*********Draft Timeline will be considered or voted on in January. *********
New Chesterfield County School Board Members will be taking their seat behind the dais in mid-January and were sworn in this week. While two experienced Board members will know how to negotiate the labyrinth of bureaucracy; the three new members will need to learn the ropes.
New members of the Board; John Erbach, Dale District; Rob Thompson, Matoaca District; Javaid Siddiqi, Midlothian District, will join existing members: Carrie Coyner, Bermuda District and Dianne Smith, Clover Hill.
“All new Board members have a lot to learn, I still learn something new every day,” Carrie Coyner said, who is one of two veteran Board Members. “We will work together as a team to identify Board member strengths and capitalize on those. Team work gets the job done at the end of the day.”
John Erbach, who was elected to serve the Dale District on the School Board, has hit the ground running.
“Currently, I’m focused on spending as much time getting to know each school in Dale, building working relationships with each principal and their staff,” Erbach said. “As we move forward with the budget, the superintendent search, and capital improvements, it’s critical that we understand the unique needs of each school.”
Erbach said, there are a number important issues to tackle early on as new Board Members work with veteran members. The Capital Improvement Program (CIP) continues to be schmoozed and examined, the search for a new school superintendant could get intense and as school boundaries are considered, principals will be invaluable.
“My goal, for the next term as the Bermuda representative, is to continue to advocate for the needs of our older schools and to promote fair and equitable school boundary lines through the redistricting process, focusing on neighborhood elementary schools to build stronger schools and communities. I will also be focusing on teacher salaries and finding additional revenue streams to address compensation,” Coyner said.
All School Board Members were sworn in on Dec. 15.
The first meeting in 2016 is Jan. 12 and at that meeting the board will set its calendar for the rest of the year.
The Board will also vote to determine the next chairman of the School Board on Jan 12.
