Rhema's board welcomes two
new members
Monday, May 28, 2007 -- Jennifer Higgs
Rhema Christian School’s board welcomed two new members during their annual spring membership meeting last Thursday.

Parents Christine Leney and Tracey-Ann VanBrenk will take their seats on the board in August. Both parents express their reasons for joining the board, which meets monthly at the school.

Leney and VanBrenk share interest in helping the school’s resource department and community building.

“In order to affect change, I have to be involved,” says Leney.

“And that was what I wanted to see; there’s some key issues in the school that I’m interested in and the best way to make things happen is to be involved.”

Leney plans to focus on the school’s resource department. She says, as a parent with a child who has special needs, she has witnessed the resource department evolve over the past five years.

“I’ve watched it evolve and have been able to be a part of that change as well, and I think as we bring more students into the school we need to educate our staff more, we need to educate our students and our parents more – the issues are just around having children who have excessive needs.”

Leney has experience on Rhema’s finance committee, and says this continues to be an area of interest.

“We go through a lot of financial situations and I’m interested in finding the balance between cost coverage and affordable Christian education for our families,” she says.

Leney also says she hopes to be involved with Christian stewardship.

“We are lighthouses in the community and we can’t just focus on the internal issues,” she says.

VanBrenk admits when she was asked to stand for the board, she took some time to deliberate. She says for her, it is both a duty and a privilege to serve on the board.

“It’s really easy to sit on the sidelines and sort of talk about things or observe, but it’s also really important to get involved,” she says.

VanBrenk shares the vision of community building.

“What does (community) mean on the ground, what does that mean in terms of class size, what does that mean in terms of living with students with special needs,” she says.

“It could mean more money poured into special needs, it could mean students living with special needs students and learning what that means to love each other in community. There’s a lot of ways – it doesn’t mean just one area.”

VanBrenk says she’d like to explore how churches in the community and Rhema can interact. She says church involvement and awareness is dear to her heart to hear “the full body of God.”

VanBrenk says she feels it is an honour and privilege to be on the board. She would like to ask for support in prayer for the board.