Attendees at a school board candidates "Meet and Greet" last night heard plenty of reasons to get out and vote Monday.
Approximately 50 people turned out to hear from candidates during the Near North District School Board Trustee Candidate event at West Ferris Intermediate and Secondary School Thursday night.
The crowd heard candidates say that the Board is broken and needs to be fixed, that its public image needs to change, that there needs to be better communication, that it has to be more student-focused and transparent, that money needs to be put back into programming, and that it is essential that the board provide an inclusive learning environment.
And of course, there is the matter of school closures.
Organized by the Parent Advisory Councils for the North Bay Secondary Schools, the format provided each candidate with five minutes to explain their platform, before breaking away and giving the public a chance to meet with the candidates one-on-one.
Retired teacher Mary Ann Jones attended because in her words, “There is nothing more important than the way we educate our students.”
She acknowledged that the board has some difficult decisions to make, and to do that, she says they need good people to be part of that process.
“Everything should revolve around what is best for the students. We’re faced with school closures because of declining enrolment. The bottom line is, decisions have to be made, and we have to move forward,” said Jones.
“So, I support people who are coming forward and hoping to make a difference. I’m here tonight because I need to know who is standing up for the kids. Some of my thoughts are confirmed, and I will do some more research on the platforms of a couple of them.”
Reflecting back to his teaching days, Bill Clark noted the evolution that has taken place in education over the years.
Even after hearing from the candidates, he is still in a quandary over who he will be supporting in Monday’s election.
“I spent a bit of time looking, and I will go back and do some more. I just want to be informed,” said Clark.
One of his concerns is more on a provincial level.
“Funding four different boards to me is economic suicide. I think we need to be integrated, and if we’re going to be bilingual, we could all have one system.“
As one of the event coordinators, Andrea Cardinal explained that the intent was to give voters the opportunity to have an informal conversation with the school board candidates, making it easier to get answers to any pressing questions.
“Unfortunately, l did not see a lot of people get up to speak to the candidates. I did mill around and ask people to go up and speak to the candidates, and a lot of them said they were still uncertain, and they felt that they had some homework to do themselves, before asking any specific questions,” said Cardinal.
“So, a lot of them were really happy to get the information that they heard from the five-minute presentations, but still didn’t feel comfortable enough to go up and ask a question.”
What Cardinal said she did hear from the voters is that they are passionate about public education.
”What I’m understanding from parents I spoke to is, they’re wanting that transparency. And I think it is stemming from the school closures. We understand that has to happen, because our enrolment is down, and we can’t sustain these buildings any more without the numbers in them,” said Cardinal.
“But I think people are feeling that they’re not understanding the whole process, and they’re feeling hurt by it, so emotion plays a lot into it. I think if that could be addressed in ways people can understand, then we would probably have more people backing what is happening. There are those people who think their voice isn’t going to matter, and I think that is why we’re not seeing as many people out here as we would like to have.”
Following the meeting, some voters expressed their concerns on a variety of issues, including efficiencies, decision-making policies, building on the relationship between trustees, parents and faculty, better communication and escalating costs.
