A Brief on School Board Elections Systems

Due to the importance of elected English school boards to the English-speaking community, in 2014 the Québec Federation of Home and School Associations Inc. (QFHSA) decided to get involved in promoting school board elections. The Rights, Education and Resolutions Committee (RER) was mandated to produce a Special Bulletin on School Board Elections, which would include contributions from the Québec English School Board Association (QESBA), the Québec Community Groups Network (QCGN), out-going School Board Commissioners as well as a QFHSA Brief on School Board Elections Systems message from our own president, Lawrence DePoe. Included in the bulletin would be information on returning officers and how to get on the right voters list. The intention was to provide as much information as possible to parents to boost voter turnout at the polls. This information would be of benefit to Home and School parents and the general public. Forty thousand (40,000) copies of the Special Bulletin were printed and distributed to all English public schools in Quebec, with assistance from QESBA through their internal mail system. Consensus at the QFHSA Board of Directors’ as well as within the QFHSA Rights Education and Resolutions and Editorial Committees’, was that the future of school boards in Québec was at stake, and this justified the special effort.