Public school trustees show anti-democratic colours in filling board vacancies
Board is short two trustees, just months after election
Just seven months after the municipal elections last October, there are three vacancies on local school boards to be filled: one by death, one by illness and one by resignation for political reasons.
And in an astonishing display of anti-democratic culture earlier this week, trustees at the Waterloo Region District School Board decided that they — and not the voters who cast ballots last year — will decide who fills the two spots left at the public board.
Only three trustees argued at a meeting Monday night that the runners-up in the election should be appointed: Bill Cody, Mike Ramsay and Cindy Watson.
They were overruled by the others, who think they know better than the voters do.
The majority of trustees will now open a process to appoint the new people, to which runners-up in the October election would be invited to apply, but would have no assurance that they would be chosen.
Trustee Watson expressed her wish that the people “who put their name down and ran a campaign and put the time in” should be selected, over someone who didn’t put in that hard work but just makes a good presentation.
To appoint anyone other than the runner-up is “completely overriding the democratic process,” she said at Monday’s trustee meeting. She’s absolutely right.
Less than a year has passed since voters last marked their ballots. That’s a short enough time that we can conclude the runner-up is the next person the voters wanted.
That’s who should be appointed, provided they still qualify and still want the job.
That would mean appointing Wendy Woodhall in Waterloo-Wilmot, and Jen Burkholder in Woolwich-Wellesley for the public board.
They’d replace, respectively, Marie Snyder, who has withdrawn for health reasons, and Fred Meissner in Woolwich, who died.
For the Waterloo Catholic District School Board in Kitchener-Wilmot, runner-up Julie Molenaar received 1,423 votes, eight votes ahead of her nearest rival, Simone Beaucage who had 1,415.
Molenaar should be offered the post vacated by Kitchener-Wilmot Catholic school board trustee Wendy Ashby, who resigned Sunday after an uproar over her (now-deleted) Twitter posts which said, in part, that “the most dangerous creature on the planet is the White Christian male” and that “white women make obedient soldiers for the christofacist patriarchy.”
Catholic board trustees haven’t had a chance to decide what they will do to replace Ashby.
But the decision by most public board trustees is breathtaking in its arrogance.
Public trustees have 90 days to replace two people. They have the option of running a byelection, but the public board would have to shoulder the entire cost, likely more than $500,000. The board can’t afford that.
Appointing the runners-up “would be the next most democratic process,” Ramsay said.
But most other trustees decided they know better than the people who pay the bills, take the time to educate themselves, and vote.
An election is a very special thing. It’s a meeting of minds between the candidate, who is out meeting people and sharing ideas, and the voter, who decides if this person is worthy of acting on his or her behalf. It’s a sacred trust that we are lucky to enjoy.
Public school trustees are now moving forward with actions that express contempt for that trust.