Embattled school board has four newly elected trustees

Newly elected trustees at the Mountain View School Division, hope they can help end months of turmoil surrounding the school board.

Scott Lynxleg said the first step for him was getting elected.

“Hopefully we'll get together, work, see what's going on, and yeah, start building a better board and for the kids.” said Lynxleg.

Lynxleg was one of four trustee candidates who won a byelection Wednesday.

Floyd Martens, Conrad Nabess, and Jarri Thompson were the others.

Nabess, Lynxleg and Thompson identify as Indigenous.

The seats were vacant following a series of events that started in the spring.

In April, trustee Paul Coffey made a presentation to the board where he questioned the impact of residential schools.

“They were good, like, these are the good things that are essential for reading and writing and arithmetic, also enforcement at schools, school attendance," said Coffey in April.

The comments drew immediate backlash from Indigenous leaders, and the superintendent, whom the board later fired. Three trustees resigned and there was also an unrelated vacancy.

The province ordered a governance review and established an oversight committee to handle the fallout.

Thompson, the daughter of a residential school survivor, said she ran in part because of Coffey’s comments.

“So that kind of scared me, I thought, 'What if my daughter had to go through some of the things that I had to go through with racism,'” said Thompson.

Thompson and Lynxleg say they ran to bring change to the board, and are vowing to work with the existing members, while educating them.

"I don’t want to go into here and have conflict,” said Thompson. “I want to go in there and have unity. I want to hopefully bring a perspective that maybe they don't have."

"Imagine if your kids were there and there was no one to represent them?" said Lynxleg. “How would you feel? That's how I take it. I get very emotional."

Mountain View Teachers' Association President Chance Henderson said he is happy about the new trustees.

"I mean, our board right now has unprecedented diversity," said Henderson.

Henderson is optimistic about the board’s future.

"With the resignations on the board and all of that uncertainty, it has certainly been challenging for folks." 

CTV News reached out to Paul Coffey and the board chair, but have not heard back.