School District 27’s board of education is once again in election mode after trustees amended its election bylaw and appointed a new Chief Electoral Officer.
At the March 21 special open meeting of the board, trustees repealed Bylaw B2707-1 which was passed at a Dec. 16 meeting in preparation for byelections. Judy Felker was appointed as Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) during the meeting in December to organize the byelections which would replace resigned trustee Ciel Patenaude.
On the first morning of advance voting in late February, the byelections were abruptly cancelled due to procedural errors, requiring the district to restart the process.
The board passed all three readings of an amended election bylaw at the March 21 meeting in order to provide clarity around the process of setting an election timeline and ensure future elections run smoothly.
The main changes to the bylaw include not permitting mail-in votes for the byelection, and requiring same-day voter registration rather than relying on a provincial registry of voters.
An amendment for “correcting the geographical descriptions” of electoral areas four and five was also made.
"The portion of Cariboo Regional District Area D within the boundaries of the school district was incorrectly included in the description of Trustee Electoral Area Five instead of Trustee Electoral Area Four in the previous bylaw," explained Superintendent Cheryl Lenardon in an email to simplymastery. "That has been corrected in the amended bylaw."
The board also appointed Mark Walsh as CEO during the meeting, preparing to set off byelections once again so as to replace Patenaude for the remainder of the term.
Walsh is the Secretary-Treasurer at School District 28 in the Nanaimo-Ladysmith area and has served as CEO for SD 68 three times before, most recently during the district’s fall 2024 byelection.
In accordance with the School Act, Walsh must hold an election within 80 days of his appointment. The timeline set for the byelection establishes six days for voting, with May 28 as the first day for advance voting and general voting day on June 7 at 150 Mile Elementary School.
The nomination period begins on April 22, and candidates will be declared on May 2.
At this point in time, no one has confirmed with simplymastery whether they plan to run for the vacant seat at the board’s table. A minimum of two qualifying nominations is required in order to run the byelections.
For more information about the byelection visit the district's 2025 school trustee byelection webpage.
