As city council continues to debate a similar issue, the board of trustees for the School District of Mystery Lake (SDML) made a clear-cut decision regarding a resolution to trim their numbers down from seven to five.
During their March 13 meeting, the board voted 6–1 to keep their numbers the way they are, with trustee Ryan Land being the only one to get behind this idea in an official capacity.
Land introduced this resolution at a Jan. 30 board meeting, claiming that it could be used to reduce their expenses, which will come in handy since they will be going through some tough financial times over the next couple years.
This resolution also would have set a historical precedent, since SDML’s board of trustees has remained at seven members for at least the last 24 years.
However, after conducting some research of their own in the interim, several members of the current board felt that the amount of money they might save wouldn’t justify the intellectual diversity they would lose.
“I really like the fact that I look around the table and look at the representation we have from the community,” said trustee Elizabeth Lychuk. “And each one of us was elected for different things that we bring to the table. If we lost two people we would lose two different perspectives.”
Others were concerned that the committee structure would disappear with five members, which means all of the decision-making would fall on the shoulders of every single trustee.
Vice-chairperson Janet Brady explained that while her specialty is policy, she is usually at a disadvantage when it comes to financial issues, which is why the board usually relies on the members of finance committee to make those kinds of decisions for them.
“So we can’t be the master of all things, but I think we’re pretty good at seven and I won’t support going down to five,” she said.
Before the trustees officially cast their votes, Land made one last attempt to sway their opinion, reminding them of the tough decisions they will have to be making in the next couple years, especially when it comes to the status of something like their all-day kindergarten programs.
Land also rebutted the idea that the board’s alleged diversity is a good reason to vote against this resolution.
“I don’t think we are as diverse as we think we are. I don’t think our board, demographically, represents the population of Thompson, and I don’t think seven makes that any more probable than five.”
Finally, Land mentioned that going down to five members could make the board more “nimble” and streamlined in terms of their decision-making abilities.
“I wouldn’t say we’ve been remarkably efficient over the past number of years with our committee structure,” he said. “I think it’s actually been a little bit dysfunctional in terms of if you look at the number of scheduled meetings versus the number of meetings that happened, and the amount of actual business that happens through committees.”
In the end, the rest of the board weren’t convinced and voted against this resolution in its current form.
