Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows school board trustee Eleanor Palis has announced she will not be running for office again, bringing the total to four of seven trustees bowing out.
The three other trustees have not yet confirmed whether they will stand as incumbent candidates when voters go to the polls on Oct. 20.
Trustees Lisa Beare, Susan Carr and Ken Clarkson previously said they will not stand for re-election.
Palis, who announced her intentions this week, said she is leaving reluctantly as the district is on an upswing. Ten years ago, when she was first elected, the board was dealing with declining enrolments, controversial school closures and budget cuts.
In the coming term, the board will deal with the construction of a new school in Albion, and rising enrolments have reduced budget pressures.
“There are so many good things that are going to be happening,” she said. “It’s a different set of circumstances.”
Palis, who represented Pitt Meadows on the board, has already thrown away her election signs during housecleaning.
She alos has a full-time management position with a credit union.
“I simply do not have the available time that the position demands,” she said of being a trustee, and called leaving a “heavy heart decision.”
She noted her four children have also graduated, which cuts links she had to the school system.
“For me, I was already in schools a lot, and really getting to know what was going on in the system,” she said.
Palis, a former school board vice-chair, advised people who might be interested in running for trustee to attend some school board meetings, and get to know some of the people involved and the issues.