Two-term Yk1 trustee calls it quits
Three board members not running again
Simon Whitehouse
Northern News Services
Saturday, September 12, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A longtime Yellowknife politician called it quits Wednesday night in what school board chair John Stephenson called "an historic event" for the city.
Blake Lyons, a trustee with Yellowknife Education District No .1, announced at the board meeting Tuesday that he will be not be running for a third term in next month's school board elections. - Simon Whitehouse/NNSL photo
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Blake Lyons, who is completing his second three-year term as trustee for Yellowknife Education District No. 1, told fellow trustees at Yk 1's first board meeting of the school year that after a more than 30 years working in key positions in local education and at city hall, he decided it was time to retire from local politics.
"I'm 74 years old and I have a whack of grandchildren and four children and it is the time when you want to visit them and make sure they are taking care of themselves," he said. "As a parent, you never really stop.
"There are a few other organizations that I might help with but with the school board there are wonderful people there and I think they will do a wonderful job in the future."
Lyons was a long-time city councillor before winning a seat on the school board in 2009. He defeated in the 2006 municipal election after a nearly two-decade reign that began in 1988.
Lyons served as executive director of the NWT Teachers Association from 1980 to 1999 and was executive director of the Nunavut Teachers Association from 1999 to 2006. He also occupied board positions with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the NWT Association of Communities.
"I have had the chance to travel around the North and really enjoyed it but it is a young man's game," Stephenson said he thought Lyon's accomplishments were a significant announcement given the amount of commitment he has shown over the years.
"Blake made an historic statement that he wouldn't be continuing and I was quite moved by that statement because I knew the significance of that for him," Stephenson said.
It was announced during the school board meeting that two other trustees will not be returning. Heather Clarke moved to Edmonton with her family, while Mira Hall resigned after getting an education assistant job with Yk 1.
Nominations for trustee opened Sept. 4 and will continue until Sept. 21.
