7 School Trustees?

As our Municipal elections draw near, I feel compelled, once again, to ask WHY a school district this size continues to elect, and pay, seven trustees.

I presume that electors are aware that the School Act points out ‘A trustee serves the community as an elected representative but the trustees’ primary task is to act as a member of the corporate board” and “individual trustees have no individual authority” Their “job” is to set policies and oversee the operating and capital budgets of the school district.

Do we really need seven trustees? The School Act gives each district a choice of three, five, seven or nine trustees. At my last check, I saw that Vancouver has nine, North Vancouver with almost five times our number of students, has seven; Powell River, with fewer students has five and West Vancouver, with more than twice our number of students has five.

It seems to me that this district could very easily be divided into three sections, north, central and south, with one trustee elected from each of those sections.

This change from seven to three trustees would provide approximately $4,000 a month to be be put back into the coffers to improve child-centred activities, e.g. funding field trips, helping with the rental of musical instruments for band students, improving school art and handcraft supplies, paying for uniforms for sports teams and band members, newer texts, up-dated class equipment or gym equipment. I’m sure that each school could come up with a long list of what they could provide with this extra money. After all, it is about the children isn’t it ?

There very well might be a good reason for this small district of approximately 3300 students to continue to need seven trustees

I’d love to know what it is.

Colleen Elson, Gibsons