British Columbia

Patti Bacchus ousted as Vancouver School Board chair

Vision Vancouver's Patti Bacchus has been replaced by newly-elected NPA trustee Christopher Richardson.

Christopher Richardson has been elected new chair

Vancouver School Board Chair Patti Bacchus was replaced by Christopher Richardson at a meeting Monday night. (CBC)

Vision Vancouver's Patti Bacchus has been ousted as the chair of the Vancouver School Board and been replaced by newly-elected NPA trustee Christopher Richardson.  

The change comes after Vision Vancouver lost control of the school board during the November civic elections, which saw the election of four Vision trustees, four NPA trustees and one Green trustee.

Bacchus was re-elected, but she did not hold on to her position as chair at a meeting Monday night. 

She has been the chair since 2008, when she was first elected as a trustee. Under her tenure, the board has opened its first Aboriginal-focused school of choice and an early Mandarin bilingual program, and expanded the Montessori programming and the first primary International Baccalaureate Program.

New NPA chair 

Christopher Richardson has been elected as the new chair of the Vancouver School Board (Screen grab)

Richardson, the newly elected board chair, was the last of nine trustees to be voted in during the election last month. 

He promised to improve school resources for students with learning issues during the campaign.

According to his campaign bio, Richardson is a chartered accountant and has served three times as a Vancouver Park Board Commissioner.