School District No. 46 (SD46) will stay with seven trustees, but the grouping of areas they are elected from will change slightly.
The new electoral areas will group Elphinstone, Roberts Creek, West Howe Sound and Gibsons to be represented by three trustees, the District of Sechelt and the Sechelt Indian Government District (SIGD) to be represented by three trustees, and Halfmoon Bay, Pender Harbour and Egmont to be represented by one trustee.
Formerly the SIGD was lumped in with Elphinstone, Roberts Creek and West Howe Sound while Gibsons was a separate electoral area.
The decision was made at the April 12 board meeting after trustees went over the feedback given at a Feb. 23 public meeting on the subject. Trustees initiated that meeting after realizing a reduction of two trustees would save SD46 $30,000. Because they were looking at every line item in the budget to investigate possible savings, the board felt it was necessary to find out if the public had an appetite for decreasing the number of trustees in SD46. They also asked if the public would prefer to see the board take on an at-large model of government.
Only a handful of residents weighed in on the subject.
"This was a well-advertised public meeting and we got four community members to come to it," said trustee Dave Mewhort. "Two had opinions and two simply asked questions. Then we asked for public input, and we had nine responses."
Of the nine written responses, four said they wanted to drop to five trustees, four wanted to stay at seven, and one simply sang the praises of trustee Lori Pratt. On the issue of changing the electoral areas, three indicated they wanted to see an at-large system put in place and four said they wanted to stay with the current electoral area system.
"So basically that tells me this was a board initiated discussion and we looked to the community to see if they were going to jump on board ,and they haven't," Mewhort added.
"This has to be debated on its merit. What I would have to say is that the loss of two trustees would represent a 29 per cent reduction. It would mean less opportunity for community feedback. There would be 29 per cent less representation for the community at the table, and there would be less varied opinion at the board table."
Although it was stated that moving to five trustees would save money, the majority of the board didn't see a need for change.
Trustee Greg Russell thought the status quo was the best option, but offered the change in electoral areas to address the unusual grouping of the SIGD with areas closer to Gibsons.
When the vote was called on Russell's motion, it passed with trustees Mewhort, Russell and Fran Heppell in favour and Pratt and Jason Scott opposed. Trustee Ken Sinnott was away, and chair Silas White did not cast a vote.
The board decision will now go to the Ministry of Education for approval. It is hoped the education minister will make a decision before the November trustee elections.
