Local union officials are calling for the province to relinquish control of the Near North District School Board and re-instate trustees following the October election.
Rob Hammond, President of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario Local, says trustees are duly elected within area municipalities as part of our local democracy.
“The provincial government needs to respect local democracy,” says Hammond. “People’s voices need to be heard locally.”
A new board of trustees is slated to be elected Oct. 26.
However, Hammond says nobody knows exactly what role those trustees will have while the Near North Board remains under Ministry supervision.
“We have had people who have been reluctant to even run for trustees because they don’t know whether they will have any power or whether they will have the ability to do anything,” he says. “(Trustees) are really the first line that parents and teachers can go to if there is an issue. When we don’t have local representatives (teachers and parents are) going to be lost trying to deal with the province.”
While visiting the new Francis Pegahmagabow Elementary School in Parry Sound on Sept. 15, Education Minister Paul Calandra stated he had no plans to relinquish control of any of the school boards the Ministry is currently supervising anytime soon.
He said there are a number of milestones the board will need to accomplish first and that it will take as long as it takes.
**Written by Andrew Mendler
