A New Westminster school trustee is calling on the provincial government to hold byelections in two districts currently without an elected school board.
The Vancouver and North Okanagan-Shuswap school boards were dismissed by the provincial government in October and June respectively, an act the Ministry of Education is permitted to do under the School Act. Both boards have been replaced with public administrators, but Slade-Kerr fears the decisions could impact education in the affected communities.
At Tuesday’s school board meeting, Slade-Kerr put forward a motion urging her fellow trustees to join her in writing to Education Minister Mike Bernier to ensure “democratically and locally elected boards are in place on or before May, 30, 2017.”
“It’s of great concern to me because of the role that locally elected boards play in ensuring the values of the community are reflected in the decisions being made by the board,” Slade-Kerr said, adding replacing an elected school board with a public administrator is not in line with the principles of democracy.
The appointed public administrators will be in place in Vancouver and North Okanagan-Shuswap for a term of at least 12 months, according to the Ministry of Education, but that is far too long in Slade-Kerr’s opinion.
When asked whether she thought a public letter to Bernier may jeopardize the district’s capital projects that are still awaiting funding, Slade-Kerr said her intention was not to enter a partisan debate.
“I’m not worried at all. I’ve been very careful to keep this as non-partisan as possible and focus merely on the issue of governance at a local level. I’m not commenting … on the reasons for the dismissals of those boards, I just think it’s important that we do have locally elected boards in power at all times,” she said.
No decision was made at Tuesday’s school board meeting regarding Slade-Kerr’s motion, instead, the board opted to move the decision to their November meeting.
“As an advocate, what we can do is make our views as a board known to the government and the government theoretically takes those views into account when making their decisions,” Slade-Kerr said.
