Election Night News ~ by Mary P Brooke
Sunday, October 21, 2018 ~ WEST SHORE.
The results for the election of Sooke School District 62 (SD62) school trustees were not officially available until around 1 am on Sunday morning, October 21.
While the larger municipalities used auto-scanners for reading the ballots after the close of voting at 8pm on Saturday, October 20, in Metchosin the ballots were counted by hand.
As well, results needed to be combined from five other municipalities (Langford, Colwood, Sooke, View Royal and Highlands) as well as Juan de Fuca. All of this held up announcement of the SD62 trustee winners, keeping some trustee candidates up into the wee hours of Sunday morning.
The SD62 board has seven (7) seats. Returning to the SD62 board (number of votes) are Ravi Parmar (5,760), Dianna Seaton (4,690), Wendy Hobbs (4,669), Margot Swinburnson (2,374), and Bob Phillips (2,282). New to the SD62 board are Bob Beckett (4,920) and Allison Watson (2,380).
Beckett, Hobbs, Parmar and Seaton and Hobbs were elected in the Belmont Zone (Langford/Colwood/Metchosin). Unsuccessful candidates in the Belmont Zone were: Trudy Spiller (4,068), Russ Chipps (2,909), Cendra Beaton (2,345), and Blair Sloane (1,848).
Phillips and Watson were elected in the Milne’s Landing Zone (Sooke/Juan de Fuca). Neil Poirier did not get re-elected (2,088). The other unsuccessful Sooke-based candidate was Britt Santowski (1,509).
Having been Chair of the SD62 board before the election, Ravi Parmar will likely chair the upcoming October 23 board meeting. The new board won’t be sworn in until SD62’s November 13 meeting.
The October 23 meeting agenda will include the usual range of items: field trip approvals, educational presentations, reports on finance and facilities, education policy, and the superintendent’s report.