Esquimalt’s town council held a special meeting this week in which Councillor Tim Morrison brought forth a motion for electoral reform for school board trustees.
His motion specifically calls on Lisa Beare, BC’s Minister of Education and Child Care, to create an inclusive task force to explore a new model for school board trustee elections and implement it in time for the 2026 local elections.
“More commonly referred to as a ward system for school boards, trustee electoral areas already exist throughout BC and basically ensure that no matter where you live or whichever family of schools you belong to, you will have a much better chance of guaranteed representation elected from your community by your community and for your community,” said Morrison.
“It is hoped that such a change will finally resolve the significant disconnect that has existed between school trustees and the communities that they are supposed to serve.”
Morrison says there are many problems with the current Greater Victoria School District (SD61), who oversee all Esquimalt schools.
He claims that prior to the Province stepping in and firing all of SD61’s trustees, the school board was a “governance disaster” and was too disconnected to important partners.
As a result of SD61 bringing about a controversial end to the School Police Liaison Officer (SPLO) program and failing to create a safety plan that met the standard of the Ministry of Education and Child Care’s standards, all trustees were relieved of their duties and a sole trustee was appointed by the Province.
Related:
- Greater Victoria School District board of trustees dismissed and replaced by BC government
- SD61 submits safety plan for approval with no intent to relaunch police liaison program
This lone trustee, Sherri Bell, will make decisions on behalf of SD61 until 2026’s local elections.
Morrison believes that because of the current school board situation, it is the perfect time to call on the Province for reform that would see one trustee from each municipality and First Nation that falls in SD61’s territory.
“There are six municipalities and two Indigenous nations all sharing one amalgamated District 61 School Board with a system of nine school trustees elected at-large but with no direct representation elected from within each community resulting in the Township of Esquimalt and some of our neighbouring communities not being directly represented at the District 61 School Board table,” said Morrison.
“This predicament results in a School Board democracy deficit in need of a solution.
Morrison added that the solution to the problem is already employed by nearly all other BC school districts.
It is called the “Trustee Electoral Area election model,” which would see local communities each separately elect their own trustee to help optimize a fair, equitable and geographically-balanced school board.
Morrison’s motion to call on the Ministry of Education and Child Care to reform school board trustee elections in SD61 was passed unanimously by Esquimalt’s council.
