Queens should retain school board seat

“Hearing some of the comments that were made tonight, we should make a very good argument for option A,” stated Boundary Review Committee Chair, Gary Mailman.

The meeting took place at Liverpool Regional High School. The board is required to review the number and boundaries of its elected school board seats every eight years. The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board, which will make the final decision, prefers the variance of voters per district be no higher than 10 per cent.

Options A and B were presented to the public during the lightly-attended, one-hour meeting.

Option A being they keep the 10 elected seats, with some minor changes, plus the at-large African Canadian member and First Nations’ member, said Mailman.

Since they still have three seats that do not meet the variance, they juggled numbers to come up with option B, he continued.

The second option “actually reduced the number of seats,” said Mailman.

The decision took into account things like declining student enrolment, he added.

People were concerned with option B because it would eliminate one of three seats in Queens County. “As it was pointed out tonight, a little more than 25 per cent of students in the South Shore Regional School Board come from Queens County,” said Electoral District 3 board member, Elliott Payzant. “So I think that we should at least expect 25 per cent of the elected school board representatives to come from Queens County.”

The school board will make a presentation to the review board by Jan. 31.

For more information visit www.ssrsb.ca.