Trustee Elections Important

OSSTF D4 TBU and Near North Elementary Teachers
Media Release

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“Municipal elections, especially trustee elections, tend to have a very low voter turnout, yet trustees play a major decision-making role in our local communities,” said Nancy Kilgour, president of the Near North Elementary Teachers Local.

“Trustees can decide which schools will close and which will stay open, who will be promoted or hired into senior management positions and what to keep and what to cut at budget time. For this reason we felt that it is important to provide our members with information that will help them chose the best trustee in their area,” Kilgour said.

Recently the Near North Elementary Teachers Local and the OSSTF District 4 sent out a survey to all twelve Near North District School Board trustee candidates. The answers to these surveys have been posted at www.nearnorth-osstf.org and are available to all voters within the Near North boundaries.

“In most school boards, including ours, trustees manage a budget considerably larger than their corresponding municipal counterpart,” Keith Pacey, president of OSSTF District 4 stated. “Considering that the public school board trustees deal with a budget of about $125 million compared to the North Bay budget of about $96 million, it seems to us that there should be as much care and consideration put into the trustee elections as the city and township elections,” Pacey added.

“The decisions the trustees make matter to our students, our schools, our communities and our future. For this reason we have chosen to also make this information available to the general public in addition to our members,” said Pacey.

“Trustee elections are important. We encourage our members and the general public to vote, but we also encourage them to take advantage of the advanced poll opportunities,” concluded Kilgour.

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