The big question hanging over Sunday’s school board elections is how many people will show up at the polls?
They’re the first province-wide school board elections in seven years, and Education Minister Yves Bolduc has said the turnout will be a criterion for deciding how the system might be restructured in the future. Changes could include some school board mergers, Bolduc told reporters earlier this month.
The voter turnout rate in the 2007 school board elections was only 7.9 per cent. The participation rate was higher at English boards, but nothing to crow about at 16.7 per cent.
Elections are being held in 58 of Quebec’s 60 francophone school boards and at eight of nine English boards in the province. The candidates for chairperson and commissioner were acclaimed at the three other boards.
Polls will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday. Voters should have received a reminder card telling them where they can vote. If you didn’t receive it or can’t find it, you can check with your local school board to find out the location of the polling station in your ward.
Sunday’s vote marks the first time that people will elect a school board’s chairperson in addition to choosing a commissioner in their ward. Here are a few of the chairperson races to watch:
Lester B. Pearson School Board
Three candidates are running for chairperson: Suanne Stein Day, the incumbent chairperson, Angela Nolet, the incumbent vice-chairperson, and Chris Eustace, a retired teacher who taught at the Dorval-based Pearson board.
It’s safe to assume there’s no love lost between Stein Day and Eustace, who has been a fixture as an observer at council of commissioner meetings since the Pearson board’s inception in 1998, asking questions about board operations during public question period. He was barred from asking questions late last year and also couldn’t ask questions at council meetings during a lengthy stretch near the end of Marcus Tabachnick’s tenure as chairperson. Eustace told The Gazette last spring that it’s because he asks uncomfortable questions about board practices. Stein Day said at the time that Eustace’s queries were overly long and detailed and he would go over the three-minute limit that was introduced.
Eustace’s campaign slogan is “time for a revolution,” whereby “the governing board is more important than the school board, where the classroom is more important than the boardroom,” he explained. Eustace would also like to see more monies shifted from the administration of the board “like at head office” and put into the classroom.
Stein Day, the board’s chairperson since 2011, said she believes she’s been a strong leader who can “bring us to the next level.” Her platform includes keeping a focus on technology. “We were lucky to put an infrastructure in place so that we could bring in more technology at minimal costs given our budget cuts,” she said. Excellence in French as well as fighting for the rights of English education are also part of her platform.
Angela Nolet has served as a commissioner for 19 years, part of that time with the former Lakeshore School Board. Nolet said she decided to run for chairperson because she figured it was necessary at this point in the board’s history. “I’m not happy with the way things have been happening.
“I believe we can do better for the kids,” Nolet said.
“I do know they need more French instruction than they’ve been receiving (and) that the employees need to feel appreciated in the positions that they’re in and I don’t feel that’s happening right now.”
Three commissioners have been acclaimed at the Pearson board and nine other commissioner positions are up for grabs.
English Montreal School Board
This high-profile race pits Angela Mancini, the incumbent chairperson against Anne Lagacé Dowson, a well-known Montreal broadcaster. Each has a full slate of candidates on their respective teams and all 10 commissioner seats will be decided by election on Sunday.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board (Laval, Lanaudière and Laurentian regions): The chairperson race pits Jennifer Maccarone, the former head of the board’s parents committee, against Steve Bletas who served as chairperson from the board’s creation in 1998 until 2012 when he stepped down amid controversy.
Bletas came under fire in the spring of 2012 from an association that represents the board’s administrators who accused him of overstepping his role. A report from a working group at the board concluded their concerns were valid.
Bletas’ actions during the hiring process for a new assistant director-general in March 2012 also went under the microscope. A report a few months later from the board’s ethics commissioner, who reviewed the hiring process, found “irregularities” had occurred. They included the fact that Bletas didn’t disclose to the selection committee that he was in touch with one of the candidates for the job who was a friend.
“I should have recused myself,” Bletas said in an interview this week.
As for school principals, “they have a role to play and I have to respect that role,” he said.
“School boards are going through turbulent times where we’re facing abolition, reduction and probably amalgamation,” Bletas said.
“It’s a time when both leadership and experience must come to the forefront. And I feel I do have that leadership quality and the experience,” Bletas said, adding the group he’s running with, “Students First”, has experience, newness and innovation.
Maccarone said she decided to run because she’s a parent “and I want to make sure that I reflect the voice of the parents and the students going forward.”
It’s time for change, said Maccarone, who is running with a team called EducAction. “We need new people sitting around that table,” she said.
“We need to have some experience and the reality is also members of my team come with a variety of experience. We’ve got teachers. We have former commissioners. We have business owners. We have people who are able to bring the board to the next level.
“And his past history I think is something for electors to consider before casting their vote,” Maccarone said of Bletas.
The board has nine commissioner positions, two of which were decided by acclamation.
Commission scolaire de Montréal: Four people are vying for the chairperson’s job at the province’s largest school board. The incumbent chairperson Catherine Harel-Bourdon faces challenges from Jocelyne Cyr, who was first elected as a commissioner in 2005, Christine Fournier, the former head of the board’s central parents committee, and Martin Boyer, an independent candidate.
In the west end Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys, incumbent Diane Lamarche-Venne, the board’s chairperson since 2005, squares off against 29-year-old Max Martel who has a master’s degree in finance.
The chairperson race at the other francophone school board on Montreal Island, the Commission scolaire de la Pointe-de-l’Île, pits Vincent Arciresi, the board’s chairperson since its creation in 1998, against Miville Boudreault, who has served as a commissioner at the board.
bbranswell@montrealgazette.com
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