New leadership for local public school board

Lucille Kyle (right), the newly elected chair of the Hastings Prince Edward District School Board, and new vice-chair Dave Patterson. Photo by James Gaughan, QNet News

By James Gaughan   

BELLEVILLE – Lucille Kyle was unanimously elected the new chair of the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board on Monday night.  

Kyle, who represents North Hastings on the board, has been a trustee for six years and has most recently served as vice-chair. 

She said she was approached by her colleagues and asked to run for the position and felt comfortable in stepping up.

“I’ve definitely had it in the back of my head in the past six years. I’ve worked hard to be involved in as much as I could to get to this place,” she said.

Her main goal for the coming year is simple: “I want to focus on student success and doing it as best as we can as a board,”  

Kyle becomes chair at a time when the future of 11 schools within the board is up in the air. The board is currently looking into closing them, as well as merging nine other schools.

Public input will be key in determining what happens to those schools in the next few months, she told QNet News in an in interview following the meeting at the school board’s headquarters in Belleville 

“It’s going to be hard. And we are going to listen to the community and other partners as to what they think is best,” she said.    

Taking over from Kyle as vice-chair is the trustee for Belleville-Thurlow, Dave Patterson.

He agreed with Kyle about the need for the community to provide feedback on the potential school closures and mergers.  

“We are definitely committed to have public input. That will come forward though the ARC process,” he said, referring to what the board calls accommodation review committees for the schools. “At the end of the day we’ll have to make a decision.”

Both Kyle and Patterson said they are looking forward to hearing from the public in the coming months about the issue.