Whitbourne school advocate Wade Smith defeats chair in English School District election

The chair of the Newfoundland and Labrador English School Districtwas defeatedTuesday by the leader of an organization fighting to keepWhitbourneElementary open.

Wade Smith, chairof the HelpWhitbourneElementary Committee,won the Zone 12 vote in the province-wide school board elections with 653 votes. Peach's 228 votes placed him third to Hayward Blake.

Smith told the St. John's Morning Show on Wednesday that he was elated to have won.

"We had a real strong group here that tried to put things together to get people out [to vote]," he said.

Smith, acknowledging he now represents students and parents at more than justWhitbourneElementary,said he won't be a one-issue candidate.

"The next thing to do is to meet with the other trustees and see what their thoughts [are] on what the education system should look like," he said.

Tuesday's schoolboardelection was the first since the province's four Englishschool boards were consolidated in2013, and trustees appointed by the government of that day.

• Liberals committed to holding school board elections within 12 months

The appointed school board was focused more on budgets than on students, said Smith.

"We need to get the basics down. We've lost this over the years," he said. "I think large classes is not the way to go. We need to keep class sizes down, give the teachers the opportunity to look at the students, make the schools inclusive, accessible and safe."

ButWhitbourne'sfate is still something that needs to discussed, he said. The outgoing school trusteesvoted in Septemberto close the elementary school.

"When a wrong is done, we need to look at it, and that's exactly one of the things I'm hoping that we're going to do," Smithsaid.

Other results

In other election results, Peter Whittle, the former president of the provincial federation of school councils who resigned in September, won Zone 16 with 390 votes in a field of five candidates, beating second placeJennDeon's284, with one poll remaining to be counted.

Here arethe school district's unofficial results as of 6a.m. Wednesday,(an asterisk denotes a candidate who was acclaimed, bold denotesincumbent):

Newfoundland and Labrador English School District

• Zone 1: No candidate ran
• Zone 2: *Goronwy Price
• Zone 3: Lester Simmons
• Zone 4: *Scott Burden
• Zone 5: Bruce Cluney
• Zone 6: Wayne Lee
• Zone 7: Thomas Kendell
• Zone 8: *John George
• Zone 9: Winston Carter (one poll pending)
• Zone 10: Corey Parsons
• Zone 11: *Hilary Primmer
• Zone 12: Wade Smith
• Zone 13: Kevin Ryan
• Zone 14: Jennifer Aspell (two polls pending)
• Zone 15: Keith Culleton
• Zone 16: Peter Whittle (one poll pending)
• Zone 17: John Smith

Results from the Conseil scolaire francophone provincial de Terre-Neuve-et-Labradorare not yet available.