GETTING ACQUAINTED
Four new faces join the Vancouver School Board Dec. 5: Vision's Cherie Payne and Rob Wynen, and the NPA's Fraser Ballantyne and Sophia Woo.
. Cherie Payne: Payne attended Crofton House private school, earned a B.A. at McGill university and holds a law degree from Osgoode Hall. She ran a failed bid to be an NPA school trustee in 2002. She then worked for public relations firm Hill & Knowlton, but remained active in politics with the federal Liberals and did "renewal work" for the NPA. She moved to Ottawa to work as health minister Ujjal Dosanjh's legislative assistant in 2004, and later rejoined Hill & Knowlton in Ottawa as an account director in its health practice. She returned to Vancouver in 2009. Her most recent position was with a biotech company. She joined Vision in '09 and told the Courier "it seems more like home" during the campaign. Payne's parents are from the Caribbean. Her mother immigrated to Canada as a housekeeper, her father as a construction worker. They sent her to Crofton House because neither graduated from high school and weren't sure how to navigate the education system to ensure their children wouldn't be left behind. Their financial sacrifices
reinforced Payne's sense of the importance of public education.
. Rob Wynen: Wynen is a longtime activist. He sought a Vision park board nomination in 2008, but failed. He planned to run for a park board nomination with Vision this election. When Ryan Clayton dropped out of the school board nomination race for health reasons, Wynen stepped in. Wynen lives on the East Side, works in recreation and has a degree in kinesiology. He founded the West End Residents Association. Pet causes include cycling, pedestrian safety and park redesign. "[Vision Vancouver] knows the work that I've done in the past with school board. I've been a PAC chair for a number of years. I'm right now chair of the bicycle advisory committee and I've been working with [COPE] trustee Allan [Wong] and a number of engineers on creating safe cycling routes to school and walking routes," he told the Courier last June.
. Fraser Ballantyne: Ballantyne retired last February after a 35-year career with the VSB. During that time, he taught elementary and secondary school, worked as an ESL counsellor and was an administrator in five secondary schools across Vancouver. Prior to retiring, he was a human resource manager for the district, overseeing staffing, recruitment, hiring, labour relations and union grievances and arbitrations for secondary schools, district programs and adult education. In an email to the Courier last May, he said: "I'm an issues-oriented person as opposed to ideologically oriented. These days that seems moderate. I go into issues with an open mind, hear the facts and do what needs to be done. I will be moderate in my actions to do what is best but won't be on the corner screaming for 'a greater cause.' I will be fiscally responsible in a central right way and yet I have no problem with social issues such as gay marriages et al."
. Sophia Woo: Woo failed to win a school trustee seat in 2008. This election, the mental health clinician placed eighth with 55,890 votes. Woo, who earned one of the Chinese Association of Vancouver awards for Outstanding Chinese Women in 2007, is well connected in the Chinese community. She moved to Vancouver from Hong Kong in 1978 to study at Simon Fraser University and the University of Calgary. She holds a bachelor degree in sociology, a master's degree in social work, a post-graduate diploma in educational psychology and has been interested in public education for years.
"It's a natural fit between my own profession and school trustee. I'm a mental health clinician myself and I've been in the helping profession in all my career life," Woo said after being named one of the NPA's trustee candidates. Among her priorities are school safety, drug prevention, cyber safety and mental health. Woo can speak both Cantonese and Mandarin. (COPE's Allan Wong speaks most Cantonese dialects and is able to talk to parents, but wouldn't be comfortable speaking on TV or radio in technical terms).
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