The first Hanover School Division council meeting of the new term was held Tuesday night as the four incumbents and five new HSD Trustees met all together for the first time. There were introductions and formalities including electing a head of the board.  

The trustees elected Ron Falk as chair and Brad Unger as their vice chair.  

Falk has been an HSD Trustee for 30 years now and board chair for 13 (not consecutively), and in that time he’s seen a lot of faces around the table, but not as many new faces, all at once. 

Ron Falk, Hanover School Division board chairRon Falk, Hanover School Division board chair

“That's the majority of the board, so that's a pretty big shift, that's a big change. I think the trustees are just looking for some stability and someone, maybe, who knows the direction we're headed, you know, has some history and, but yeah, it's going to be a pretty big learning curve.”  

The Hanover School Division Trustee incumbents are Ron Falk, Brad Unger, Danielle Funk, and Lynn Barkman. While the newest acclaimed trustees are Dallas Wiebe and Jeff Friesen for Ward 1, Cheryl Froese for Grunthal, and newly elected Charmaine Toews and Shayne Barkman representing Ward 2.   

Falk says it might take a bit of time to get to know each other, but he already senses there is a great deal of enthusiasm among the new trustees.  

“They want to make a difference, they want to be involved in public education and those are fantastic attributes, when people want to be involved in the community like that. Education is so very important for the success of every student in Hanover and for creating a positive teaching environment in our schools. And so, all these new trustees come on with that perception and those ideals and they want to help make it an even better place.” 

Looking back at the previous HSD board members, at the end of their terms, they all knew each other very well. That said, “It doesn't mean we always agreed on absolutely everything, because a board that always agrees on everything probably isn't really a great board. But we had a very good consensus on virtually all topics and although there were disagreements at times, like I mentioned, coming through those difficult last two years brought the board together for sure. It kind of solidified the ideals that we want to move forward and move beyond it.”  

Falk says, “We're just so, so grateful that we can kind of look at this, hopefully in the rearview mirror and say, you know? Yeah, there are some takeaways, and probably some good things that happen, but you know what? We're just really, really excited that we can do musicals again. We can have choir and band concerts. We can do sports and have the place filled with spectators and we're just excited to get back to regular learning and education.” 

The Hanover School Division Trustees meet on the first Tuesday evening of the month in the HSD Administration Office in Steinbach. The next one is on December 6. However, the new board will be kept plenty busy this month with orientation meetings, a Board/PAC liaison meeting on November 22 and the Manitoba School Board Association Fall General and Regional Meetings.