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Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Trustee hopefuls make pitch to sparse crowd Educating the public: Huge parent concerns the past two years in the district after board firing not reflected in meeting turnout Don Bodger
News Leader Pictorial
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Andrew Leong
Geoffrey Vale, of the Mill Bay-Malahat Historical Society, secures a cross on a grave of a veteran at Shawnigan Cemetery on Nov. 1.
otential debate topics smouldered but were left on the backburner during Thursday’s public meeting of Cowichan School District 79 board of trustee candidates at Cowichan Secondary School’s Quamichan Campus. The format did not allow for questions to be taken from the public or any debate between candidates. Each of the 17 candidates provided what amounted to a verbal resume of their backgrounds, answered a pre-determined question and summarized why people should vote for them. All were kept on a short leash to comply with tight time limits. Despite some hot-button issues surrounding the school district, such as the firing of the previous board that led to the appointment of Mike McKay as official trustee for the past two years, a crowd of less than 100 people attended the forum — many of them family members of the candidates. Ellen Oxman was part of that board fired for not complying with the provincial government’s budget stipulations. She states on her website she will support a balanced budget, but wanted to stir the pot about her reasons for voting for an unbalanced budget previously but obviously realized it wasn’t the time or the place. She did say, however, that “we went everywhere we could to meet with the community’’ and “we committed to putting forward a needs budget.’’ Oxman is aligned with Deb Foster, Kayla Barrett and Connie Buckner in their campaigns under the banner “Your Voice For Cowichan Public Schools.” There’s also a group of seven, run-
ning under a Students First banner, that consists of Keith Chicquen, Rob Hutchins, Barb de Groot, Candace Spilsbury, Joe Thorne, Cathy Schmidt and Joanne de Lure. The other six candidates running as independents are: Dana Arthurs, Amy Matamba, Roger Chin, Randy Doman, Amrik Prihar and Elizabeth Croft. “I’m looking forward to working on solutions with whatever team the public votes for,’’ said Matamba. The 10 candidates outside the Students First campaigners all vowed to put kids first in their decision-making as well. Even though there was no opportunity for candidates to challenge statements made by the others, some sneers were visible around the table and a few potshots exchanged. “I would not like to see a board of seven people who think exactly the same way,’’ said Oxman. “We selected a group of people with a diverse skill set but are also independent thinkers,’’ Chicquen pointed out. “We are a group of individuals from different backgrounds and beliefs, who have come together because we have the same values and objectives for School District 79,’’ explained de Lure. “I joined the Students First team to respect the B.C. Schools Act and pass a balanced budget,’’ said Hutchins. To balance or not to balance the budget was a question that still resonated with other candidates. “I do not support submitting a deficit budget for all sorts of reasons,’’ said Spilsbury. “We, as a board, cannot be effective if we are fired.’’ “As a trustee, I will work hard to focus all the available dollars we can to go into the classroom,’’ said Doman. “I’m not content to balance budgets at the expense of students,’’ said Buckner. more on page 4