Twenty-eight candidates are vying for seven trustee roles on the Richmond Board of Education, including seven incumbents running for re-election.
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A total of 28 candidates are competing for seven school trustee seats with the Richmond Board of Education, with all seven incumbents seeking re-election: Rod Belleza, Ken Hamaguchi, Heather Larson, Donna Sargent, Debbie Tablotney, Alice Wong and David Yang.
The election includes candidates representing several civic parties and independents. The evidence names Advance Richmond, Richmond Education Party, Empower Education Richmond and Common Sense as party groups fielding school trustee candidates, along with 13 other trustee candidates listed as not affiliated with any party.
The Richmond Education Party is running four trustee candidates: current board chair Ken Hamaguchi, incumbent trustee Heather Larson, and newcomers Bill Mok and Martin Li. The platform described in the evidence centres on access to high-quality instruction, safe and seismically sound schools, mental health and anti-racism, and fiscally responsible governance, along with collaboration with families, teachers and community groups to expand childcare and enrich programs.
Advance Richmond is running six trustee candidates: incumbent trustee Rod Belleza plus Dean Billings, Danny Chang, Willy Sinconegue, Phyllis Tang and Sophia Woo. The evidence says Advance Richmond’s overall priorities include fighting drugs, growing the economy, improving safety and proposing solutions for housing, youth and social services.
Empower Education Richmond is running trustee candidates including incumbent David Yang. The evidence also says the other two candidates affiliated with Empower Education Richmond are long-time trustee Debbie Tablotney and former trustee Sandra Nixon.
Donna Sargent is running as an independent trustee candidate. The evidence says her platform includes advocating to the provincial government for supports for diverse learners, improving school buildings for earthquake safety and maintenance, and engaging industry experts on artificial intelligence and other technologies to support student preparedness.
Common Sense is running one school trustee candidate, Alice Wong, who the evidence says has served two previous terms as a school trustee. The evidence says Common Sense’s focus areas include expanding local education along with other municipal priorities, but does not describe a separate education-specific platform.
Among the issues identified in the evidence are budget pressures and facilities. It says the Richmond school board faced a $4.2-million shortfall last year linked to declining enrolment changes to immigration, leading to job and other cuts to balance budgets set by the province.
The evidence also notes that while trustees help make decisions on how to balance limited funds, provincial governments set the budget and also set curriculum. It further states that trustees can be fired if they pass a spending budget higher than the money provided by the province, referencing an example in Vancouver in 2016.
Other issues highlighted in the evidence include seismic upgrading of schools and mental health and other learner supports. It also says that a Sexual Orientation and Gender Identification (SOGI) policy passed in 2018 generated significant public interest and that the policy has since been updated to a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion plan that includes Truth and Reconciliation and anti-racism; it adds that the province mandates the type of plan while trustees play a role in specific implementation.
In addition to the candidates affiliated with parties, the evidence lists 13 other school trustee candidates not affiliated with any party: Hongyun Chen, Lawrence Chen, Calvin Dang, Kiana Dashtbazi, Kay Hale, Aithan Kang, Ausha Kang, Vivien Lee, Stefan Mladenovic, Jordan Oye, Helen Quan, Nancy Williams and John Zhang.
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