MONTREAL – School board elections are set to take place in the 60 French language school boards and nine English language school boards across Quebec.
Nominations for candidates in the school board elections ended Sunday at 5 p.m.
The elections will fill 712 commissioner positions: 617 in francophone school boards and 95 on the English side.
For the first time ever, the 69 school board Chairpersons will be elected by universal suffrage.
English school boards in the province are:
- Central Québec School Board
- Eastern Shores School Board
- Eastern Townships School Board
- English Montreal School Board
- Lester B. Pearson School Board
- New Frontiers School Board
- Riverside School Board
- Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board
- Western Quebec School Board
Incumbent chair of the English Montreal School Board, Angela Mancini is seeking re-election.
She will face off against journalist and former NDP candidate Anne Lagacé Dowson.
READ MORE: Anne Lagacé Dowson to run for EMSB Chair
Lester B. Pearson’s current chair Suanne Stein Day is also running for re-election.
She will run against Angela Nolet, who is Lester B. Pearson’s current vice-chairman, as well as Chris Eustace, a former Pierrefonds Comprehensive High School English teacher.
Stein Day had previously faced allegations of conflict-of interest while she was an executive member of the Quebec Federation of Home and School Associations.
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These allegations were declared unfounded in a report published by the school board’s ethics commissioner Bernard Grenier on September 12.
READ MORE: Quebec’s English school boards try to get the vote out
At Riverside School Board on Montreal’s South Shore, Dan Lamoureux, the current commissioner for Division 12 and Tanveer Naseer will run against each other for chairperson.
Current chair Moira Bell will not run for re-election.
Just north of Montreal, former Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board chair Steve Bletas will run against Jennifer Maccarone.
Bletas was the board’s first chairman until he resigned in 2012.
He has since come out saying he wants his position back.
Friday, Education Minister Yves Bolduc announced he may be looking to overhaul the education system in order to save money.
He may do this by eliminating or reducing the number of school boards in the province, or by transferring power from school boards to municipalities.
This came one day after Quebec’s health minister Gaetan Barrette announced a proposal to reorganize Quebec’s healthcare system.
But the Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) is not panicking just yet.
“QESBA has always held a strong partnership with successive Ministers of Education and we are building on that relationship with Mr. Bolduc,” said QESBA President David D’Aoust.
“The Minister considers QESBA an important partner and we prefer to work directly with the Minister and his team than to chase rumors.”
Elections are on November 2, 2014.
The last elections were held in 2007.
Polling stations will be opened from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
For a complete list of candidates so far, click here click here.
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