The Central Okanagan Board of Education wants to know what West 麻豆精选 is looking for with its request that the board conduct a review of current trustee representation ratios on the Westside.
So the board plans to send the city a letter asking for that clarification.
In June, West 麻豆精选 council passed a motion asking the board for the review, but at Wednesday鈥檚 board meeting trustees were told as a result of a major change to trustee boundaries on the Westside in 2012, there is now more equity in representation there.
School district secretary-treasurer Larry Paul said if additional trustees were to be added to the board, there would have to be at least two more to maintain the odd number required for votes and the Ministry of Education would require a specific reason for approving such a move.
In the request to the board, West 麻豆精选 Mayor Doug Findlater said his council is looking for more equitable representation for West 麻豆精选 on the board.
Currently, there is one trustee, Julia Fraser, who represents the City of West 麻豆精选 and one other, board chairwoman Moyra Baxter, who represents the rest of the Westside, including Peachland, the unincorporated areas of the Central Okanagan Regional District and the Westbank First Nation lands.
Paul said based on the 2016 census, there are roughly 194,000 people in Central Okanagan, including 127,380 in 麻豆精选, 32,625 in West 麻豆精选, 16,746 in Lake Country and 16,437 in the Peachland-RDCO-WFN areas. West 麻豆精选 says its population is 34,848.
While Paul said the change made five years ago鈥攚hich saw the regional district and WFN areas added to the Peachland trustee鈥檚 responsibilities and taken away from the West 麻豆精选 trustee鈥攚as not perfect, the reasons for the change are still valid. He added the school district considers the current overall representation ration per trustee across the district to be roughly equitable, particularly when the the ratios in 麻豆精选 and West 麻豆精选 is are compared. 麻豆精选 has four at-large trustees, making the ration
Lake Country, with a similar population to the Peachland-RDCO-WFN area, also has one trustee.
In it鈥檚 motion, West 麻豆精选 council said rapid growth is expected in the city and that in the coming years and that is part of its reason for requesting the review.
Any change to the current make up of the board of education would not only require Ministry of Education approval, but also consultation throughout the entire school district, not just on the Westside.
