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Trustees to decide where boundaries lie By Tim Foran OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF 7 · Friday, March 12, 2010 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.oakvillebeaver.com Trustees at Halton's two English school boards must decide at their next public meetings whether to reduce their own numbers by one and which geographic areas the elected members will represent starting Dec. 1, 2010 and for the following four years. The Province's Ministry of Education has set a deadline of April 3 for boards to submit the information, so local municipalities can prepare for the upcoming municipal election on Oct. 25. The public school board, which currently has 11 trustees, will likely have to decide whether it's fair for Halton Hills, with an estimated population of 59,000, to continue to have two trustees while fast-growing Milton, which reports a 2009 population of 81,000, has only one. Unlike previous election years, adding an extra trustee to the board is not an option. As per a new regulation (412-00) under Ontario's Education Act, school boards can't increase the number of trustees they will have for the next municipal term. However, to ensure proper representation and accommodate population shifts within the region, both school boards have other options available, including reducing their number of trustees by one, re-distributing the existing amount of trustees from one community to another, or creating new geographic boundaries. As both boards represent the entire region, they don't have to choose boundaries that coincide with the ward boundaries for councillors in the lower-tier municipalities, though that has been the tradition. For example, unlike in Burlington, Catholic school board trustees in Oakville have chosen to be elected to serve the entire Town, or "at-large", for the past three elections, said 30-year trustee Alice Anne LeMay. The four trustees in that community have decided to keep that approach again for the upcoming election, something the entire board will have to ratify at its next meeting Tuesday, March 23. "I kind of want to go back to the ward split," said LeMay. "I think people feel more secure if they have ward representation." LeMay, who plans to run again, said her three colleagues preferred the at-large format. She went along with them because she saw no pressing reason to oppose them. "If you're not going to win a battle, why would you start a war?" she explained. Currently, three of Oakville's four Catholic trustees live south of the QEW and none live in the fast-growing area of Oakville west of Trafalgar and north of the QEW. However, trustee Pauline Houlahan, the sole member living north of the highway, said there is a benefit to serving the entire town. "I've felt it to be a benefit to me to understand issues in other areas other than my own," Houlahan explained. Having a ward split, rather than an at-large format, also doesn't ensure trustees actually live in the community they serve. For example, two of Burlington's three Catholic school trustees have addresses outside of the wards they represent, according to their 2006 election financial statements. The address for Catholic board chair Bob Van de Vrande was about four kilometres away from the two wards he represents, but he ran uncontested in the last election. Catholic board staff have indicated they expect no changes to how trustees are elected in the next election, which means both Milton and Halton Hills would continue to have one trustee each. That's because schoolboards don't use simple population estimates to determine the number and geographic distribution of trustees. Rather, the boards use their population of electoral groups ­ the number of property owners declaring which school board they support, as per Jan. 1, 2010 statistics from the crown agency, the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation. We're Closer Than YOU THINK Currently, over 5 s urr ntly, ver 550 st rr tly, rently, ly, y, y, 55 stu studen residing in Burlingto stude s residing in Burlington, stud students student gt Flamborough a O lamborough an Oa amborough and Oak mborough borough orough rough ough ugh gh h Oakv take advantage of our Oakville Oakvill ke advantage of our Oakvil Oakvi daily busing servi daily busing ser daily busing servic a aily busing service. ng service g CO-ED MONTESSORI, JUNIOR, MIDDLE, SENIOR w ww.h sc .o n. ca ww w. hs c.o n.c a www.hsc.on.ca | 9 05-389-1367 | 299 Fennell A w w h c. on .c on 90 5-389-1367 905-389-1367 -389-1367 389-1367 89-1367 9-1367 -1367 1367 367 67 7 99 F 9 ll Av West, H l Ave West Ha Ave. We Hamilt West, Hamilto Hami Ham Hamilton Hamil Weekend