Incumbents, McCrae, Rusnak, Hogan elected to school board

All five incumbent trustees seeking re-election to the Brandon School Division board were returned Wednesday evening, while three newcomers will join the board for the next four-year term.

Board chair Linda Ross led the unofficial results with 5,960 votes, followed by vice-chair Duncan Ross with 5,197, Kirk Carr with 5,156, Kim Fallis with 5,088 and Shawna Mozdzen with 4,843.

The three newcomers elected were Jim McCrae, with 4,344 votes, Brad Rusnak with 3,732 and Bill Hogan with 3,528.

Jay Mahida, who received 2,572 votes, and Hosteen Bungon, with 1,861, were unsuccessful.

The results represent a strong showing for the incumbent trustees, who had all expressed optimism but varying degrees of caution before the results were announced.

Linda Ross, who also led the 2022 election with 3,610 votes, said she was hopeful going into Wednesday’s vote but did not want to assume victory.

“I never count my chickens before they hatch,” she told the Sun before the unofficial results.

After being declared the leading candidate Wednesday night, Linda Ross said the results were encouraging for all of the returning incumbents.

“I think that indicates community support for the work that we’ve been doing, and it’s very encouraging,” she said.

Ross said the board’s immediate focus would turn to determining how provincial funding could support the division’s educational priorities.

“We’ll be very heavily into budget considerations and deliberations almost immediately,” she said.

Maintaining smaller class sizes, particularly in the early years, would remain an important objective, while the board would also have to consider the impact on local taxpayers, she said.

“Our mandate is to provide a good education for our kids, and that’s the most important thing that we’ll do,” she said.

The result was a significant endorsement from voters, Duncan Ross said.

“It’s obviously a huge vote of confidence,” he told the Sun. “I’m incredibly thankful that they put their trust in me for another four years.”

Duncan Ross received 2,654 votes in the 2022 election, finishing fourth among the eight successful candidates.

He said the results also demonstrated that voters were satisfied with the previous board’s work.

“I think the outgoing board was a very effective board and we all worked together and got things done, and I think that the results show that,” he said in an interview Wednesday night. “We were a good team, and I think that we’ll continue to be a good team.”

The next term will involve getting the new trustees familiar with the board’s work, he said.

“I’ll be putting my name forward for vice-chairman again, and so we’ll see if that happens,” he said.

Carr said he sees “a significant improvement” from his 2022 result, when he finished outside the top eight with 1,833 votes before he was elected in the 2023 byelection.

“I’m in shock that I came in so high in the vote,” Carr told the Sun. “I think it reflects the trust that was put into me three years ago, and that I’ve taken that trust and I’ve done a lot of hard work, and which represents what the people want within the board.”

He said the board’s immediate priorities would include the budget, consultations with parents and stakeholders, labour negotiations and aging school buildings.

“There’s a lot of work,” Carr said. “It’s time to put in the work.”

Kim Fallis also improved on her 2022 result of 2,474 votes.

Before the results were released, Fallis said she was optimistic after receiving positive feedback during the campaign and believed voters recognized the trustees as a strong team.

She said she welcomed the prospect of working with new trustees.

McCrae was the strongest of the newcomers, finishing sixth overall with 4,344 votes.

McCrae said his election meant a great deal to him after putting significant effort into the campaign.

“The people of Brandon deserve to have experienced representation, and I think I bring that to the table,” he said. “I certainly am grateful to more than 4,000 people who put their dot next to my name on their ballot. I am congratulating everybody that was successful, and those who tried.”

McCrae said he pledged to work in the interests of students, teachers and taxpayers.

“I’m not here to make trouble,” he said. “I’m here to do what’s best for the kids in our schools, to do a good job, to try to make teaching something that people want to do, and to do all of this with the taxpayers in mind every step of the way.”

The election was a learning experience, said Hosteen Bungon, who finished last with 1,861 votes in his first school board campaign.

“For me, it’s a learning curve,” Bungon told the Sun. “We learn all we’re going to learn and go for it again next time.”

The new board will also include acclaimed rural trustee Lorraine McConnell.

Total votes recorded in the unofficial results on Wednesday were 37,848, up from the 22,586 recorded in the official results of 2022.

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