New North Eastern Interim Board meets

The Board’s new interim membership, consisting of four Transferor, two Trustee and three teacher representatives who served during the previous Board’s four and a half year term which ended in December, met for the first time at the end of January.

The body will cover the transitional period until a 23-member Board can be established by the Department of Education.

That Board in turn will serve until the Government is in a position to set up the Education and Skills Authority.

The interim arrangements resemble the position which existed for a six month period in 1973 when a ‘shadow’ Board was set up and met in April but was not fully operational until political representatives from the nine councils in the North East joined the body in October of that year, following local government elections.

The nine Councils in the area will each nominate two representatives from which the Education Minister will select one to serve on the new 23 member Board.

The previous North Eastern Board complements had 14 political representatives out of 35 members in total.

Back to serve on the Board is former Board Chairman and current President of the Association of Northern Ireland Education and Library Boards’ Rev Selwoode Graham who was elected Chairman of the new interim Board.

He is joined by fellow Transferors Rev Trevor Jamieson, previously Chairman of the Board’s Education Committee (Children and Young People), Rev Canon Terry Scott and Muriel Crockett.

The returning Trustees representatives are former school principals Una Duncan and Liam Raven while the three teacher representatives are Uel McCrea, previously Chairman of the Board’s Education Committee (Schools), Stewart Polley and Robert Thompson.