Hanover School Division picks fresh face in board chair election

The Hanover School Division board trustees picked a new board chair and vice-chair on Tuesday.

Trustee Dallas Wiebe was voted to take the board’s top spot after winning the position over fellow trustees Brad Unger and Ron Falk. Jeff Friesen, the incumbent board chair, was selected as vice-chair.

This term is Wiebe’s fourth year on the board. Last year he was vice-chair during the previous term under Friesen. Tuesday’s vote marks the first time Wiebe will head the board.

“The division is growing, and we got to be thinking forward and thinking ahead,” Wiebe told reporters.

While his first year on the board was a “big learning curve,” he said the experiences working with the previous board chairs inspired him to enter the race. He hopes to strengthen the division in his term.

The first priorities for Wiebe are tackling the budget and the opening of the division’s newest Grade K-4 school, Parkhill School, he said. The school cost $39.7 million and will see its first students when classes begin on Thursday.

Wiebe didn’t say what his policy goals are for his term.

Friesen has held a seat on the board since 2022 and has previously been both vice-chair and chair.

He opted against running for chair again so he could spend more with his family, he said.

Friesen enjoyed working with Wiebe as chair and said they “filled each other’s gaps.”

“I think Dallas is a very strong leader and I think he’ll do very well at this,” Friesen said.

He encouraged Wiebe to run for chair, Friesen said.

He hopes to work with Wiebe to bring more agriculture education into the classroom and to establish more protocols and policies to share more information between former, current and future trustees.

“We need to find and tweak where we can do better,” he said.

The school board didn’t share how many votes Wiebe and Friesen received in the race.