Donna Ziegler is the new Chair for a one-year term of the Regina Catholic School Division. She was acclaimed to the position at the Board’s annual organizational meeting held November 7 in the Catholic Education Centre Board Room. Rob Bresciani was acclaimed as Deputy chair and will also serve a one-year term.
Three new trustees elected in the October 26th civic election also took their seats. Robert Kowalchuk, Deb Bresciani, and Richard Dittrick, all retired former education administrators or teachers were elected in their first attempt to run as trustee candidates. Kowalchuk is former Education Superintendent with the Regina Catholic School Board and now serves as Director of Pastoral Services for the Archdiocese of Regina. Deb Bresciani retired at the end of June after serving for 27 years as an educator with Regina Catholic and Richard Dittrick retired after 30 years with Regina Catholic as teacher, school chaplain and his last 13 years as a school principal. The three filled vacancies left by Lisa Polk who decided not to run to concentrate on new responsibilities in her parish; Nicole Saurer who was elected an NDP MLA in the April provincial general election and Gerald Kiesinger who retired after a career that spanned some 37 years in education as teacher, education psychologist and trustee. Ziegler, Rob Bresciani, Vicky Bonnell and Frank Flegel were all re-elected to the seven-member Board of Trustees.
Ziegler, in a statement to the Prairie Messenger, said education is in interesting times given financial and growth challenges. “We have been meeting and exceeding the goals under the Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP, established by the Ministry of Education) and we have been prudent with our finances and currently have a balanced budget. Our challenge is to balance expectations of stakeholders in light of challenges and deliver the best practises possible given those challenges.”
Photo by: Rob Bredin of Regina Catholic School Division
