Charlie Fox for Township Trustee

This district is experiencing the fastest growth I’ve seen in fifty-three years here. The decisions we make in the next four years will shape Langley schools for the next twenty. We need to secure school sites, get schools built, and recruit and retain good staff.

When I was sworn in after the 2021 byelection, I said it felt like coming full circle. I’d been in that room many times over the years, always in a different role. At the board table, I found myself drawing on everything I’d learned in the classroom, in the principal’s office and on Township Council. I’m running to keep putting that experience to work for our students and families.

I moved to the Township in 1973 for a teaching job, and I’ve called it home ever since. My wife, Diane, and I both worked in the Langley School District, and our two children attended schools here. Today, our daughter is a teacher and administrator in the district, and our two grandchildren are students here.

I taught at Aldergrove Elementary, served as principal at several elementary schools across the Township, and retired as principal of Aldergrove Community Secondary. Between my career in schools and thirteen years on Council, I’ve worked in most corners of this community. That experience has taught me how much local differences matter. Brookswood, Willoughby and Aldergrove each have their own character and needs, and our decisions should reflect that.

Seven things I’ll keep pushing for:

• Student achievement first. Keep our focus on literacy, numeracy, graduation and making sure students leave our schools ready for their next step.
• Schools that keep pace with growth. Secure sites and advocate for school funding before new neighbourhoods fill up. That means working with the Township early in the planning process.
• Recruiting and keeping good staff. Recruit strong teachers, education assistants and support staff, mentor new teachers, and give people the support they need to build a career here.
• Every student included. Support students with diverse abilities and additional needs to learn alongside their peers, with the staffing, resources and individual support that make inclusion work.
• Safe, welcoming schools. Make physical safety and bullying prevention priorities, alongside counselling and mental health supports that help students stay connected to school.
• Careful stewardship of public dollars. Deliver balanced budgets, account for the ongoing costs of operating new schools, and release budget reports before board votes so families can understand the decisions.
• Following through on reconciliation. Turn the district’s commitments to Indigenous students and families into clear actions, with progress we can measure and report.

I bring experience from three roles in the same community: more than three decades as a Langley teacher and principal, thirteen years on Township Council, and five years as your trustee.

My career in Langley schools ran from 1973 to 2007. I served four terms on Council between 2005 and 2018, chairing the Youth Advisory Committee and representing Council on the HD Stafford and Langley Secondary community advisory committee. I joined the school board through the 2021 byelection and was re-elected in 2022.

On the current board, I chair the district’s Finance and Audit Committee and serve as trustee representative to the District Parent Advisory Council. I also serve as the Metro Vancouver District’s Trustee representative and as Langley’s representative to the BC School Trustees Association and the BC Public School Employers’ Association. This term, I also served on the BC School Trustees Association’s Finance and Audit Committee.

When I read a staff report, I picture the people behind it. A budget line about staffing brings to mind a classroom, the teacher leading it and the students who need support. When a report says a school is over capacity, I know what that looks like in a hallway at nine in the morning.

That experience gives me patience with careful process and very little patience with unnecessary delay. Board decisions take time, but students need their classrooms, staff and supports ready when school starts in September. I bring that practical sense of urgency to the table.

It starts with practical, everyday support. I coordinate Aldergrove Rotary’s Starfish Backpack program in four Aldergrove area schools, sending food home with children for the weekend. The program has distributed more than 25,000 backpacks. It’s harder to learn when you’re hungry, and making sure children have enough to eat is part of helping them succeed at school.

The same commitment guides my work at the board table: counselling and mental health supports, education assistants where students need them, and the staffing and resources that help students with additional needs learn alongside their peers.

I spent my career working with students who carried more than any child should have to. They’re a big part of why I’m still doing this.

Because students depend on the people who teach and support them every day. Since the pandemic, recruiting teachers, education assistants, counsellors and support staff has become harder across the province. Langley needs to be a district where good people want to work and stay.

Recruitment is only the beginning. We also need to support people once they arrive, including mentoring new teachers through their first two years and helping staff build lasting careers here.

I hired many young teachers during my career. I saw the difference it made when someone took the time to guide them, answer their questions and help them through a difficult day. That early support matters—for the staff we keep and the students they serve.

An understanding of school sites and timing. School needs have to be part of the conversation when neighbourhoods are being planned. After thirteen years on Council, I understand how that process works, what the funding tools can and cannot do, and why the district needs to be involved before decisions are made.

Willoughby shows why that matters. Homes arrived quickly, and school capacity has been catching up ever since. As the next neighbourhoods grow, I want the Township and school district planning together early, with school sites identified and a clear plan for getting schools built.

Joining Langley Strong hasn’t changed my responsibility to make my own decisions. Every member of this team keeps their own judgment, and I’ll continue to read the full agenda package, ask difficult questions and vote for what I believe serves our students and community.

What’s changed is my view of how closely the school board and Township Council need to work together. School sites, safe crossings, playing fields and childcare spaces all require coordination. That work goes better when people at both tables share clear commitments.

Langley Strong shares the commitments I care about: careful stewardship of public dollars, transparent decisions and a steady, long-term focus on student success.

Most of our budget pays for the people who teach and support students, and that’s where it should be. Responsible budgeting means understanding what those dollars deliver and whether we can sustain the commitments we make.

As chair of the Finance and Audit Committee, my job is to scrutinize the numbers, ask about ongoing costs and help make the reasoning clear to families. Before we commit to something today, we need to understand what it will cost to operate in the years ahead.

It also means making budget reports available before the vote, so families have time to understand what’s proposed. When a decision affects a child’s school day, parents deserve a clear explanation of what is changing and why.

Call me. My phone number and email are on the district website, and I respond to both. You may not always get the answer you hoped for, but you deserve a thoughtful response and a clear explanation.

Three decades of parent meetings taught me that people don’t always expect agreement. They do expect to be listened to and taken seriously. That’s where I start.

Family first. Diane and I have two children and two grandchildren, all here in Langley, and much of our time is spent showing up for whatever the grandchildren are doing.

I also stay involved in school and community life. I judge speech contests, listen to student capstone presentations, and review applications for the SASSY awards and the Otter Co-op scholarship and bursary programs. I enjoy attending Christmas concerts and fine arts nights around the district.

After fifty-three years here, a fair bit of my social life still happens in a school gym.

Start with students and their everyday experience. We should see stronger graduation rates, students getting the support they need, and school capacity keeping pace with growing neighbourhoods. Students and families should be able to see the difference.

I’ve watched generations of children grow up in this district, including my own children and now my grandchildren. The purpose of the work hasn’t changed since 1973: every decision at the board table should support what happens in the classroom.