There is a certain amount irony in the school board’s foot-dragging on regional representation.

When the province tells School District 57 that is must “do more with less,” the refrain from board members often is: “Victoria doesn’t understand rural school districts.”

Yet, the board has no rural members. They are all from Prince George.

That, of course, doesn’t mean the seven elected board members cannot represent rural areas. They do their best. But for those in the outlying areas, Prince George issues will dominate because that’s where the population is and that is where the board members are from.

Mackenzie Mayor Pat Crooks is pushing for the board to change how its members are elected. Valemount-McBride will also follow suit. The suggestion is that the Mackenzie and Valemount-McBride areas each elect one member to the board and the Prince George area elect the remaining five. That move is also being supported by the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George.

While it can be argued that those areas already have the opportunity to elect members, the reality is that it’s difficult for candidates from those areas to get elected because Prince George voters carry the day.

It leaves those areas with the feeling they are not represented on the board. It’s definitely time to change the make-up of the board to allow rural representation.

However, School Board 57 chair Tony Cable has given the suggestion a pretty lukewarm response. He says the board will look at it but there’s no hurry as the next election is still three years away. A couple of years from now we will likely hear Cable intone that there isn’t enough time to implement a change before the election.

The board’s response to change is simply disappointing.

How can Cable, and the rest of the board, now say that they have the best interests of rural areas at heart when they can’t even commit to seriously looking at giving those areas a voice?

This isn’t rocket science. We only need to look south to the Cariboo-Chilcotin school district to see how rural representation can work. That district elects representatives from around Williams Lake and one from the Chilcotin. There are other districts that manage to have proper rural representation. Why can’t School District 57?

It’s time to make the change.