An Esquimalt councillor is calling for the Greater Victoria School District to shift to a ward-based model of electing its trustees, saying there is a “disconnect” between the school board and the municipalities it serves.
Coun. Tim Morrison said there is a lot of frustration regarding the school board’s June 2023 decision to terminate its police-liaison program in schools. Victoria and Saanich police have raised the alarm about gang recruitment in high schools, while three municipalities — Victoria, Saanich and Oak Bay — have asked the school board to reinstate the program.
Other school boards in B.C. that represent multiple municipalities elect their members through a trustee electoral area model that essentially functions as a ward system, Morrison said.
The only exceptions are the Greater Victoria School Board, which serves six municipalities, and the Nanaimo Ladysmith school board, which serves three municipalities, he said.
“What ends up happening is that we end up with not having any representation for our specific municipality,” said Morrison.
Esquimalt council voted unanimously on Monday for the township to ask the school board to consider implementing a trustee electoral area election model for the 2026 election.
Under the current model, every four years, the nine members of the Greater Victoria School Board are elected based on who received the most votes.
Of the current board, six trustees live in the city of Victoria, two in Saanich and one in Esquimalt First Nation, according to information from the Greater Victoria School District.
Morrison said no Esquimalt resident has been elected to the Greater Victoria school board in decades.
The last person who ran for a trustee position with the intent of bringing local representation to the table was former long-time Esquimalt councillor Linda Hundleby in the 1990s, he said.
The only candidate of 30 who stood for election to the Greater Victoria School Board in 2022 reporting an Esquimalt address was Leslie-Anne Goodall, who ran as part of the VIVA Victoria slate.
Morrison said the 2022 school board election was a battle of competing values represented by the “anti-SOGI” VIVA Victoria party and a slate of candidates endorsed by the Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association.
“Anecdotally, we knew people were just scrambling with their phones, Googling names and trying to figure out who to vote for,” he said. “They were overwhelmed with not knowing who to vote for, so they just relied on a list of names that was provided to them.”
All nine trustees elected to office in 2022 received an endorsement from the Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association.
Morrison, a former North Vancouver school board trustee, called the situation a “democracy deficit in need for a solution.”
“What happened to grassroots community candidates being the ones to be elected?” he asked.
The issue could be resolved if the school board adopts the trustee electoral area model, which places a higher emphasis on geographical representation, he said.
At Monday’s council meeting, councillors Duncan Cavens and Kevin Armour agreed that the Greater Victoria School Board electoral process appears to be an anomaly in B.C., but said they were hesitant about getting into the affairs of another local elected body.
“I just wonder how we would respond if someone else asked us to impose wards [in Esquimalt],” Cavens said.
Morrison said the motion is merely intended to spark a conversation about school board representation in the capital region.
“I want to make it very clear that this is simply a request,” he told council. “We fully respect the autonomy of the school board for their matters, as we would hope they would respect ours over our matters.
“All we’re asking for them is to consider.”
The Victoria, Esquimalt, Oak Bay and Saanich school boards were amalgamated into the Greater Victoria School Board in 1946.
The school board did not respond to requests for comment.
