Secretary-treasurer leaving school district
With the New Westminster school district scrambling to recover past deficits, trying to ensure it won't have one for the current year and to avoid further shortfalls in the future, its secretary-treasurer is departing.
Board of education chair Michael Ewen announced in a brief statement Friday that Brian Sommerfeldt, who had been on sick leave, is leaving the district to pursue other opportunities.
Citing the decision as a personnel matter, Ewen would not comment beyond saying the board thanks Sommerfeldt for his contribution and wishes him success in his future endeavours.
He added the board has not met to discuss replacing Sommerfeldt, who has been on sick leave for the past few weeks.
Sommerfeldt was hired in 2009 to replace Doug Wong, who was demoted to assistant secretary treasurer in January of that year following an $890,000 deficit in for 2008-09. The district did not renew Wong's contract when it ended in October 2009.
Before joining New Westminster he had been working in Langley, which had an $8 million deficit in 2008-09.
The New Westminster board is in the process of eliminating its projected deficit of $2.2 million for the 2012-13 school year. The district began the year with an accumulated shortfall of $2.8 million and is working with the Ministry of Education to recover that deficit. The board has also been advised it needs to make changes to avoid future deficits.
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