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Candidates are running for all 12 zones in the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) in the upcoming municipal election. This comes despite current trustees having lost their stipends and not met for over a year after the province placed the board under supervision.
After the Friday deadline for submission, 33 people have been certified to run for a seat, even though they may not have any power to represent constituents.
In comparison, 41 candidates ran in 2022 and 37 in 2018.
Two trustees run for re-election
Jennifer Jennekens is one of only two OCDSB trustees running for re-election. (CBC)
Only two current trustees are seeking re-election. Jennifer Jennekens, who has served two terms, is seeking re-election in Zone 7. Julia Fortey is seeking re-election in Zone 2.
Four current trustees are running for city council: Donna Blackburn in Barrhaven West; Cathryne Milburn in Beacon Hill-Cyrville; Lyra Evans in Rideau-Vanier; and Donna Dickson in Gloucester-Southgate.
Longtime trustee Lynn Scott is not running after serving the OCDSB since 1994.
Jennekins said she is seeking re-election because she believes in the importance of having a local voice on the board. She worries about the loss of local representation as the province makes sweeping changes to the English school system.
That includes the Putting Student Achievement First Act, which reduces the budget responsibilities of trustees at English-language boards, and mostly removes their role in central bargaining. These changes leave the role of trustees at French-language boards largely alone.
Jennekins is also concerned by the Supporting Children and Students Act, which allows for the minister of education to investigate “matters of public interest” concerning whether school boards, members and directors are carrying out their duties “in an appropriate manner.”
“I feel very passionate about the role of school trustee and I still think I can make a difference,” Jennekins told CBC. “Even though our powers may be diminished, we can still raise awareness.”
That sentiment is echoed by some of the new candidates vying for the role.
Cathy Varrette, a candidate in Zone 12 and a parent of a high-needs autistic child, said she is running to fight for more educational assistant support for students with autism.
“We may not have decision making, we may not have a position per se to go to, but that doesn’t mean the work stops,” said Varrette, who has been live-streaming OCDSB meetings after the board stopped doing so.
Cathy Varrette, a parent with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, is running for trustee in Zone 12. (Liam Baker/CBC)
The province did not respond to a request for information about how supervision will affect the upcoming trustee elections.
Former councillor running for trustee with French public school board
Three other Ottawa school boards are still operating without supervision.
There are 16 people running in the Ottawa Catholic School Board’s 10 trustee zones, five of whom are incumbents who have been automatically re-elected after running unopposed.
Three trustee positions on the French catholic board were also automatically filled after only one candidate ran.
Former city councillor Mathieu Fleury is running to be a trustee for Zone 10 of the Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario. (Simon Lasalle/CBC)
Former city councillor for Rideau-Vanier Mathieu Fleury is running for trustee with the Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario.
Fleury said he is running in Zone 10 because his children will study in the French public school system, and he wants to contribute to that system as a parent.
He has concerns about how the recent changes to provincial legislation will impact Ontario’s school systems.
“The minister is on record saying he would not make any changes to French boards, and yet when you see the the act, a lot of the changes affect all school boards, so [it’s] concerning to me,” he said.
Elsewhere in rural eastern Ontario, the Township of South Frontenac said no one put their name forward to be the area’s trustee for the Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board.
The town said anyone wanting to be a candidate can submit nominations to the clerk’s office in South Frontenac on Aug. 26.