The decisions made by the Greater Victoria school board will affect every family in the region, according to a former Simon Fraser University professor.

“Trustees are essentially the hatchet men and women for the provincial government,” said Colin Chow, who worked as co-ordinator for the professional development program in the faculty of education at SFU for five years.

Chow equates the role of the board to that of a firefighter faced with tough choices.

“The Ministry of Education gives (school boards) -- the firefighter -- only enough water to put out 90 per cent of the fires in their region. So they have to make strategic choices as to what fires they are going to put out and what ones they are going to let burn.”

Boards have specific mandates to follow and have money for specific projects. They just don’t have enough money to do everything they’re supposed to, Chow says.

“There’s a perception that children aren’t getting the best education they can, but that’s a result of under funding,” Chow added.

When it comes to the Nov. 15 trustee election, Chow says it’s important for voters to know the candidates.

“At least (to) know what their perspectives are when it comes to making the hard choices, when it comes to what they’re going to under-fund and what they are going to choose to do,” he said.

However, for many voters, the candidates named on the ballot are unfamiliar as they usually don’t attract as much attention as city council candidates, Chow said. “When it comes to school trustees, they’re essentially a one issue politician. They’re working strictly with education and they’re not working with budgets that are as large as city councillors or the mayor’s office. School boards don’t have the power to raise or issue new taxes for example, so it doesn’t typically hit the average voter’s pocket book.”

Budd Hall, director of the office for community-based research at the University of Victoria, agrees that voting for trustees is often overlooked.

“It’s of more interest when you’ve got school-aged kids,” he said. “But if you’ve got children or grandchildren in schools, then you really have to pay attention because who the trustees are, and the kinds of decisions they can make, makes a difference.”

How much of a difference is debatable, though it’s definitely less now than it was in years past, says Chow.

“I think the level of responsibility that school trustees have, and the ability to actually make great change in the district, has been curtailed,” he said, pointing out how dependent school boards are on their provincial masters. “Those running for school trustee don’t realize how much their hands are tied. The provincial government has the ability to essentially replace a school board if it doesn’t meet the criteria of funding in a certain way.”

Being replaced is not something board members worry about, according to Connie Denesiuk, president of the B.C. School Trustees Association.

“It’s not on the forefront of trustee’s mind. Boards work very hard to do their job within the parameters that are set by the government,” she said.

As for their influence, Denesiuk says the local flexibility of a board is reduced when there are targeted dollars from the provincial government.

kschoenit@oakbaynews.com