Trustee Patti Bacchus elected chair

Vancouver, B.C. - (December 9, 2008) – Trustee Patti Bacchus was elected chair of the Board of Education of School District No. 39 (Vancouver) at the board’s inaugural meeting Monday.

“I want to thank my fellow trustees for giving me the privilege and responsibility of serving as board chair,” Bacchus said. “It is indeed an honour to sit among this group of individuals who bring such a breadth of knowledge, experience, perspective, passion and commitment to this table and for whom I have great respect.”

Bacchus is serving her first term as a trustee on the Vancouver Board of Education. A graduate of Point Grey Secondary school, the University of Victoria (political science) and Langara College (journalism), Bacchus is a long-time public education advocate with a background in communications and public relations and currently has two children enrolled in secondary school.

Before becoming a trustee, Bacchus served on Parent Advisory Council executives at her children’s schools and represented the Vancouver District Parent Advisory Council on the VSB’s Emergency Preparedness and Planning Committee and the Educational Facilities Review (Phase I). As the former coordinator of Vancouver Parents for Successful Inclusion, she has also been a member of the district’s Special Education Advisory Committee.

The next meeting of Vancouver’s Board of Education is Monday, Dec. 15 at 7 p.m., at which time appointments to the board’s standing committees and school liaisons will be announced.

- 30 -

For more information, contact:
Patti Bacchus, Board of Education chair – 604-250-1130
David Weir, VSB communications manager – 604-713-5074