Friday September 11, 2026 | LANGFORD, BC [Posted at 4:51 pm PT | Updated September 12, 2026]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
The Sooke School District (SD62) will see an election for four trustee seats, but three seats will be filled by acclamation.
Board composition is that four trustees represent the Belmont Zone (voters in Langford, Colwood, Highlands and Metchosin) and three trustees represent the Milne’s Landing Zone (voters in Sooke and Juan de Fuca).
As of the 4 pm deadline, September 11, there are six candidates vying for the four Belmont Zone seats — hence voters will see those names on the October 17, 2026 municipal ballot. Earlier in the day it appeared there would be acclamation (as there were only four candidates for the Belmont Zone), but two quite last minute nominations were submitted (by Russ Chipps and Mattie McMillan).
However, there are only three candidates vying for the three Milne’s Landing Zone seats. That means acclamation in Sooke and Juan de Fuca, no election.
Change in level of interest:
This contrasts drastically to any previous election in recent times, where it was a hotly contested fight to get a seat on the SD62 board — particularly when the late John Horgan (MLA in the west shore region, then Premier) was pushing for stronger education supports both locally and across the province.
A great deal of what Horgan sought to achieve has been done, including including child care under the education ministry, enhancing career education training including trades, and establishing a local post-secondary option in the west shore (now seen as the John Horgan campus in Langford).
In the 2022 election an unofficial slate was loaded by then trustee-candidate Ravi Parmar (knowing he would soon be resigning to run for the MLA seat in Langford-Highlands); notably two of his picks (Russ Chipps and Christine Lervold) were presumably not running for a second term but Chipps nomination papers were filed right at deadline (after it appeared there might have been acclamation in Belmont Zone). Parmar’s other top pick in 2022 was Amanda Dowhy, who now gets onto the next board by acclamation.
Who’s running in 2026:
The candidates who are now confirmed for SD62 (who filed their nomination papers by today’s 4 pm deadline with Elections BC), are listed below. Four of them are incumbents:
- ELECTION WILL BE HELD: Belmont Zone: Cendra Beaton (incumbent), Russ Chipps (incumbent), Tom Davis, Mike Manhas, Mattie McMillan, Trudy Spiller (incumbent)
- ACCLAMATION: Milne’s Landing Zone: Ed Berlando, Amanda Dowhy (incumbent / including as Board Chair), Laurie Szadkowski
Reasons for low level of interest:
There could be any number of reasons for this apparent lack of interest in being on the board of education of a school district with over 13,000 students, where families in the west shore and Sooke rely on good education board governance for the delivery of education for their children.
Those reasons might include:
- The futility of delivering the desired level of education under current budget constraints; once staff/teacher salary commitments are met, there is not a lot left over. As well, a decline in International student registrations (due to federal immigration policy) will have continued impacts on school district revenues.
- The SD62 path is pretty much set for the next few years (in terms of following the strategic plan and dealing with limited land and capital for further school development)
- A continuing struggle with baseline issues like maintaining strong performance levels for literacy and numeracy, student mental health challenges, and a significant forward-emphasis on direct job-related careers (including trades training) as imposed by the province.
- A strong leaning toward an increasing number of sports academies within SD62, which require family paid fees (with some exceptions).
- Dealing with the challenges of providing child care under the umbrella of K-12 education — as was pointed out at a recent SD62 board meeting the responsibility for child care was brought within K-12 education but without a suitable budget to support it.
- An as-yet uncertain local political climate in the largest city in the zone, i.e. Langford, where a change in leadership could make big changes to how the school district is impacted.
- The complexities of incorporating a wide range of Indigenous components to education delivery (a laudable SD62 choice).
- The perhaps lingering influence (or conversely no longer intense interest) of the former board chair who since mid-2023 has been the local NDP MLA and since 2024 with broader ministerial responsibilities.
- Or simply, that people who might run are struggling with making a living and wouldn’t be able to accommodate the time to serve well on the board.
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