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SD42 school trustee elected to BCSTA

Mike Murray was elected to the B.C. School Trustees Assocation this past weekend
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(THE NEWS/files) Mike Murray has been elected to the board of directors for the B.C. School Trustee Association.

Mike Murray has again been elected to the board of directors for the B.C. School Trustee Association.

The vote took place this past weekend during the 115th annual general meeting of the BCSTA in Richmond, where the association’s membership elected the 2019/20 Board of Directors.

Murray, a Maple Ridge school board trustee, has been selected to chair the finance committee.

“I’m very thankful that the membership felt that we were doing a good enough job and thought we should be able to continue and of course,” Murray said of his most recent appointment.

“I consider it a privilege to serve the entire province and I think that helps me do a better job on behalf of our own community as well.”

Murray was also elected to the B.C. association last year and is former chair of the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows board.

Murray said the BCSTA is an advocacy group for school boards across the province, taking resolutions to the provincial government in the hopes of influence policy to benefit students.

B.C. directors serve one year, but longer terms are being considered.

As chair of the capital working group, Murray would like to see school boards no longer fund portable classrooms from operating budgets. He wants to see money go into classrooms and education rather than interim facilities.

He also wants to see a complete review of the area standards for schools, so when the percentage of usage for a school is calculated to demonstrate its capacity, child care facilities are also considered.

“If we were to add child care facilities or facilities that we have already have in some schools for daycares, then we would be able to move forward with the justifications for new schools more quickly and still meet the government’s goals of having child care available across our communities,” Murray added.

He would also like changes to school site acquisition charges, which he said have never gone up even though land values have. That means the B.C. government has to come up with additional money to purchase land for new school sites, he added.

“These are very specific things but they literally mean millions of dollars and allowing us to move forward with the kinds of enhancements that we believe are necessary.”



mailto:cflanagan@mapleridgenews.com

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Colleen Flanagan

About the Author: Colleen Flanagan

I got my start with Black Press Media in 2003 as a photojournalist.
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