Public and Catholic school board merge proposed by Windsor trustee candidates

A pair of school board trustee candidates are calling for a merge of the Catholic and public boards in Windsor-Essex.

Public board candidate AlanHalberstadtand Catholic board counterpartEricRenaud believe the perfect time for a merge is now sincethe Green Party of Ontario which has long supported the merge recently acquired representation at Queen's Park.

"[MikeSchreiner] has a foot in the door at Queen's Park. They're definitely talking about starting a mass petition across the province to take it to the Ford government to, at least, start studying what the savings would be and perhaps, the challenges," saidHalberstadt.

Funds could be spent more wisely, candidates say

According to HalberstadtandRenaud, the mergerwould save the Windsor-Essex boards more than $6-million per year.

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"The money saved by eliminating administrative duplication and marketing by the two boards to compete for students could be channelled into the education of special needs students that is currently underfunded in our community," said Halberstadt, notinghe's been a proponent for one system "for the past 20 years."

Renaud said having two separate boards "doesn't make sense" and is a waste of moneythatcould be better put toward trades classes.

"Parents want those back in the schools and, right there, would be a prime investment," saidRenaud.

Education free of religion

ForHalberstadt, education in the region should be absent of religion. He said, under the merge, Catholic education would be dissolved.

"If you want to be a Catholic, let the church do that not the school system that's funded by the rest of the taxpayers in the province," saidHalberstadt.

Renaudsaid dissolving the Catholic board will help schools be more accepting of immigrants and "just having Catholic schools on their own isn't doing that."

One board, two languages

KrystaGlovasky-Ridsdale, who ran as theGreen Party's Windsor West candidate during the June provincial election, said the merge would still see a split between the boards not between Catholic and public, but betweenFrench and English.

"The idea is to combine resourcesto save money at a high administrative level ... The curriculum is the curriculum. We are duplicating resources in the different boards to basically do the same thing," saidGlovasky-Ridsdale.

She added, under the merge, current Catholic schools would see their religious contentfunded by "special interest groups" rather than the board.

CBCNews reached out to theGreater Essex County District School Board and theWindsor-Essex Catholic District School Board, butrepresentatives from both refused to comment citing they don't get involved in "political discussions."