Who wants to be a London-area school trustee? So far, not many people
Poor pay. Unhappy parents. Long and late-night meetings.
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Poor pay. Unhappy parents. Long and late-night meetings.
Could this be why, with two months left before the filing deadline for public and Catholic school board trustees, many wards remain without candidates, while others have only a few who have filed their papers for election day on Oct. 24.
“It’s a lot of hours; it’s a lot of work and the pandemic has made it even more (challenging),” says Lori-Ann Pizzolato, chair of the Thames Valley District school board that has an annual budget of more than $1 billion. “Eight-hour days are easy for a chair . . . We have had more special board meetings in the last couple years than we’ve ever had.”
Not to mention expectations from parents that their school board trustee be readily available, said Pizzolato, who is the only sitting Thames Valley London trustee to have filed their paperwork.
“And if you want to be a responsive trustee, you have to become available,” she said, adding she gets satisfaction from soothing the jangled nerves of upset parents.
That’s a lot on the shoulders of trustees who receive an honorarium of $5,900 from the province, plus bump ups for trustees in larger boards or with more responsibility.
A chairperson of a school board makes about $20,000, Pizzolato said.
Andrea Lawlor, associate professor in the department of political science at King’s University College, said the election is still in its “early days.”
“We just came out of a provincial election,” she said. “The municipal election hasn’t permeated our consciousness.”
School board elections have “lower visibility” than city council and often there is misunderstanding of what a trustee does and who can become a trustee, Lawlor said, adding trustees aren’t compensated as well as other municipal positions.
“In general, we see fewer people put their names forward, because they don’t know what the position is about,” she said.
Trustee authority comes through the Education Act and their duties includes establishing priorities for local educational budgets, as well as holding the education director accountable, she said.
“They make sure that the school board is upholding all of tenants of the Education Act that they are responsible for and general community engagement,” Lawlor said.
One reason people become trustees is because they “are passionate about education,” she said.
“It’s because their kids or grandkids are going through school and they care deeply about community and about the priorities of the board,” Lawlor said. “It’s not a high-prestige office necessarily. It doesn’t receive the flash or attention of local council.”
But trustees have many weighty responsibilities.
“Think about the priorities of schools during COVID,” Lawlor said. “We really relied on school boards to manage the implementation of policies that have a great effect on communities around them.
“It would be wrong to discount the importance of what a trustee does.”
Others may use the position as an entry “to politics, whether that is getting their name in the public space and gaining recognition,” Lawlor said.
The school board “could serve as stepping stone for future campaigns on city council or provincial or federal office,” she said.
Sitting school board trustees Peter Cuddy and Corrine Rahman both have registered to run for London city council.
For Pizzolato running for a second term as a trustee is about finishing what she started before the pandemic hit.
“I came in with things I wanted to accomplish and the pandemic veered things away,” she said.
Lawlor thinks many people don’t understand that being a trustee is another way to engage with their community.
“I would encourage Londoners to think about this as one pathway to community engagement because the requirements are very general,” she said. “Anyone who is passionate about education – the way that our schools operate and want to support our students – this is a wonderful role for them to step forward in.”
Requirement to run
- 18 years old
- Canadian citizen
- Able to vote
- Resident of the school board district
- Roman Catholic, if running for Catholic board
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