Taylor departs Catholic school board
Vice-chairperson to fill in; unclear if byelection will be called
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Simon Taylor has resigned his position on the Yellowknife Catholic School board of trustees after seven years in office.
He served as chairperson of the board for the past four years and had been re-elected to the board last fall.
"It's nothing very exciting, I'm just busy at work," Taylor said Monday. He runs Taylor Architecture Group, previously called Pin-Taylor Architects, in Old Town.
He resigned at the board meeting in June.
In a post on its website, the board thanked him "for all his hard work over the past seven years as a trustee and board chair."
Since the resignation, Miles Welsh has served as acting chairperson for the board that oversees the school district and approves the district's budget and policies.
The board discussed the resignation at a meeting July 13.
Welsh said the decision about how to fill a vacancy is decided by a majority of the board.
At the meeting, a motion to consider returning to the list of candidates who ran in the fall election was defeated, as was the option to hold a byelection.
The decision was made to put out an expression of interest for people to join the board, review the options and potentially appoint someone from those who apply, Welsh said.
Taylor shared some words with Yellowknifer about his time on the board.
"From the perspective of public service, it was interesting," Taylor said.
"There's very good people on the board and I got to work for and with ... a great constituency of parents and kids and I think it was very interesting and worthwhile."
Taylor, a self-described non-Catholic, went unchallenged for a second term as chair of the board during a meeting in November.
While prior to Taylor's time on the board the district had several controversies, his tenure largely passed without issue.
The district has been grappling with what to do with a coming space crunch, despite slightly lower enrolment the past year.
John Stephenson, chairperson of Yellowknife Education District No. 1, said he and Taylor had often talked about issues affecting both school districts. In 2014, when junior kindergarten was a major issue of concern for both boards, he said they often met to talk about it and how they'd approach the topic.
"I valued my very positive relationship with YCS through (Taylor) and look forward to discussions with Miles as the acting chair," Stephenson said.
