Tom R Rokeby on Facebook Improvement in Literacy and Numeracy rates
Healthy schools for students and staff
Reconciliation with the Nations we serve.
Tom R Rokeby
Independent for Nanaimo School Board
Climate Change, Heat, Fires, & the Environment
Energy-Efficient Buildings
To continue to oversee the current reduction of green house gas emissions by employing heat pumps where ever possible.
To continue to advocate for provincial funding to replace aging buildings that do not meet today's standards for energy efficiency
Private Vehicles & Parking
To continue to oversee the district's active transportation policy operationalized to alleviate parking and traffic around our school sites.
Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
To continue to oversee the operationalizing of our Environmental Standards and Sustainability Action Plan to continue to reduce the district's ghg emissions through fleet electrification and heat pumps.
Walking & Cycling
Continue oversee the implementation of our Active Transportation policy to encourage safe travel for pedestrians and cyclists to and from our school sites.
Human Rights
Physical Accessibility
To help families report barriers to physical accessibility that they encounter at our school sites,
Advocate for funding from the provincial government to replace inaccessible facilities
Recent Immigrants
Promise to be a trustee for all of our students and their families regardless of immigration status.
Trans Rights & Access to Public Services
I promise to uphold the BC Human Rights Code and protect SOGI resources and lessons in our schools.
I promise to advocate for provincial funding to upgrade washrooms in our schools for safety and universal access
Local Government, Planning, & Democracy
Budgeting
Promise to spend today's dollars on today's kids and return surplus funds to the classroom.
Good Governance
Promise to continue the quality of governance that has developed in our board room over the last 2 years.
Government Procurement
Promise to support local, provincial, domestic procurement in that order.
Long-Term Plan
Replace the aging NDSS, and prepare to update our strategic plan in 2028
Public Engagement
to work with staff to create opportunities for the board to meet with schools on new or misunderstood policies.
Youth Engagement
Promise to continue our Student Voice Committee and its incredible work this last year.
Mental Health, Drugs, & Addiction
Reconciliation & Indigenous Nations
Schools & Public Education
Biography
submitted by the candidate or their team
Current Vice-chair for re-election.
Grateful to raise my family on Snuneymuxw territory with my wife Lisa, I graduated from NDSS and UVIC, then taught at Barsby for twenty years. I am co-founder of Reconciliation Theatre and on the board of Literacy Central Vancouver Island.
Grateful to raise my family on Snuneymuxw territory with my wife Lisa, I graduated from NDSS and UVIC, then taught at Barsby for twenty years. I am co-founder of Reconciliation Theatre and on the board of Literacy Central Vancouver Island.
It has been my pleasure and an absolute privilege to serve the students and families of Nanaimo Ladysmith school district for the last four years. My perspective as an SD68 graduate, teacher and now parent is unique in what has been a very hard-working and effective board-room. I am grateful to all my fellow trustees for what they have taught me this term and their trust in my leadership.
A little about me.
I moved to Nanaimo in 1987 as a teenager with my retiring parents Noel and Shirley Rokeby. I grew up watching my parents immerse themselves in projects such as Loaves and Fishes, Global Village and Woodgrove Seniors Housing from idea to reality. The responsibility to help our community grow with dignity and equity was an early lesson.
A member of Nanaimo District Secondary School's last mass-grad in 1989, I continued my education first at Vancouver Island University (then Malaspina), and in time transferred to the University of Victoria to complete my undergraduate degrees and teacher certification. Recently I returned to UVIC to complete a Masters in Public Administration in 2025.
I began my teaching career in French Immersion at NDSS, and soon after moved to John Barsby, where I established and ran Bulldog Theatre for the next 18 years. My passion drove me beyond the school day, hosting regional festivals, mounting 2 student productions each year, taking students to Japan, and running Student Vote each election cycle.
Raising a family in Nanaimo with my wife Lisa, I continues to build community, the way his parents taught me. Reconciliation is an action item in the Rokeby household. My creative energy is currently being channelled into my role as Artistic Director of Reconcilation Theatre. The entire family is grateful for the Hulquiminum courses taken with Snuneymuxw Elder Gary Manson his son and Adam Manson.
We lives an active lifestyle, developing the property that Lisa and I bought 16 years ago into the South Wellington Art Farm, an outdoor performing arts centre and home to our hens, goats and kune kune pigs. I have also been an active parent-volunteer, sharing my limited skill and tireless enthusiasm with Island Swish Basketball and Nanaimo Minor Hockey Association.
My first attempt at community organizing was an inline hockey league, the CPHL. I grew old enjoying the sport with new friends, and am proud the league outlasted me. Most recently, I had the pleasure of attending the opening of the South Wellington Community Centre, a project for which I sat on the Regional District of Nanaimo steering committee 5 years ago.
Reason for running
submitted by the candidate or their team
Literacy, Numeracy, Reconciliation and Student & Staff Wellness remain my priorities. Our Literacy and Numeracy frameworks will raise student achievement. Moving forward,ensuring quality, accessible childcare combined with EAs in primary classrooms to support all learners.
rokeby.ca www.rokeby.ca