Clearwater resident Shelley Sim won the North Thompson seat on the School District 73 board during last Saturday's local elections, defeating Willow MacDonald of Blue River.
Preliminary results show Sim received 653 votes to MacDonald's 295.
Sim is taking the place of John Harwood, the longtime school trustee for the Clearwater-Blue River area. Harwood announced several months ago that, while he intended to seek another term as mayor, he did not plan to run again for school board.
“With the new challenge of being elected school trustee, I am excited to work to enhance the opportunities for our children and the classroom as well as addressing immediate needs within the schools,” Sim said. “Our economic vitality is tied closely to education. The voice of rural will be heard loud and clear in Kamloops.”
The newly elected trustee added that what she meant by economic vitality is that when people look at a community as a place to live or to invest, an important factor they look at is schools. They assess how their kids will do and whether or not it will be a good place to educate their children.
“If they don't have confidence in the school and the extracurricular offerings as well as the innovation within the classroom, they won't make the move or just the primary income earner will move and their family would live elsewhere,” Sim said. “We need to ensure academic excellence, commitment to ensuring that our students are receiving the support that they need and identifying skills that kids will need for their future. We need to promote the successes of our schools, to talk about the amazing skills that the kids have and the opportunities available to them.”
Sim has been a District of Clearwater town councillor for the past three years. She was re-elected to another term on town council on Saturday as well as to the school board.
Her challenger for the school trustee position, Willow MacDonald, has been Thompson-Nicola Regional District director for Thompson Headwaters (Area B) for the past three years. Although she was unsuccessful in her school board bid, MacDonald was re-elected as TNRD director on Saturday.
The North Thompson school trustee represents the Clearwater-Blue River area that was formerly School District 26 before amalgamation with Kamloops.
Rhonda Kershaw earlier was acclaimed to return as school trustee for the Barriere-Little Fort area.
Denise Harper was earlier returned by acclamation to represent the Chase area on the school board.
The Kamloops school trustees elected on Saturday were Joan Cowden, Kathleen Karpuk, Joe Small, Gerald Watson, Meghan Wade and Cara McKelvey.