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A guide to the school board elections

Although school boards, unlike municipalities, don't have the ability to levy taxes, they do make important decisions about how to spend provincial dollars on local schools.
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Voters will be asked to elect trustees in their school board of choice Oct. 27. File photo.
Although school boards, unlike municipalities, don't have the ability to levy taxes, they do make important decisions about how to spend provincial dollars on local schools.

People are invited to vote for a trustee in their area for one of the following school boards — the Rainbow District School Board, the Sudbury Catholic District School Board, Conseil scolaire public du Grand Nord de l'Ontario or Conseil scolaire catholique du Nouvel-Ontario.

If you don't know what school board elections you're supposed to be participating in, there's a few rules associated with that.

First of all, electors may only support one board.

Only Roman Catholics who have French-language education rights have the choice of supporting any one of the four local school boards.

People who are not Roman Catholic, but do have French-language education rights, must be either English or French public school supporters.

Those who are not Roman Catholic and do not have French-language education rights must be English public supporters.

Those with French-language rights must meet at least one of the following criteria: your native language is French; your elementary education was in French; or your child's elementary or secondary education was/is in French.

Although the school board trustee elections aren't exactly crowded so far — a few boards don't even have candidates in all of their jurisdictions yet — there are a few candidates who have stepped up to the plate.

Just like the councillor and mayoral races, the deadline to enter school board elections is Sept. 12 at 2 p.m.

There are several incumbent trustees seeking re-election.

This includes Gord Santala, Tyler Campbell, Dena Morrison and Judy Hunda in the Rainbow board; Estelle Scappatura, Ray Desjardins, Michael Bellmore, Barry MacDonald and Jody Cameron in the Sudbury Catholic board; and Robert Boileau, Claude Giroux, Jean-Marc Aubin and Raymond Labreque in the French public board.

The only trustee race where there's more than one candidate so far is with the Sudbury Catholic board, where veteran trustee Barry MacDonald is facing a challenge in Zone 4 by newcomer Nancy Deni.

Other candidates who aren't currently trustees include Leo Bisson, who's running in Zone 3 for the Rainbow board, Jessica Joy, who's running in Zone 5 for the Rainbow board, Geraldine Meskell in Zone 5 for the Sudbury Catholic board, Francois Boudreau in Zone 12 for the French public board, and Marcel Legault in Zone 6 for the French Catholic board.

The two French boards have areas where nobody has signed up for the trustee elections. This includes Zone 7 for the French public board and Zone 5 and 6 for the French Catholic board.

If you're confused as to what these “zones” refer to, there's an explanation based on city wards in the “school board trustee” section of the city's municipal election website, www.greatersudbury.ca/inside-city-hall/election-2014.

There's also information on the website regarding eligibility criteria for those considering running for school board trustee positions.

@heidi_ulrichsen

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Heidi Ulrichsen

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