Image: Shane Kooyman 

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Chilliwack school board by-election

Update: Chilliwack teenager seeks to neutralize biases in public education in bid for school board seat

Jan 27, 2025 | 6:52 AM

UPDATE 7:25 P.M. MONDAY: 18-year-old Shane Kooyman says he’s running for school board because he has witnessed what he calls a “lot of political biases” entering the public school system through the local Chilliwack Board of Education.

“My goal is to help neutralize the biases in the education system and put students first,” Kooyman told Fraser Valley Today via Facebook Messenger Monday night at 7:15 p.m. “What I mean by putting students first is focusing on their academics and not persuading their political view.”

Kooyman said he doesn’t plan to put up campaign signs, but does intend to hand out pamphlets and possibly go door to door to canvas, as well as tentative plans to conduct a live Q&A forum.

Original story below from 6:52 a.m. Monday morning: 

CHILLIWACK — A third candidate has entered the race to fill a vacant seat on the Chilliwack Board of Education.

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Shane Kooyman, a high school student at Unity Christian, an independent school in Chilliwack, has qualified as a candidate for the upcoming by-election in March.

He joins Katie Bartel and Laurie Throness as the three candidates vying to occupy a seat on the Board of Education that was vacated after Heather Maahs won her Chilliwack North riding against the late Dan Coulter, who previously represented Chilliwack as an MLA for four years.

According to his candidate profile page on Facebook, Kooyman is a baseball player on the Chilliwack Cougars college prep team and attends high school in Chilliwack. His stated goal as a trustee is to de-politicize the public education system so that students can focus on learning.

“I hope to provide a fresh prospective on these complex issues as a lifetime resident in order to help make sure that our community is providing the best possible services to our students,” said Kooyman.

Kooyman’s Facebook profile page states he is focused on bringing back reading, writing and arithmetic “with impartiality.”

Meanwhile, Katie Bartel has been hustling to get her name out through larger campaign signs on Keith Wilson Road and Prest Road, among other locations in Chilliwack. She held an informal meet-and-greet over the weekend at a downtown Chilliwack bookstore, and was endorsed by a former Chilliwack-Kent MLA who recently lost in the October 2024 provincial election. Bartel touted her advocacy and leadership that resulted in an enhanced pilot project for the After School Sport and Arts Initiative (ASSAI) grant, expanding opportunities for students to participate in extracurricular activities with the resources they need.

“For years, I’ve fought for kids with disabilities to have equal access to afterschool activities like sports and clubs,” Bartel said. “Too often, they’ve been excluded due to a lack of Education Assistant (EA) support. This program changes that and proves inclusion is possible when we prioritize every child’s needs.”

The ASSAI grant, previously limited to K-8 students, has been expanded through her advocacy, to include grades K-12, Bartel said. The enhanced pilot prioritizes EA support, funds social programs alongside arts and sports, and supports ongoing initiatives rather than only new ones, Bartel wrote in a press release.

Over the weekend, SD33 communications manager Amy Dhanjal emailed Fraser Valley Today to say ASSAI programming supports K-8 students.

“Students in our district have benefited from the ASSAI grant for many years,” Dhanjal stated in her email. “We’ve seen the value of the program for K-8 students and as a pilot project we’ve set aside some district funds to expand support to students in grades 9-12,” Dhanjal said.

Laurie Throness has taken a more subtle approach to his campaign, quietly releasing videos and statements that outline his concern with the academic performance of Chilliwack elementary schools. According to a news release sent to Fraser Valley Today this past week, Throness cited a report from the Fraser Institute’s Report Card on British Columbian Elementary Schools in which the academic performance of 948 schools throughout B.C. were ranked out of 10, using a comprehensive series of indicators to arrive at a B.C. standard. In the report, 19 public elementary schools in Chilliwack were assessed, and none scored higher than 6.9/10. The lowest was 4.0/10.

“I find this alarming, and parents should be disappointed, to say the least,” said Throness. “Our schools are doing worse than most other schools in the province, meaning that many of our children are under-prepared in basic skills for higher grades, and even less-prepared for post-secondary education and the wider world.”