Five new trustees to sit on city school board

Cindy Olsen

By GLEN ARGAN
WCR Editor
Edmonton

Marilyn Bergstra will be one of five new trustees on the Edmonton Catholic school board. But she's not taking a back seat to anyone.

"I am not at all intimidated by the fact that I haven't been on the board before," Bergstra said after the Oct. 15 civic election.

"If we're dedicated, I have no reservation about (there being five new trustees) at all."

Bergstra scored a landslide victory over former school administrator John Acheson in the southwest Ward 5.

She will be joined by other newcomers Cindy Olsen, Rudy Arcilla, Kara Pelech and Becky Kallal as well as incumbents Debbie Engel and Jim Urlacher on the Edmonton board.

Engel, Arcilla and Pelech were acclaimed to their positions on the board.

Bergstra said she knocked on more than 10,000 doors in her efforts to win a seat. She learned the issues and she worked hard at getting her views to eligible voters.

Marilyn Bergstra

"I had the opportunity to connect with the community."

Watch the budget

She pledges to be diligent in going over the school district budget so that as much money as possible gets into the classroom, especially to help special needs students.

Olsen beat Joe Filewych and former trustee Jim Shinkaruk in the northeast Ward 3 by knocking on nearly 4,000 doors. "I just got up every morning and did what I could," she said. "I was amazed" by the result.

"I have a lot of respect for the candidates who were running in the race with me. It was good to be running against worthy opponents."

As for her term on the school board, "It's going to be an exciting and challenging three years," Olsen said. "It's going to be a lot like the campaign. You just get up in the morning and do the best you can do that day."

The district faces many challenges, including getting a fairer share of revenues from the province and building new schools to accommodate a rapidly growing population, she said.

Urlacher delighted

Urlacher said he's delighted to be back on for his third term on the board. "It'll be a whole new ballgame with people settling in and getting their feet wet."

The biggest problem the district faces is that it received only a three-per-cent increase in funding from the province over last year when all its costs are increasing by more than that, he said.

"We have a problem there and I don't know what the government is going to do about it."

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