Newly-elected Trillium Lakelands District School Board trustee Victoria HillierHutchison is “excited” to have been elected as Haliburton County’s representative, and thinks transparency is important to Highlands’ parents.
She beat out Kinga Baricz by a large margin to join four trustees from the City of Kawartha Lakes and four from Muskoka on the nine-person board. She replaces the retired Gary Brohman, who served 16 years.
During her campaign, Hillier-Hutchison, who is married to Haliburton Highlands Health Services CEO Jack Hutchison, reached out to County schools. She said some staff were reluctant to engage in conversation; being told they should not talk to candidates. Hillier-Hutchison said she found no policy precluding informal chats.
“I’m not saying I need to be at the school managing the staff…but it’s important to get information from the front line because this is a large board. Haliburton County only has one seat out of nine and that is why I was hoping I was going to be able to talk to some of the front-line people, such as principals and vice principals. They didn’t have to share operational stuff or data; I didn’t need any of that. I just wanted to know what’s going on. Is there anything you have concerns about? What are your big challenges? How far is the longest bus ride for a student? I just want to get a bird’s eye view of things.”
She intends to continue her research as a trustee, saying “you need to know what is going on, and talk to families and constituents and school employees and unions. I think it is important to talk to some of these people.” When she worked for the school board in Moosonee, she said they had principals report to school board meetings.
Hillier-Hutchison added that as a staffer, she is familiar with “the other side of the table.”
She said, “some trustees don’t always understand their role. You’re in the driver’s seat. There are acts and provincial legislation, red tape you must abide by. But, ultimately, it’s up to you to ask questions, build policies, work with your fellow board members to push and get things done and get the information you need to make the right decisions.”
Bill 101, passed May 7, amends several key statutes to centralize provincial oversight and reform school board operations. Supporters say the act ensures fiscal responsibility, reduces waste, and targets funding toward classroom achievement. But critics said the bill is an executive power grab that undermines local democratic governance and ignores issues such underfunding and class sizes.
Hillier-Hutchison said it will be a challenge for boards across the province, since it “greatly reduces board powers, but doesn’t completely eliminate them.” She said it was “disappointing” there’s change “to the point where the CEOs have a lot more power. Boards can’t even fire the CEO without provincial approval.”
She is not a fan of how boards have “buttoned up. It is a public system. It should have mechanisms for transparency.
“There’s confidential pieces I understand and respect, but I think the people want transparency. I think people want to know there’s somebody at the table listening and bringing things forward and communicating back what the result is. If the board makes a decision, I will stand by the board’s decision. If there’s a discussion, I’m going to voice what I feel would be the position of Haliburton County and the students in this community.”
She added she feels being positioned as the only Haliburton County voice may give her power to be a tie-break vote with four trustees from CKL and four from Muskoka.
“Politically, there are a lot of opportunities for Haliburton County to positon itself strongly. Being the swing vote does have power and I’m going to try to leverage that.”
