The Burnaby school board kicked off the post-election season by welcoming two new trustees and electing Larry Hayes for another year-long term as chair on Dec. 6. Baljinder Narang was re-elected as vice-chair.
In his inaugural speech, Hayes gave thanks to two trustees, Diana Mumford and Tony Coccia, who chose not run in the election and welcomed two new faces: Meiling Chia and Harman Pandher. The Burnaby Citizens Association took all seven school trustee seats in the Nov. 19 civic election.
"Certainly the public has shown us that status quo is pretty good," Hayes told the NOW. "(But) there's always room for improvement."
Hayes highlighted some items from the past three years of education in Burnaby, including an award for teaching the children of Tamil migrants held in the local youth prison and a new Mandarin language arts program for kindergarten students at Forest Grove Elementary.
Hayes also said the board wants to improve on its consultation process with the community.
As for local capital projects, six schools had seismic upgrades, six were expanded, Burnaby Central was replaced, and a new elementary school was built close to SFU.
For the years ahead, Hayes said the board is looking into the feasibility of reintroducing the International Baccalaureate program, which he described as a university-readiness program with very high international standards. The Burnaby schools district used to offer the program but stopped in 2002, because there was not enough interest.
"The dynamics of the community have changed, and certainly we want to take a look at it again," Hayes said, adding there are some kids who leave every year to take the program in other districts.
