Prince George, B.C. – An interesting mix.

That’s how Prince George District Parent Advisory Council chair Sarah Holland has reacted to the newly elected school board in District 57.

“We have four returning members and three new members. I did see a comment somewhere where one of the returning members said that he thought that you could put together two very good school boards from those who were standing and I have to agree with that.”

Moving forward she says she’ll be looking for greater communication and transparency from the board noting making their phone numbers and email addresses available to the public won’t cut it.

“That’s not transparency. It’s a whole culture of things like making your minutes accessible on the (district) website and in machine readable format.”

Holland says barriers in the district will surely push back against the idea but says “it’s important for the trustees to find a good balance between them.”

Prince George and District Teachers Association president Tina Cousins says she’s looking forward to working with the new board but is also hoping for better communication with them.

“Over the last six months we haven’t had good communication with our trustees. During our strike I think they felt they needed to be neutral but now is the time not to be neutral. It doesn’t necessarily have to be pro-teacher just pro-public education.”

Cousins also says she’s disappointed the school board race received far less attention than the mayor and council race did.

“I’m thinking it’s because not everyone has children in school and it’s not as high profile but it should be. And over the last year before the strike there hadn’t been a lot of information by the local media about school board meetings. But it’s important. It needs the public to be involved and to question what’s going on with our government.”