School board elections set for Nov. 22, Dale Kirby announces

Education Minister Dale Kirby says residents of the province will get to elect new school board trustees in November, to replace those appointed by the previous Progressive Conservative government.

• 5 schools closed by English School District
• Whitbourne Elementary closure battle not over yet, parents vow to keep fighting

Kirby announced on Tuesday that the election date will be Nov.22 to choose trustees for both the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District, and the Conseilscolairefrancophone provincial de Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador.

"Our government made a commitment to hold school board elections within 12 months of taking office. I am very pleased that we are able to get this process underway," said Kirby in a news release.

No plan to restrict outgoing board

The minister has taken heat from parent groupsfor not moving faster to hold board elections.

Parents of students at WhitbourneElementary, for example,argued that school trustees appointed by a previous government had no right to decide the future direction of schools.

At a news conference Tuesday afternoon Kirby said the current board has,for now,the legal right tomake decisions about school closures, and he won't ask trustees to wait for a new board to be elected.

"People are neverhappy with those decisions because they're hard, they are heart-wrenching and I get that," he said.

"But we also have to respect the statutory responsibility that comes from the legislation. This is the law in the province and only a few weeks ago it was upheld in Supreme Court."

Hoping for better voter turnout

This will be the first school board election since four previous English school boards were consolidated in 2013. The government said in its news release that there are 17 electoral trustee zones that will provide regional representation on the board.

Nine trustees will be elected to the French board, two from Labradortwo from the central/west region, two from the east region and three at-large trustees.

Nominations open Oct. 24 and Kirby encouraged people to run for office and get out and vote. When school board elections were held in 2009, the turnout ranged from two per cent in the Eastern school district to 12 per cent in the Western district.

The elections will cost $400,000, Kirby said.