School District 46 · Trustee Area 3Gibsons · Roberts Creek · Elphinstone · West Howe Sound
BAILEYMark
School Trustee
A Roberts Creek resident with sixteen years on a school board.
You have three votes for school trustee.
Three trustees are elected in Area 3, so you get three votes and you can use every one of them.New to this table. Not new to the work. I was elected four times to a school board in Ontario and chaired it for five years. Our two boys graduated from Elphi.
Use all three of your votes. I'd like one of them.
Seven candidates are running for three trustee seats. And in Elphinstone and West Howe Sound, only one candidate was nominated for regional district director, so for a lot of voters there the school board is the only real contest on the ballot this year.
Watch
The part of the ballot people skip.
A minute and a half on what a school trustee actually decides, and why the three votes you have in Area 3 are worth using.
Read the transcript
There's a section on your ballot that many people skip. School trustee. Maybe you've never met one. Or maybe you vote for mayor and councillor and vaguely recognize one or two more names and check those off. Well, I'm here to tell you just how important that position is.
A $56 million budget. Getting to decide who runs the school board. Getting to decide, when times are tight, what quietly gets cut. Whether the struggling student has access to that instrumental counsellor that has been so supportive for their school career so far. These are not small jobs, and yet they get decided by people on the ballot that many people skip over.
You have three votes for trustee in Roberts Creek and Gibsons, and I'm asking for one of them. My name is Mark Bailey. I was chair for five years and a trustee for sixteen in a different board, and I'd like to apply those skills here. Both of my sons have graduated Elphi, and my youngest one is still in the system upgrading courses.
I'd like to see that the next generation of students has as much opportunity as they can get, despite tighter budgets that are coming. My name is Mark Bailey and I'm asking for one of your votes. Thank you for your time.
Why I am running
The next board writes a budget with the cushion already committed.
The district's audited statements for the year ended 30 June 2026 show $2,883,992 of unrestricted operating surplus. The district's own Financial Statement Discussion and Analysis then sets $1,200,000 aside as a financial provision under board surplus policy, and prints $1,683,992 as the unrestricted surplus available for future operations. This year's budget appropriates $2,532,639, which is roughly $849,000 more than that. The budget spends $56.0 million against $53.5 million of revenue, and funded enrolment is down 105 students, so less money is coming in from the province.
SD46 audited financial statements 2025-26; Financial Statement Discussion and Analysis 2025-26, page 8; 2026-27 annual budgetA correction on the reserve figure. Updated 7 October 2026.
My postcards, and until 6 October this website, said the district had roughly $95,000 left in operating reserve. That number came from the board's own budgets. The 2025-26 amended budget projected the accumulated operating surplus would fall to $2,627,147 by June 2026, and the 2026-27 budget appropriates $2,532,639 of it. Subtract one from the other and you get $94,508. That was a projection, not an audited result, and I should have said so more clearly.
The audited financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2026, published on 6 September, show a different result. The drawdown projected for 2025-26 did not happen. The district finished the year with an operating surplus and its accumulated operating surplus rose to $6,231,085, of which $2,883,992 is unrestricted. After the district's own $1.2 million financial provision, it reports $1,683,992 as available for future operations. This year's budget appropriates $2,532,639 against that.
The $95,000 figure is out of date and I have withdrawn it. The audited figures are the ones to rely on, and they are the ones now used on this site. The underlying point stands: the budget spends more than it brings in and covers the difference from savings, and the gap is larger than the amount the district itself says is available.
I want to be clear about one more thing. I never intended the figure as a criticism of the current board or its staff, and if it came across that way, I apologize. It was meant as a snapshot of what lies ahead if the district has to keep spending more than it brings in. The trustees and staff who manage this budget do difficult work, and the decision to budget conservatively is part of why the audited result is better than the projection. The next board still has to close the gap, and that is the conversation I want to have.
Spending reserves to protect services through a hard year is a defensible choice, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. But it is a choice you can only make twice. The board elected on 17 October writes the 2027-28 budget with real decisions in it rather than paper ones.
What worries me is not the arithmetic. It is the order things get cut in, because the quiet reductions always come first: a counsellor position left vacant, an education assistant not replaced, a bit less release time. Nobody notices for a year. Then everybody notices.
Read all four of my priorities, each one with the district's own published figures behind it.
The record
Why me:
- I have done this job. Elected four times as a school trustee in Guelph, Ontario: sixteen years, five of them as board chair, at a board of roughly 35,000 students.
- My kids went through these schools, and one still does. Both of my sons attended SD46 start to finish and graduated from Elphinstone. My youngest is still enrolled, upgrading courses.
- I run public processes here now. Chair of the Roberts Creek Official Community Plan Commission and vice president of the xwesam-Roberts Creek Community Association.
- I already sit at a local government table. Alternate Director for Electoral Area D at the Sunshine Coast Regional District.
- I know how to argue for funding. Six years as a vice-president of the Ontario Public School Boards Association, making the case for public education to the people who write the funding formula. SD46 has that case to make.
In February the community plan commission I chair ran a town hall in Roberts Creek about the future of our community. I organized it, nine volunteers facilitated the tables, and a larger team of commission members and neighbours put the whole thing together. About 175 people came, 220 answered the survey afterward, and the report we sent the regional district published the weaknesses in our own method alongside the findings. That is how I think a public body should work, and it is how I would work at a school board table.
Committed to schools worth moving to, and worth staying for
What others say
People who know me here.
-
Kelly BacksDirector, Electoral Area D (xwesam / Roberts Creek), Sunshine Coast Regional DistrictI found Mr. Bailey to be an intelligent and capable leader for his community who makes fair and balanced decisions as Chair.
-
Simon HaidukVice Chair, and former Chair, Roberts Creek Official Community Plan CommissionHe originally joined as a committee member, while I was Chair, then he took over Chair while I remained on as Vice Chair. Seeing how he communicated and functioned within meetings, with utmost kindness, respect and openness made it an easy choice to elect him as Chair.
-
Susan DavidsonDirector, xwesam-Roberts Creek Community AssociationI have worked with Mark on the xRCCA board for the past few years. I have found Mark to be calm, knowledgeable, diligent and hard working! Mark cares! He follows through!
Jordan EdmondsParent, GibsonsMark will strengthen our schools through his leadership and thoughtful commitment to our community.
How to vote
Vote for three trustees in Area 3.
Three votes for school trustee. I am asking for one of them.
- Wed 7 OctAdvance voting, 8 am to 8 pm
- Wed 14 OctAdvance voting, 8 am to 8 pm
- Sat 17 OctGeneral voting day, 8 am to 8 pm
When will you vote?
Wherever you live, in Gibsons or in Areas D, E and F, the trustee race is on your ballot.
Mail ballots are available to every eligible voter. Rural areas: scrd.ca/mail-ballots, apply by 4:30 pm on 15 October. Town of Gibsons: gibsons.ca, apply by noon on 16 October. Completed ballots must be received by 8 pm on 17 October, so if you apply late, hand it in rather than posting it.
Lawn signs
Put a sign on your lawn.
A sign on a road people drive every day does more for a trustee candidate than almost anything else, because most voters have never heard of any of the seven of us. If you have a spot for one, I will bring it to you and collect it after the election.
Get in touch
Questions, concerns or ideas about our schools?
I'd like to hear from you. I stopped knocking on doors a few elections ago, because I found it bothers as many people as it wins over. So call me or send me an email instead. Ask me anything.
And if you have room for a lawn sign, tell me where and I will bring one over.
- Phone
- 604-998-8039
- mark@markbailey.ca
- MarkBaileySD46
Three trustees are elected in Area 3. You have three votes. I am asking for one of them.
Advance voting Wednesday 7 and Wednesday 14 October, 8 am to 8 pm. General voting day Saturday 17 October. All dates and polling places.