Municipal Election Watch – West Shore of Vancouver Island, BC
Voting for trustees in the west shore and Sooke (SD62)
As published in the June 22, 2018 issue of West Shore Voice News
June 22, 2018 ~ WEST SHORE & SOOKE. The municipal election is coming up fast. The actual election date is Saturday October 20, 2018. Along with electing mayors and councillors to municipal councils for another four years, voters will also have a ballot in front of them to elect school board trustees for another four-year term.
In the west shore, public education is delivered to families and community through Sooke School District 62 (SD62).
Over the past few years, SD62 has fully embraced the role of facility development. Senior staff and elected trustees have been fully embroiled in the nuts and bolts of providing new schools from the ground up (notably Royal Bay Secondary and the new Belmont Secondary that opened in September 2015), as well as renovating and expanding other schools.
Through many long hours of meetings and planning, the leadership of SD62 has also done their best to address the introduction of BC Curriculum changes, an increasing number of students for whom English is not their first language, and the nitty-gritty of managing an in-house school bus service.
With all the emphasis on facilities expansion for about five years and (with several more new schools coming up fast), catching up with teacher hiring in the last year, and getting deeper into the legalese of privacy and human rights, it’s easy to see how the board — despite the existence and participation of parent council reps at the board level — may have lost a bit of traction with their primary clientele: the parents (and by extension, the broader community of employment and civic organization). It’s parents who send their children to school for an education.
School boards are there to provide education as a service to families and community; teachers are the facilitators, principals and vice principals are the stewards, senior administrators are the managers; and the facilities themselves are the crucible.
Parents are not in the classroom all day long. Often their primary contact all day is gathering up their kids to arrive at school, sometimes in the flurry of a hurry, and dealing with the costs and schedules of before/after school care.
Parents receive their children back at the end of every school day having been impacted by a myriad of social and curriculum exposures and experiences. Schools are institutions to which we have delegated the shaping of our youth in a rapidly changing world. Parents in particular — but everyone in the community — would do well to brush up on education system issues ahead of the fall campaign. Not just curriculum but also the counselling services and career guidance provided in schools. Vulnerability to mental health issues is as prevalent in the SD62 community as anywhere else. Transfer rates from high schools in SD62 to post-secondary are lower for west shore youth than the provincial average. Voting based on careful consideration of these and other education issues (like funding) is an important civic duty for us all.
In the west shore area there are two ‘zones’ in which to choose your next SD62 board of education. If you live in Sooke or Juan de Fuca your votes are for candidates in the Milne’s Landing Zone (3 trustee seats). If you live in Langford, Colwood, Metchosin, or Highlands your votes will be cast in the Belmont Zone (4 trustee seats).
Over the summer is a good time to reflect on how the schools have performed for your family and community, so you can come prepared with questions and expectations to All Candidates Meetings this fall.
>> This article was first published on pg4 in the June 22, 2018 issue of West Shore Voice News
Back to the Municipal Election Watch 2018 Main Page | Back to the West Shore Voice News Main page