Les Leyne: We're better off without these Victoria school trustees
- Les Leyne
- Jan 31
- 4 min read
It was the inept, offensive and dismissive way they treated people who questioned their judgment that contributed to their termination.
A protracted grassroots effort by a determined collection of parents, frontline workers and Indigenous interests concerned about student safety culminated Thursday in the mass firing of the Greater Victoria School Board.
It wasn’t the trustees’ ill-considered decision in 2023 to bar police liaison officers from district schools that prompted Education Minister Lisa Beare’s decision.
It was the remarkably inept, offensive and dismissive way they treated people who objected or even so much as questioned their judgment that contributed to their termination.
The report by special adviser Kevin Godden — appointed by Beare to help the board clean up its own mess — is one of the harshest audits ever conducted of a public body in B.C.
“The board’s behaviour has poisoned the working relationship with most of these parties and eroded their confidence in the board’s ability to successfully govern the safety of its students,” he concluded.
He highlighted the secretive double-dealing the board — headed by then-chair Nicole Duncan — used to make end-runs around a provincial order to come up with a safety plan.
As the controversy came to a head in early January, Duncan blindsided her own superintendent — respected veteran Deb Whitten — with a “surprise motion” ordering her to rewrite one version of the safety plan in just one day.
“Tremendously problematic,” said Godden. “It is highly inappropriate for a board to ambush their senior staff … a measure of disregard for their professionalism.” He flagged significant breaches in good practices that ignored the board’s own policies, undermined the superintendent “and shakes public confidence in the board.”
When it comes to ignoring their own policies, the board hit a new low in consultation and engagement.
The most stunning example was its treatment of Indigenous stakeholders. Five years into a massive provincewide reconciliation effort in which every public body is supposed to be keeping First Nations interests top of mind, the school board managed to alienate nearly every important Indigenous leadership group in Greater Victoria.
Godden said Songhees and Esquimalt Nations, the Metis Nation of Greater Victoria and the Urban People’s House all objected to how the trustees treated them. “They articulated a strained relationship with the board.”
Cultural protocols were ignored, they were bypassed in consultations and their support for the school police liaison officer program was not meaningfully recognized, they felt.
The First Nations made written submissions that were not acknowledged and were not notified of important board decisions.
In other words, the board was inexcusably rude to them.
Godden noted widespread criticism about how they engaged with others as well. The board ignored police chiefs’ input multiple times and didn’t respond to other parties on urgent process issues.
The clumsy engagement was a feature right from the start. A committee originally did wide consultation on the school police liaison officer issue but it couldn’t arrive at a conclusion. So it submitted a 170-page report to the board in 2023.
The board then quickly voted unanimously to bar the program on grounds that “undeniably, there are some staff and students don’t feel safe” seeing police in schools.
But Godden said they didn’t explain how they deliberated or weighed the mass of data. Some First Nations think the board view was based on U.S. data about marginalized students that has nothing to with the local situation.
One of the more ludicrous developments came after that vote was taken.
Godden reported that an app was created requiring principals to record all instances of police contact. The data was then sent monthly to the board. “One of the unintended consequences of this was a hyper-vigilance about police presence in schools for fear of going against the wishes of the board.”
So while police were barred from engaging with students, with a view to curbing gang activity, they were under a form of surveillance by the board.
Godden noted distrust between administrative staff and the board and concern about a coercive environment and worries of retaliation if board orders were not followed.
The whole sorry exercise was based on the initial insult to local police officers, compounded by the board’s smarmy view that police are still “valued partners.”
The epic mishandling of the subsequent arguments culminated in the board’s farcical decision three weeks ago to deliver not one, but three safety plans, along with a sulky warning about Beare’s authority to ask. That’s what ended their careers.
Some people are worried about the arbitrary dismissal of a democratically elected body.
But Godden’s recounting of the disdain these now-former trustees displayed to stakeholders and taxpayers suggests we’re much better off without them.
Only about a third of eligible voters turned out in 2022 to put them in power.
Some of the responsibility for the toxic shambles they created is on us.
We didn’t pay enough attention.
