School Board Elections
Position Statement of the P.E.I. Home and School Federation (PEIHSF) was forwarded to Hon. Alan McIsaac, Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development Nov. 22, 2013 concerning the process of electing trustees to the English Language School Board.
We propose:
- Elections for the English and French School Boards to occur at the same time.
- The next school board election be delayed to the fall of 2015 and be held to coincide with another municipal, provincial or federal election to maximize voter participation.
- School board elections to take place every 4 years thereafter.
- Trustees to serve a maximum of 2 consecutive terms.
- As a transition to a fully-elected board, and to maintain continuity, the English Language School Board would retain 6 of its existing appointed members during the first election in the fall of 2015.
- In a process that would involve education and parent/community engagement, every school would nominate a single candidate to stand for election in that school's "family of schools." During the election to follow, electors would then select a single candidate (or, for the two largest families of schools, two candidates) to represent the family of schools as their trustee. The result would be 12 elected trustees, each representing a family of schools, and selected in a manner that would be rooted at the school level: we see this as a key factor to gain engagement with the electorate, and a powerful tool for ensuring high-quality trustees.
- An on-line voting system for voters be made available to increase voter participation.
See more information in the attached file below: