School District 46 · Trustee Area 3Gibsons · Roberts Creek · Elphinstone · West Howe Sound
BAILEYMark
School Trustee
Priorities
Four things I would work on, and why.
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 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 of it, roughly $849,000 more than that available figure. The district has budgeted conservatively and finished ahead of budget for years, which is good management. My point is only that the next board should not count on that continuing.
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 this week 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The $95,000 figure is out of date and I have withdrawn it.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.
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.
There is a lot to applaud in the work of the current board. The audited statements show a district that finished the year ahead of budget, belonging is up twelve points over five years, and Indigenous completion is up ten points in one. None of the four things below is a complaint about that. They are where I would put my vote and my voice to keep it going as enrolment falls and funding tightens.
That figure is the backdrop for all four of these. They are not promises to fix things single-handed, they are the four places I would put my vote and my voice, and the reasons behind each one come from the district's own published documents rather than from me.
Tap any heading to open it.
- 1Buildings, honestlyPortables at one end, empty classrooms at the other. The plan needs updating before anyone draws conclusions.
- 2The budget, and what gets protected firstWhat gets protected first when money is tight.
- 3BelongingJust over half our students say they feel they belong at school. For Indigenous students and students with designations it is under half.
- 4A district that carries more than mostHalf our students come from low-income households. Nearly a quarter have designated disabilities.
Priority oneBuildings, honestly
Portables at one end, empty classrooms at the other. The plan needs updating before anyone draws conclusions.
In the district’s 2023 long range facilities plan, Gibsons-zone elementary schools were running at 112 per cent of operating capacity, a shortage of about 108 seats, handled with portables. Over the same period the secondary schools ran at 76 per cent in Gibsons, 75 in Sechelt and 38 in Pender Harbour. The district’s average facility condition index was 0.46, and the 1932 Sunshine Building was the one facility rated high seismic risk.
SD46 Long Range Facilities Plan, 2023. Enrolment has fallen since, so the current numbers will differ.This is the priority I would put in front of a voter who has no child in school, because it is the one that is plainly about buildings and the money that goes into them. The district’s own 2023 plan shows the mismatch: full elementary schools in Gibsons, room to spare in the secondaries. That is what happens when a population shifts faster than a building plan.
Enrolment has fallen since that plan was written, and I would want to see current numbers alongside it. Any conversation about reconfiguration has to start with the community affected, and that is the approach I would bring.
What I would do
- Support keeping the facilities plan current with enrolment, in public.
- Back the capital submission for the four-classroom Gibsons Elementary expansion and the Sunshine Building seismic work, and keep the pressure on the Ministry to fund them.
- Make sure any conversation about reconfiguration starts with the community affected, early.
Priority twoThe budget, and what gets protected first
What gets protected first when money is tight.
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 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, roughly $849,000 more than that, against a $56 million budget. The district has budgeted conservatively and finished ahead of budget for years, which is good management. My point is only that the next board should not count on that continuing. Funded enrolment is down 105 students, and provincial funding follows enrolment.
SD46 audited financial statements 2025-26; Financial Statement Discussion and Analysis 2025-26, page 8; 2026-27 annual budgetI want to be careful here, because spending reserves to protect services through a hard year is a defensible choice and I am not going to pretend otherwise. The board elected on 17 October writes the 2027-28 budget with real decisions in it.
Some of that enrolment decline is beyond the board’s reach. In February the community plan commission I chair ran a town hall in Roberts Creek, and one of the things residents said they wanted was for seniors, young families and workers to be able to afford to live here. A district loses students when a community stops being affordable to the people raising them, and it struggles to hire the education assistants and bus drivers it needs from a housing market that has priced them out. A school board does not fix that, but it has a voice in it, and this board is already using its voice. It has a committee working on housing, and much of what I had in mind is work that is already under way. I am grateful to a sitting trustee for taking the time to walk me through it. If elected, I would like to support that effort.
The part that worries me is not the arithmetic. It is the order things get cut in. In other boards I have watched the first reductions be the quiet ones, because they are the easiest to justify on a page: a counsellor position left vacant, an education assistant not replaced, a bit less release time. Nobody notices for a year. Then everybody notices. I have not seen that here, and I would work to keep it that way.
What I would do
- Support multi-year budget planning presented in public, so everyone can see what is coming before the decisions arrive.
- Vote to protect classroom support and counselling before anything else, and say so out loud at the budget table so it is on the record.
- Ask what each proposed reduction actually does to a student, and have that answer on the table before the vote. That is a question a trustee can insist on without a majority.
Priority threeBelonging
Just over half our students say they feel they belong at school, and for Indigenous students and students with designations it is under half.
In 2024-25, 55 per cent of SD46 students in grades 4, 7 and 10 reported a positive sense of belonging, up 3 points on the year and 12 points over five years. For Indigenous students the figure is 49 per cent and for students with designations 48 per cent, both up sharply on the year, and still under half. Five-year completion is 86 per cent for all students and 84 per cent for Indigenous students, the latter up 10 points in a year.
SD46 Enhancing Student Learning report, September 2026This is the one I care most about, and it is the one I spent sixteen years on in Ontario, where I pushed hardest on mental health supports. A student who does not feel safe or wanted is not available for learning. Everything else the district funds depends on getting that right first, and the gaps above are what it looks like when we do not.
It is also measurable, which matters. The district already measures this and the trend is up, which is to its credit. I would keep it in front of the board every year and keep asking what moved it.
What I would do
- Keep the belonging figures in front of the board every year, and keep asking what moved them. A trustee does not need a majority to ask a question.
- Support the Indigenous Education Council and the district’s work with the shíshálh Nation and the Skwxwú7mesh Nation, and make sure its advice reaches the board table.
- Support inclusive schools without reservation. Every student has the right to be safe at school and to learn without hiding who they are.
- Protect counselling and youth-care work in the budget, which is where this priority meets the budget.
Priority fourA district that carries more than most
Half our students come from low-income households. Nearly a quarter have designated disabilities.
About 50 per cent of SD46 students are identified as coming from low socioeconomic circumstances, against 36 per cent provincially. Twenty-four per cent are students with disabilities or diverse abilities.
SD46 Enhancing Student Learning report, September 2026Those three numbers together say something the funding formula does not fully recognise. Our schools do more social work, more feeding, more catching of kids who would otherwise fall, than a district with a wealthier intake. The staff who do that work are the supports described above, which is why the two priorities are really one.
It also means the Coast has a case to make to Victoria, and a case made with actual numbers is harder to ignore.
What I would do
- Put these figures at the centre of the case to the Ministry and to the BC School Trustees Association, because a district that carries a heavier load should be funded like one.
- I spent six years as a vice-president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association making exactly this kind of case to a provincial government. That is transferable work and I would do it here.
- Resist any reduction that shifts the load onto classroom teachers who are already carrying it.
Questions
Things people ask me.
If your question is not here, ask me. My number and email are at the bottom of this page and I answer both myself.
What can a trustee actually do?
Authority at a school board rests with the board collectively. An individual trustee cannot direct staff, overturn a decision alone, or commit the district to anything. That is worth knowing before anyone promises you otherwise.
What one trustee can reliably do is show up prepared, ask the question in public session, vote consistently, and explain the vote afterwards. The board has seven trustees. I would be one voice of seven, and I would use it in public session, on the record.
Do you support SOGI 123 and inclusive schools?
Yes, without reservation. Every student has the right to be safe at school and to learn without hiding who they are. SOGI 123 is a set of resources that helps schools meet obligations they already carry under the BC Human Rights Code and the School Act. I would not vote to weaken it, and I would say so at the table rather than only here.
Where the line sits is simple. How you raise your own child is yours to decide. Whether another family's child is safe at school is not.
How should schools communicate with families about sexual health education?
Early and plainly. A family should get advance notice before a sexual health unit begins, an answer when they ask about it, and a clear explanation of the province's alternative delivery policy and what it does and does not cover. That policy applies to reproduction and sexual health content in Physical and Health Education, and it lets a family arrange for that material to be taught a different way. It is not a general opt out.
Families here come from many traditions, and most of the heat on this comes from people feeling talked past. Schools should not be surprising families, and that is something a board can act on.
Where do you stand on AI in classrooms?
I will be straight about where I am coming from. I run a business that uses AI tools every day, and they have become indispensable to how I work. I am not someone who is afraid of the technology. I am someone who knows what it does, and that is exactly why I do not want it doing children's thinking for them.
Chatbots do not belong in elementary classrooms. Kids need to struggle with a problem to learn from it, and a tool that removes the struggle removes the learning.
In secondary school, the one legitimate use is teaching students about these tools, not with them. Our graduates are walking into a world where chatbots are already in their phones, their first jobs and their friendships. They need to understand that a chatbot predicts words; it does not actually know things. That it will state unverified information with total confidence. That it is built to keep you talking, and to flatter you into coming back more often. That it remembers what you tell it, and that record is now owned by a corporation that intends to make money from your thoughts. That is chatbot literacy, taught by a teacher, and it is as basic now as learning to spot a scam email. Handing students a chatbot to write their essays is the opposite of that.
No AI product should be adopted across our district without a board policy debated in public session, a thorough privacy review, and evidence that it helps students learn rather than helps them avoid learning. The burden of proof belongs on the vendor, not on the teacher or district.
I am one vote of seven, so I will not promise outcomes I cannot deliver alone. I can promise that is how I will vote if the issue is raised, and what I will argue for.
What about transit for students?
The Centre for Family Equity asked candidates across BC to endorse seven recommendations for child, youth and family-friendly transit. I have signed on, and I want to be clear about what that means from a school trustee, because I would rather be useful than agreeable.
A school board can act directly on three of the seven. It can push for safe, low-traffic approaches to every school and for bus stops that actually serve school doors, because the board owns the sites and sits across the table from the SCRD and the Ministry of Transportation. It can keep backing active travel to school, which SD46 already does and should keep doing. And it can advocate for the province to extend free transit to all youth up to 18, which the Coast has already done locally through the S-Pass. That pass exists in part because students kept showing up at the SCRD and asking for it.
The other four are provincial, BC Transit or TransLink matters. I support the direction, and I will say so when asked, but I will not pretend a trustee's vote reaches them.
How many votes do I have, and when can I vote?
Three. Three trustees are elected in Area 3, so you get three votes and you can use all of them. I am asking for one.
Advance voting is Wednesday 7 October and Wednesday 14 October, 8 am to 8 pm. General voting day is Saturday 17 October, 8 am to 8 pm. Mail ballots are available to every eligible voter. All dates, deadlines and polling places are here.
One more thing
I will not promise you something a trustee cannot deliver.
Authority at a school board rests with the board collectively. An individual trustee cannot direct staff, overturn a decision alone, or commit the district to anything. That is worth knowing before anyone promises you otherwise. What one trustee can reliably do is show up prepared, ask the question in public, vote consistently, and explain the vote afterwards. That is what I am offering.
If you think I have any of this wrong, I would rather hear it now than after the election. Call me.
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.