is that there is nothing as hard on the school system as instability.

We did pass a couple of motions, a basket of which involved approving specific architects and engineers for three different capital projects and another one which involved changing the policy which currently only allows any one consultant (ie. engineer, architect) to only be involved on any one capital project at any given time. The latter motion is a lot about the way projects get pulled together these days (ie. the team is a bunch of different consultants who may each do specialized pieces) but also the fact that we are about to go through a pretty hefty capital budget with the seismic upgrades (and again there are only so many consultants who work in seismic upgrades in the city).

It seemed like a pretty anticlimactic set of housekeeping motions to be the last well likely pass as a board, but almost as if on cue Trustee John Cheng piped up with one of his patented inane comments to leave me with a smile and an indelible memory of my time on the board.

Cheng was raising objections to the latter motion citing concerns that if we allowed more than one consultant to work on a project, over time all our business would be pork-barrelled out to some mega-firm. He was working up a bit of a head of steam about it, suggesting we should consult the BC Architects Institute and see what they had to say about and flustering a bit at the microphone.

The piece that he seemed to forget was that by statute were legally required already to approve each and every consultant we use on a project to avoid exactly the problem he was talking about. In fact wed just finished doing exactly that. So the issue wasnt whether there would be some shadowy back room deal but rather whether wed be able to effectively meet construction timelines on all these seismic upgrade over the next 15 years (still crossing my fingers for 10 years) when were competing with Olympics and RAV constructions happening in the same time frame.

I guess he could be forgiven since he missed the committee meeting at which the issue was discussed, but youd think after 15 years on the board he wouldnt need a first term trustee to point out procedures that have been in place for longer than he has and that wed just used second earlier to pass the first basket of motions. Ah-yoy! He has a wonderful sense of comedic timing, albeit unconscious.

My sincere hope is that his NPA colleagues burn a little brighter and that the community maintains the high expectations of this school board that we've asked them to have of us so that the last three year's progress can continue to be built on by parents, teachers, administrators, students, support staff and others, regardless of the board in power.

Thank you again for the emails and I do intend to be in touch personally over the next week or so. Youre also welcome to attend the final meeting of the board on December 5, a largely ceremonial affair that involves both the good byes of the outgoing board and the swearing in of the incoming board. Moral support is greatly appreciated and possibly even necessary. Another new experience...

Comments

[Tom Wong]

Andrea,

My last child is at Gladstone, following her three siblings. Our liason trustee is Mr. John Cheng. All four went to McBride.

We are sorry to see you go, although we voted for all the progressive candidates, we were swamped by the right-wing.

My family has four children who went through the Vancouver school system. I personally have fought through the school system for about 20 years for my children.

I hope that you wlll put yourself forward for the next election in 2008.

Good luck.

[Chris Harris]

Ms. Reimer,

As a Vancouver teacher I appreciated all your hard work for the students in our public schools. I enjoyed reading this site throughout your time at the VSB and I will miss your insight. You must know that you made a difference. All the best, and I hope you'll be back!

Sincerely,
Chris Harris

[Jane Bouey]

Andrea Reimer was an outstanding trustee who had the full support of her COPE trustee collegues. It was an honour to work with her for the past three years. I truly believe that if we had municipal electoral reform and better (even some would be nice) media coverage of education issues, Andrea would have been re-elected. She certainly deserved to be.

[Dorothy-Ann]

We're very proud of what you've worked hard to accomplish. Learn from the past and go forward with the same courage and enthusiasm.

[Charles Menzies]

Dear Andrea,

I know that I was not alone to be disapointed in your election loss. Not only did you loose, but we all lost something in your election defeat. You and your fellow progressives on school board made a real difference in how things worked during these past three years.

With warm regards,

Charles Menzies

[Julianne Doctor]

Andrea;
I am mourning the loss of you as one of our school trustees. The work you've pulled off is phenominal, given the tight resources. It has been a pleasure working with you, and I hope you'll be back next time to kick some stuffy trustee butt!

[Fan-Hsin Kung]

Now that she is ready to step down from the school board, this website will soon lose its meaningfulness. But lucky for you, the employment rate in BC just hit record low, shouldnt take long before you get a new job.

Best of Luck
Fan-Hsin Kung