Sooke school district in market for chairman, superintendent

The chairman of the Sooke school board has resigned and superintendent Jim Cambridge has announced plans to retire next year.

Board chairman Bob Phillips, a 69-year-old who has served 15 years as a board trustee, said the time was right for him to step down after 18 months as chairman.

He is about halfway through his second one-year term in the chair and will continue as a trustee.

The changes come at a challenging time in the district, which has about 9,200 students and is expected to grow by about 1,800 students over the next five years.

That has put classroom space at a premium and sparked a move by district officials last fall to begin searching for land to build up to four new schools.

The district has a purchase agreement for a parcel of about 6.5 hectares on Latoria Road, near Happy Valley Road, but the sale is contingent on the land being removed from the Agricultural Land Reserve.

A new chairperson will be elected at the June 27 board meeting.

The chairperson has an important role, but the school board functions as a unit, Phillips said.

“All of our substantive decisions are made by a corporate board, all seven people,” he said. “Some boards don’t work like that; there’s much more authority in the office of the superintendent, secretary-treasurer, chair of the board.”

Phillips said his resignation was timed to allow for succession planning. “There’s ample notice for the board to take a look at: ‘How do we want to go forward with the board chair?’ ”

He said he is dealing with personal and family matters “that would not allow me to devote the time to the board chair.”

Phillips has not decided if he will run again in 2018.

Cambridge’s decision to retire in August 2018 will coincide with the end of his current five-year contract.

Phillips said Cambridge, a long-time friend, does an exceptional job.

“I regard Jim Cambridge as one of the best superintendents in the province,” he said. “He has made it really easy for me to be the board chair and work with him.”

Cambridge will be 62 when he retires after spending eight years as superintendent.

He noted that he previously served as an assistant superintendent, director, principal, viceprincipal, teacher and teacher-oncall, starting his career with the district in 1981 as a teacher at Sangster Elementary.

His tenure in the district’s top job has included shepherding the building of two high schools, Belmont and Royal Bay, which opened in 2015.