Education Minister Lisa Beare has threatened to replace the Greater Victoria School Board with an appointed trustee if the board doesn’t submit a revised safety plan by Jan. 6, 2025.
Beare announced Friday that she has appointed special adviser Kevin Godden to “revise and improve” the plan it submitted to the ministry last month.
“It is evident there is a breakdown in relationships and communication between the board and community agencies and rights holders,” Beare said at a news conference.
“And that is why I am taking immediate action to ensure that by the time students return to school in the New Year, a safety plan will be in place.”
Kevin Godden is the former superintendent of the Abbotsford School District, with 36 years of public education experience. In a written statement, the ministry says he had most recently been working as a leadership and governance consultant.
“If the board fails to deliver an appropriate revised safety plan that I can approve, or if the board does not co-operate with the special adviser, I am willing to take any step necessary to ensure the safety of students and staff by considering all options available to me under the School Act,” Beare said.
In a written statement, the Greater Victoria School Board said it looked forward to working with Godden.
“The Board is deeply committed to the safety and well-being of all students and staff in the school district,” the board said.
“We are dedicated to fostering safe and inclusive learning environments, and we embrace an ethic of continuous improvement.”
The board also noted the “extremely short timeframe that includes a two-week holiday period” to revise the plan.
Months of controversy
The ministry’s decision comes after months of controversy following the school board’s decision to cancel the school police liaison officer (SPLO) program in May 2023.
At the time, the board said that its SPLO program did “not best meet the needs” of the 20,000 students it serves in the 28 elementary schools, 10 middle schools and seven secondary schools in Victoria, Esquimalt, Oak Bay, View Royal and a portion of Saanich.
The board cited reports that some students and teachers — particularly those who are Indigenous or people of colour — don’t feel safe with officers in schools.
Victoria police, three area municipalities, and the Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations have all vocally opposed the decision, citing concerns about gang violence, drugs and sextortion.
In September, former education minister Rachna Singh issued an administrative directive to School District 61 to develop a safety plan.
On The Island7:58The province has ordered the Victoria school board to develop a safety plan, involving police and other agencies… we’ll get reaction from Victoria’s police chief
Gregor Craigie spoke with Del Manak, Victoria’s police chief.
Beare says on Nov. 8, the ministry received a letter addressed to the board from four area police chiefs expressing their lack of support for the draft safety plan.
The board submitted a safety plan to the ministry for approval on Nov. 15, the minister said. But after asking the Safer Schools Together Program to conduct an independent review of the plan, Beare did not approve it.
The district’s plan did support some high-risk vulnerable youth and staff training but didn’t address the key aspects of a comprehensive safety plan, said Theresa Campbell, founder of the Safer School Together, a provincial team of school safety experts.
“Proactive safety plans must include strong relationships and collaboration with law enforcement, First Nations and other community partners,” Campbell said in a statement “There is also a need for more specificity regarding safety strategies, protocols and processes.”
The Ministry of Education said some of the issues the safety plan was expected to address include increased gang activity and a commitment to improve the relationship between the school board and police.
Building relationships
On Friday, Victoria police Chief Del Manak also addressed the minister’s decision.
Manak said having police officers in schools can be a resource for teachers and a deterrent to gang recruitment and other potentially harmful activities.
“Although I’ve been vocal in my belief that police should be in schools as part of the learning community, the key part here is to build relationships and to prevent the rise of concerning behaviour that we’ve seen,” Manak said at a news conference at department headquarters.
“We would be naive if we thought that some of the challenges that we see in our community around violence, perceptions of violence, threats, intimidation, and sexual violence are not replicated within our school system,” he said.
Manak said he supported the appointment of the special adviser and is looking forward to participating in a collaborative process to develop a school safety plan.
“I’m committed to the process the minister set out,” said Manak. “To me, this is what leadership looks like when you have an impasse.”
Lack of school professionals: GVTA
Carolyn Howe, president of the Greater Victoria Teachers Association, told CBC News the situation was complicated.
Howe agrees that teachers have concerns about issues like gangs in schools but said those aren’t new.
What she hears from teachers the most, she says, is concerns about the lack of educational assistants and counsellors to help students who are struggling.
“The real safety concerns we hear about for students is that we don’t have enough qualified professionals to respond to their needs in schools,” she said.
“So to have this situation become the main focus of education in Victoria has been really, really challenging and difficult.”
Howe says it’s not true that police have been completely barred from schools, and there are still programs in some schools that include police.