Chair of Lester B. Pearson School Board takes leave of absence

Suanne Stein Day, chair of the Lester B. Pearson School Board, is taking a personal leave of absence from her duties.

"[It's] forpersonal reasons, which I'd rather not discuss at this time. I'd like to keep my private life private," Stein Day told CBC in a telephone interview.

Stein Day will be gone for an undetermined amount of time.

"I don't think we're talking days or weeks. I think it will be months," she said. "Thefutureis unknown at this point in time, but if everything works out ... I am committed to the board and to do the job I was elected to do."

During her absence,vice-chair NoelBurkewill serve as the board's acting chair.

"We wish her well," said Burke in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon.

Stein Day said some of her colleagues have reached out to her since the announcement.

"I've heard from a few of them wishing me well,not all of them, but several have reached out to me."

Calls for resignation

Stein Day's personal leave of absence comes several months after calls for her resignation for breaching the board's code of ethics although Stein Day insists that's not why she's stepping aside.

• Public confronts head of Lester B. Pearson after ethics scandal
• Lester B. Pearson School Board holds closed-door meeting after ethics breach

"It is not related to that whatsoeverThe decision was mine mine alone based on advice from family, friends and others not related to the board," she said.

Last October, the board held a closed-door meeting to discuss how a commissioner was found guilty of breaching the board's code of ethics on three separate occasions. The person was said to have shared private information and not shown respectful behaviour toward colleagues.

By November, Stein Day admitted she was the commissioner who had beenfound to have violatedthe board's code of ethics although she didn't think she was guilty and said her breaches were "not criminal or immoral in any way."

She refused to step down, despite calls for her resignation.

At the time, Burke said the commissioners unanimously supported Stein Day.