School Board 2026 - Alex Joehl

Bring parents into the school, into the classrooms

We must adjust parents’ attitudes about their role in education – increase accountability and responsibility for the education system that so many claim to by in favour of and support.
Hire a new “volunteer coordinator” or repurpose existing positions to oversee this integration of volunteers. Example of a role: facilitate learning in breakout groups during instructional time.
School PACs: Can be the vehicle to parent participation, or can be oversight. But must become more than just the fundraising arm of the school.

Incorporate post secondary students into daily education model, year-round, to compliment teachers and SEAs.
Senior students placed in classrooms regularly, earning credits, able to give 1-on-1 tutoring during instructional hours.

Not all educators and SEAs are built the same, so training, hiring, and compensation should be specialized as well, and any CBAs should reflect that.

The school board budgets assume a 2 per cent inflation rate, and that is laughable at best, considering even the central bank has a higher target than that, so for multiyear budgeting this must be adjusted.
Close to a Half Billion Dollar budget, it has grown to about 40 per cent more than just five years ago with just 3,000 more students.
PSA to all SD35 Trustees, staff, families: Consider your allies and adversaries. The governments are the same ones responsible for inflating the monetary supply and making life unaffordable for staff and school families, and why parents can’t be a bigger part of their children’s education.

Less than half of Grade 10 students scored “Proficient” or “Extending” in numeracy, and only 70 per cent scored that in Literacy. (Reference these stats here) Why is this not being addressed more urgently?
If students are unable to meet minimum standards and expectations they should be held back. Advancing students prior to obtaining appropriate skills will only hamper their future learning, negatively affecting their own learning, and the learning of their peers.
Strategic Plan sounds great, but who is accountable when we miss the mark?

Divert funding to benefit online distributed learning. A flexible program like U-Connect should be given legs to grow, could be the norm and not the exception.
Steer funding towards creating more specialized choice programs and grow existing choice models, helping children identify and work towards potential careers soon.
Vanguard Secondary School – grow this program to take pressures of the standard school models. Resources (including by not exclusively staff) can be better leveraged than if spread throughout Langley.
Rework the feeder school structure and revamp catchment system to become more agile and reflect the needs of growing communities.

Messaging, both at the district-, at the school-, and at the classroom-level must be sensitive to all ideologies and allow students freedom to speak, even if contrary to desired rhetoric.