School board hopefuls dread low voter turn-out

raffy.boudjikanian@transcontinental.ca

With no less than two wards up for grabs in the upcoming Lester B. Pearson school by-elections set for October 26, several of the five candidates running for commissioner seats have expressed concern regarding a potentially low voter turn-out.

"The timing could not be worse," said Domenico Pavone, a sales rep making a bid for division 12, a.k.a. Pierrefonds-Ile Bizard. Pavone, who has already been out there doing some campaigning, said there has been confusion due to the school board by-elections being scheduled just after the federal elections.

"People think I was an independent candidate or think I'm a Green candidate," Pavone explained with a laugh.

Other candidates running in the by-elections also seemed worried, particularly with a 59 per cent voter turn-out in the recent federal elections, a record low, and a history of low voter turn-out in school board elections. In November 2007, 12.5 per cent of registered voters in the area voted in the school board's general elections.

"I hope people show up," said Don Rae, who is hoping to get a seat as commissioner for electoral division 15, Beaconsfield North, after losing seat 16 in 2007.

Rae placed an emphasis on the importance of timely translation of English textbooks, a problem that has been plaguing the anglophone public school system in Quebec for several years. "I'm fighting for good books," he said.

He also pronounced himself against the amount of subsidies received by private schools from the provincial government. "I talk to a lot of people and they all say the same thing," Rae said, wondering why some of that money could not be reinvested into the public system.

Rae has two rivals in seeking to regain his seat at Division 15. One of those is Lana Roberts, who works in international finance. "I'm a big fan of the safe school policy," Roberts said, indicating she would like to see the school board continue to show zero tolerance for bullying and the presence of drugs and alcohol on school grounds. However, she thinks more should be done about cyber-bullying. "Schools are no place for that," Roberts said.

She was not so sure what role the school board commissioners could play in getting textbooks translated faster, although she acknowledged it was a problem. "I don't know, really, how much power the school board has," Roberts said.

Meanwhile, the third contender for Division 15, Canadian Press reporter Peter Rakobowchuk, said he would like to help improve communications between parents and the school board. Rakobowchuk recalled the confusion that was created when the school board announced its snow days last year during the winter. "Why didn't they do it sooner?" he wondered about the decision to close the schools.

Rakobowchuk said his years of experience sitting on the Windermere Elementary governing board, helping to organize home and school fundraising activities and chairing the Sector 3 parents committee would be of help.

Division 12 is less contested, with Pavone running only against one candidate, former teacher and parent commissioner Sue Williams-Rae.

Williams-Rae said she would like to see more of an emphasis placed on presenting career possibilities to school children starting at the grade school level, and also said more should be done regarding textbook translations. "Obviously, there's more work to be done," she said.

Pavone agreed. "Somebody dropped the ball," he said, regarding the translations. Pavone also sees a problem with the amount of consumable school fees. These small fees are tacked on to parents' school bills for services they do not necessarily use for their own children, Pavone said. "(The board) can maybe find ways to make those fees somehow deductible," Pavone said.

To find out where you can cast your vote on October 26, head to www2.lbpsb.qc.ca