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Grade 12 Pender Harbour Secondary student Maribeth Haines is the new student rep on the school board.
Photo submitted
The trustees of School District No. 46 (Sunshine Coast) are very pleased to welcome Maribeth Haines to the role of student trustee for the 2016/2017 school year. She was sworn in on Oct. 12 at the regular meeting of the Board in Gibsons.
Our most sincere consultation efforts do not always reach the heart of the students’ daily interaction with education. Direct student input will add depth and perspective to Board discussions as the district ensures excellence in education for all of our students.
Maribeth Haines has been a student in the Sunshine Coast School District since Kindergarten, attending Halfmoon Bay Elementary and Madeira Park Elementary Schools and currently is in Grade 12 at Pender Harbour Secondary School. Her interests include performing arts (piano, saxophone and clarinet), written arts, volunteering in the community, reading and sports. She has played on a soccer team for a few years and basketball for many. Maribeth hopes to pursue a teaching degree so she can stay in high school forever (as a high school teacher).
“I would like to thank my mentors, teachers, Patrick Bocking and all the students from the DSLT (District Student Leadership Team) for supporting and nominating me to be the new student trustee. It is a great honour and I am excited for what this year will bring,” she said.
In order to properly support our student trustee, we have established a District Student Leadership Team, which includes students from all of our high schools. This team will help the student trustee to understand issues that are relevant and important to our student body and to provide a venue for student discussion and support. Students Maribeth Haines and Julian Chiasson (Pender Harbour Secondary School), Pearl Deasey and Miya Wells (Chatelech Secondary School), Shelly Paulus and Claire Sheehy (Elphinstone Secondary School) and Liam Bjaanes and Zoey Waterston (Sunshine Coast Alternative School) are members of this Team that meet monthly with the superintendent.
This initiative on the Sunshine Coast is a very important practical step in our district and in our province to show that students have a voice that deserves to be heard. Submitted
