Following the death of long-time trustee Dena Morrison in early September, the Rainbow District School Board voted Sept. 26 in favour of a process that will see candidates apply to fill her seat on the board later this fall.
Under provincial legislation, school boards in Ontario can fill trustee vacancies either through an appointment process within 90 days of the seat becoming vacant, or through a byelection.
In a report presented at Tuesday’s meeting, Rainbow Board Director of Education Bruce Bourget brought trustees through the costs associated with running a byelection to fill the seat.
Morrison represented Wards 7 and 8 in the City of Greater Sudbury as well as the municipalities of French River, Killarney, Markstay-Warren, St. Charles and many unorganized townships.
The quote to run a byelection just in the City of Greater Sudbury alone is $295,044, and that does not include the costs associated with running by-elections in the additional aforementioned municipalities.
“So we don't have a cost estimate for that, but it would be fair to say that we'd be over $300,000,” Bourget said, adding that municipalities expect to be reimbursed for the costs of a byelection.
Trustee David Farrow said he would not support running a byelection. He figured the total cost for a byelection would actually come in at somewhere between $600,000 and $1 million, which he thinks would be unfair to ask of the community at this time.
In terms of appointing a trustee, a document from the Ontario Public School Boards Association said provincial legislation does not set out any criteria for how trustees are to be appointed.
“It is up to the board to determine how they will decide who to appoint,” said the document, with different approaches including appointing the candidate who came second in the last election, inviting interested persons to apply for the position and outright offering the appointment to a member of the community.
In the case of Morrison, she was acclaimed in the 2022 trustee elections, so there was no runner-up for her seat.
As stated above, the Rainbow Board has opted to invite members of the public to apply to fill the vacant trustee seat.
According to the Education Act, people are qualified to be elected as a member of the school board “if the person is qualified to vote for members of that district school board or that school authority and is resident in its area of jurisdiction.”
Applicants must also be Canadian citizens, at least 18 years old, not legally prohibited from voting and not disqualified from holding school board office (active school board employees, for example, are disqualified from holding trustee positions).
According to information provided in the board package, the Rainbow Board will accept applications from interested candidates until Oct. 17.
(More information about how to apply is to be posted on the Rainbow Board’s website today, Sept. 27).
Applications will be considered in a closed meeting of the board on Oct. 24, and trustees will bring forward a motion to appoint a candidate in the open portion of the meeting the same day.
The successful applicant would then be sworn in no later than Nov. 17, and take part in their first meeting on Nov. 21.
Trustee Judy Hunda said past practice with the Rainbow Board has also been to appoint a new trustee when there has been a vacancy.
“This is a very unfortunate situation we've had, but in my time, we have had to replace (trustees) not for such a tragedy, but certainly for other matters, twice that I can recall,” she said. “We have done it by appointment, which, just in case anyone's interested, we've made some very good choices, and they've gone on to be very committed and good trustees.”
She said the cost for a byelection is “prohibitive,” and the logistics of putting together a byelection in such a large area is also difficult.
“To me, that money could go so much further in helping students directly,” Hunda said.
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.