By Anne Finlay-Stewart

It is the first day of the school year for over 17,000 students in Bluewater elementary and secondary schools, and the beginning of the end of term for their school trustees.

There are ten days left to register to be a candidate for Bluewater District School Board trustee in the October 27 municipal election. Owen Sound is entitled to one of the nine elected trustees, and so far there is only one candidate, four-term incumbent and current chair Marg Gaviller.

Trustee elections tend to be less contentious and dramatic than their mayoral and councillor counterparts at any time, but an acclamation can slide by almost completely unnoticed. The downside of this is the lack of public discussion around the local decisions concerning education. Even for the most devoted pragmatist among us, education should be a subject of high interest. At a tax rate set by the province, almost twenty cents of every residential tax dollar in Owen Sound this year is earmarked for education. The connections between effective schools and the economy, health care, social services and even public safety should not be difficult to make.

Since its creation in 1998 as the amalgamation of the Grey County and Bruce County public boards of education, the Bluewater board has struggled with declining enrolment and corresponding shortfalls in funding. We are no longer allowed to raise any additional local tax money for our own schools, and many of the decisions once made by school boards are now mandates from the province.

Local trustees have a big responsibility, and we need the best.

So if you are thinking of supporting the democratic process by adding your name to the ballot, what should you be considering? Here is some advice from those who have been at the table.

· Be prepared for homework. School board meetings are not the kind where you show up for the sandwiches and raise your hand when the others do. The learning curve is pretty steep, and you will not be able to keep up by reading the background material over your morning coffee. Good policy-making takes research and asking questions until you can see the big picture. And the picture is always bigger than you thought.

· Don't run on a single issue. The job of the school board is not to micro-manage the 41 elementary and 11 secondary schools in Grey and Bruce counties. Every school has teachers, administrators and support staff who deal with the day-to-day issues and help create the school's unique culture. The trustees develop policies and administer budgets to allow the staff to do their work.

· Check your skin thickness. Like every elected official, school board trustees can be on the receiving end when emotions run high. Think "accommodation reviews," the detailed process by which amalgamations, closings and new school buildings come about. Discussions about these decisions, both in public and at the board table, are not popularity contests but the time to bring the broadest community good to the top of the list.

· Don't expect to get rich. The province reversed a controversial cap of $5,000 on trustees' salaries in the late '90s. The base remuneration is now calculated based on the student population in your area plus some gas and continuing education expenses, but trust me, no one is in it for the money.

· Look beyond Grey-Bruce. When a student died in an Ottawa shop class, school boards across the country reviewed their own safety policies. Thoughtful trustees looked further; Do all our teachers have the technical qualifications to assure the safety of our students? Resolutions from Ontario's Public School Board Association, Federation of Home and School Associations, political parties and teachers' unions are all grist for the mill at the local board level. Following the lead of these groups, the Bluewater board passed a motion of support for a single Ontario school system – a provincial change that would have many local ramifications. Advocates claim these would include saving millions of tax dollars that could be reinvested in education.

· Like anyone with children in their lives, expect rewards. When it comes down to it, the work of the school board trustee is to represent the interests of the citizens of a geographic area – taxpayers, families and most importantly, children. You are best suited to the work if you understand the sheer magnitude of the potential within the walls of every school.

Our community deserves a healthy school-board campaign, with a full public conversation of the issues and ideas. Democracy will best be served if more than one candidate takes up the challenge in Owen Sound. Friday, September 12 at 2 p.m the bell will ring to end that possibility.

Anne Finlay-Stewart is Community Editor of www.owensoundhub.org. She can be reached at [email protected].